25 Years Later, Massimino Still Loves the Pasta and the Friends

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- Rollie Massimino and three former players were headed to his house for a home-cooked Italian dinner two months ago, crossing a busy intersection on foot after leaving a sports bar not far from where they parked the car.

An elderly gentleman, making a left hand turn in a Toyota Camry, never saw the four, all of whom were talking instead of paying attention to the traffic flow.

Screeeeeeech. Booooom. Oh, No.

Massimino and Brian Harrington went tumbling off the hood in a low-speed, but scary pedestrian/vehicle collision. The horrified driver jumped out of the car. Traffic stopped in all directions. Everyone started reaching for cellphones to dial 9-1-1.

The 75-year-old Massimino slowly got up to all fours, saw people standing over him, then waved off any talk of calling for help. No police, no ambulance, no fire truck, he insisted. He was shaken, but basically unhurt.

"We got dinner waiting for us, and I still like my pasta al dente. If we call the police now, we'll be here forever, and the pasta will be overcooked,'' he barked. "I'm fine.''

So they all went home -- including the stranger who hit him -- where Massimino's wife of 50 years was waiting with bottomless plates of linguine in clam sauce.

"True story,'' insists Chuck Everson, one of Massimino's former players, who was in town visiting the coach that day.

Some things never change.

Twenty-five years after coaching/cajoling/entertaining Villanova University to the NCAA men's basketball championship -- still the biggest upset in tournament history -- Massimino remains that unforgettable, controlled-chaos kind of guy.

He still loves coaching and teaching basketball. He still loves a glass of red wine with dinner and a good cigar afterward. He still loves having friends, family and teams come to his place for home-cooked Italian meals. And he still reminds you of that disheveled dispatcher played by Danny DeVito in the old sitcom "Taxi."

"When you talk to him now, you can close your eyes, and it's like you're back in 1985,'' said Everson, who played on that championship team and still speaks regularly with Massimino. "Nothing has changed about him, or the way he is. He's pretty amazing."

Massimino just completed his fourth season as the head basketball coach at little-known Northwood University, a 900-student business school in West Palm Beach that competes at the NAIA Division II level.

He was coaxed out of retirement by an old friend, Rick Smoliak, the former athletic director at Northwood, who wanted to start a basketball program and couldn't think of a better choice than Massimino, who followed his glory years at Villanova with shorter stints at UNLV and Cleveland State.

"When I was away, I missed being involved with young people, and the way they make me feel. I'm 75 now, but I still feel like 60,'' Massimino said. "Coaching, teaching, still really excites me.''
"He realized he was a coaching lifer, that coaching was what he was addicted to. ... It's amazing. There is still no generation gap with this players. He never got any older.''
-- Ken Gabelman, longtime friend
When Northwood called, Massimino was living the retirement dream in nearby Jupiter, Fla., playing 54 holes of golf every day with neighbors like Chuck Daly, Billy Cunningham, Bill Raftery and John Havlicek. Former players would come visit, and bring their clubs.

"He did retirement for two years, but I think he was miserable inside. He realized he was a coaching lifer, that coaching was what he was addicted to, and he had to get back,'' said long-time friend Ken Gabelman, who joined him as an assistant coach at Northwood three years ago. "It's amazing. There still is no generation gap with his players. He never got any older.''

As his team was preparing for the NAIA national tournament last week, Massimino was bouncing around their practice court, literally jogging to catch up to his players to make a coaching point.

Four years ago -- before he helped raise the money to build a new gym/fieldhouse at Northwood -- he was practicing on an outdoor tennis court with baskets at each end, still as intense as he ever was. Maybe the athletes here aren't as good -- and they clearly aren't -- as the ones he once had at Villanova, but that hasn't changed his passion in coaching them.

"You have to be ready to play.'' . . . . . "Wake up.'' . . . . . "Make the good pass." . . . . . "What are you dooooing?'' . . . . . . "You've got to concentrate,'' were a few of the rants during a morning practice.

Although he has three assistants, he still does much of the on-floor coaching in practice, emphasizing fundamentals, teaching strategy, demanding more effort. The smile he had on his face a few minutes before in his office disappears on the practice court. A Massimino raised eyebrow is not a good sign when he stops play and scurries across the court to make his point.

