’Nova coach legend Massimino passes
Rollie Massimino, who led Villanova’s storied run to the 1985 NCAA championship and won more than 800 games in his coaching career, died yesterday after a long battle with cancer. He was 82.
Massimino’s death was announced by Keiser University in West Palm Beach, Fla., where he was still the men’s basketball coach. Battling lung cancer for several years, he spent the final days of his life in hospice care in his Florida home.
Best known for that national title at Villanova, Massimino also coached at Stony Brook, UNLV and Cleveland State. In 1965, he coached Lexington High to the state championship and a 20-1 record. He spent the last 11 years of his life at Keiser, where he started the program and turned it into an NAIA power.
Massimino faced numerous health issues in recent years yet never stopped coaching. And even though he left Villanova 25 years ago, he was still considered family by the Wildcats and coach Jay Wright and was given a championship ring after the Wildcats won the 2016 national title.
NHL: Doan calls it a career
Arizona Coyotes captain Shane Doan is retiring after 21 seasons with the same franchise.
The 40-year-old Doan is the franchise’s all-time leader in nearly every category, finishing his career with 402 goals and 570 assists in 1,540 games.
The Coyotes announced in June that Doan would not be re-signed, making the longtime captain a free agent. After deliberating with his family, Doan decided to hang up his skates rather than play for another team.
Doan was selected by the Winnipeg Jets with the seventh overall pick of the 1995 NHL draft and followed the franchise to the desert the next year, becoming one of the most beloved athletes in Valley of the Sun history.
NBA: Sixers sign pair
The Philadelphia 76ers signed power forward James Michael McAdoo to a two-way contract and agreed to terms with guard James Blackmon Jr.
McAdoo, a 6-foot-9, 230-pounder who played in college at North Carolina, went undrafted in 2014 and played with the Golden State Warriors the last three seasons, seeing action in a total of 108 games. He can boast both G-League and NBA championships, having averaged 3 points and 1.7 rebounds in 7.9 minutes with Golden State.
NBA teams can sign two players to two-way contracts in addition to their 15-man regular-season roster, and McAdoo is the first player the Sixers have signed to a two-way deal with the Delaware 87ers.
Hall of Famer Bob McAdoo, who finished a 14-year NBA career with the Sixers in 1986, is the second cousin of McAdoo’s father.
Golf: Vana loses in U.S. Senior Am semis
Massachusetts Golf Hall of Famer Frank Vana was beaten 5 and 3 by Paul Simson of Raleigh, N.C., in the semifinals of the U.S. Senior Amateur Championship at Minikahda Club in Minneapolis.
Simons will face Sean Knapp of Oakmont, Pa., in the final, looking to match Lewis Oehmig’s record of three titles.