Saturday 29 December 2007

Windsor Lancers and legendary coach Rollie Massimino

As was reported here yesterday, the Windsor Lancers lost in the first round of the Battle at the Beach in Florida against Northwood University. What was not highlighted in the report was that Head Coach of Northwood is former Villanova Wildcat and Cleveland State mentor Rollie Massimino. Massimino, now 72 years old (pictured), entered NCAA coaching immortality in 1985 by leading the Wildcats to an improbable NCAA tournament championship, defeating Georgetown Hoyas and Patrick Ewing in the championship game, playing what many felt was the "perfect game" that night to edge one of college basketball's best-ever teams in the Hoyas. In last night's game in which the Lancers played without starters 6'6" Greg Allin and 6'3" Issac Kuon, Windsor took a 7 point lead at 26-19 with just under 8 minutes to play in the first half. However, Northwood took off on a 21-0 run, virtually all at the line (leading scorer DeSean White went 11 for 12 from the line during the run), to lead comfortably at the half and then both teams emptied their benches. Also on the Northwood staff is former Ohio State star and Chicago Bulls forward Dennis Hopson. Northwood is in only their second year of play in NAIA and brought on Massimino to kick-start their program and the Seahawks are now 7-2 after yesterday's win. The Seahawks played their first two games of this season on the road against a pair of NCAA Division 1 teams, losing by 10 at Hofstra and then dropping an 11 point decision to Rutgers. Windsor faces Wilberforce College in the consolation game tonight. Note: Special thanks to Bumboesquire (an anonymous contributor to CISHOOPS.CA) for keying us in on this topic).

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