"He's mellowed a little bit, but he still gets after it,'' said assistant coach Dwayne McClain, who also played on that 1985 championship team at Villanova. "The message he is giving these kids is the same one I heard from him when I got to Villanova in 1981. And it still rings true. This team is like his family.''

McClain rejoined Massimino last summer when his former coach called to say he needed an assistant. McClain had played professional, mostly in Europe for 12 years, then worked for Merrill Lynch Financial Services in the Northeast. He left everything to join Massimino at Northwood.

"I played for him 25 years ago, moved on with my life, but when he called, I dropped everything. That should tell you the kind of respect I had for him,'' McClain said. "He has more close relationships with former players than any college coach I've every heard of. And that never changed. I think he loves this team he has now as much as he loved us 25 years ago.''

It's common to see former players -- from any of Massimino's coaching stops -- or friends, attending his practices at Northwood. And they usually go home with him for dinner. One of those is Mickey Tolliver, who played on Massimino's junior-varsity team in 1956.

Massimino and the rest of Villanova's NCAA title team gathered earlier this month in Philadelphia for a 25th anniversary reunion, but it wasn't as emotional as one might expect. Even though they are spread across the country, they have seen each other many times since their celebrated night. There has been an unbelievable closeness among them.

Massimino talks by phone with at least a couple of his former players each week. And it's never the same two or three. He gets close to 100 calls from former players each year at Christmas time. Almost every one of those calls ends with: "I love ya, kid.''

And why not? They've all been to his home for dinner. Every season, his teams come home for pasta several times. He did it at Villanova, UNLV and Cleveland State. And he does it now at Northwood.
The walls of his office emphasize his point. There are no pictures of that 1985 Villanova team. The walls are filled with pictures of friends, of family, of people who have been in his home.

"I'm proud of that championship 25 years ago, but it's not the most important thing to me,'' he said, sitting in his office before practice. "It's the relationships I have today because of those teams I coached. That's what I cherish.''

The walls of his office emphasize his point. There are no pictures of that 1985 Villanova team. The walls are filled with pictures of friends, of family, of people who have been in his home.

There is Rollie with Chuck Daly, Rollie with Tommy Lasorda, Ollie North and Perry Como, with individual former players from different teams he coached. There are the 17 grandchildren. There is no mention of an NCAA title he won 25 years ago with a Cinderella run through the tournament.

The Wildcats, seeded eighth in their region that year, upset No. 1 seed Michigan and then, eventually, No. 2 seed North Carolina, en route to setting up a title game against defending champion and heavily-favored Georgetown. Massimino's pre-game speech included a reference to "a big plate of pasta with lots of cheese.''

And the game was unreal. Villanova shot an an incredible 78.6 percent from the field, and it turned into David slaying Goliath. It was stubby little Rollie Massimino outcoaching Big John Thompson. It was Easy Ed Pinkney outplaying Hall of Famer Patrick Ewing.

"It's fine that people remember that game, but I'll remember the kids,'' Massimino said. "That's the pinnacle of the profession.''

Massimino still has all their phone numbers. He also knows where they are, and what each of them is doing today. Wyatt Maker is a produce broker in California. Mark Plansky sells stocks and bonds in Boston. Connally Brown catches bad guys for the FBI. Dwight Wilbur is a teacher in New Jersey. Pinkney is a basketball analyst for the Philadelphia 76ers radio network. Harrington does fund raising for hospitals in Harlem.

"Everyone says kids today are different, but they're really not. Maybe today they think they are better than they really are, but that's not a problem,'' he said. "They all want to win. And they all want discipline. I've always tried to tell the kids, 'Unpack your clothes and be part of something special.'''

In his four years, Northwood has won 104 games, reaching the National NAIA Tournament each season. Their season ended in disappointing fashion last week when they were upset by Spring Harbor (Mich) University in the first round, sending them home earlier than expected.

While he never has taken losses lightly -- and he never will -- it gave Massimino time to go visit with current Villanova coach Jay Wright, once an assistant there under Massimino. The Wildcats will open the NCAA tournament Thursday as the No. 2 seed in the South Region.

"He talks to all the former players, all the time,'' McClain said. "And he treasures the relationships he's made. I don't think he'll ever give up teaching basketball, because there's nobody better. He'll probably teach his way right into the grave one day."