Super Nova
Coach of title team dead, 82
ROLLIE Massimino, the fiery former Villanova University men’s basketball coach who led the Wildcats to an improbable championship over Patrick Ewing and the heavily-favored Georgetown Hoyas in the 1985 NCAA title game, died Wednesday in Florida. He was 82 and had recently entered a hospice care facility near his West Palm Beach home, according to the Florida Sun-Sentinel.
Chuck Everson, who was a member of that ’85 Villanova championship team, confirmed Massimino’s death to the Daily News. Massimino had battled lung cancer in the past, and Dr. John Y.K. Lee, a University of Pennsylvania associate professor of neurosurgery, told The News Wednesday that he performed surgery on Massimino approximately 15 months ago to remove a malignant brain tumor, called glioblastoma.
Although short in stature, Massimino had a giant personality and his name is synonymous with a college basketball era when the Big East Conference reigned supreme. In the ’85 Final Four, three of the teams — Villanova, Georgetown and St. John’s — were from the Big East.
“God Almighty, I’m so sorry to hear that. We go way back. I just spoke with him 10 days ago. It’s like when you lose one of your family,” former St. John’s coach Lou Carnesecca told The News Wednesday. “Rollie was an excellent coach. You really had to prepare when you played against him. He threw everything at you.”
Villanova entered the 1985 Big Dance as a No. 8 seed, and after a scare in their tournament opener against Dayton, Massimino’s Wildcats toppled Michigan, Maryland and North Carolina prior to the Final Four, where Villanova played Memphis State in the semifinal.
In the NCAA championship game at Rupp Arena in Lexington, Ky., Villanova and Georgetown duked it out until the final seconds when Villanova’s Harold Jensen inbounded to teammate Dwayne McClain, who fell to the floor with Georgetown’s David Wingate. But McClain held onto the ball, the buzzer sounded and the Wildcats went crazy.
“We got the ball in, and Dwayne caught it, and fell on his knees. I think he traveled, but that’s OK. And he held it for the end of the game,” Massimino told The News in 2015, for a 30th anniversary story on the ’85 title team. “I still never saw the championship game replay in its entirety. I still think we might lose.”
McClain, who lives near Massimino in Jupiter, Fla., told The News Wednesday that Massimino was “definitely a father figure” to his players, especially the ’85 squad.
“Daddy Mass will be missed,” said McClain, who was a coach on Massimino’s staff at tiny Northwood University (now Keiser University) in West Palm Beach. “He’ll be forever missed. He was a fiery Italian that had nothing but love.”
Ewing, former Knick great and now head coach at Georgetown, and John Thompson Jr., each issued statements following Massimino’s death.
The ’85 team held a special place in Massimino’s heart, said Everson, a backup center on that team. Massimino was back at Villanova on July 30 for a reunion of former Wildcat players and coaches. “Because of his Italian heritage, he was emotional whether he was happy or sad,” said Everson. “I’ll never forget after we won (in ’85), he made sure he hugged everybody. He worked hard, played hard. He loved life to the fullest.”