Massimino Is Still in the Game Because It's Still in Him

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla.

With 13 minutes left in the game, the Northwood University coach finally lost his patience. His team down 13, he called timeout and told his players what he thought of their performance. He shucked the jacket from his expensive suit, called for full-court pressure and spent the rest of the game standing just inbounds, imploring his players to keep playing defense until the buzzer.

As it turned out, even though Northwood got within four with plenty of time left, it wasn't enough. Edward Waters University walked away with a 74-66 victory to advance to Saturday night's championship game in the Florida Sun Conference tournament.

Twenty years ago, a loss like this one, in which his team shot under 32 percent and was outrebounded 50-42, would have torn up Rollie Massimino.

"I would have let the kids have it afterwards," he said. "I told my guys that tonight. Once, I would have gone off after a performance like that. Now I tell them losing is part of the deal and the best we can do is learn from it."

He paused for a moment. "Don't misunderstand. I still hate to lose. If we weren't winning, I wouldn't still be doing this."

What he's doing at age 73 is coaching at a 900-student school that plays in NAIA Division II -- that's one level below NAIA Division I, which is one level below NCAA Division II. Friday night's game, played in the sparkling 1,000-seat Countess de Hoernle Student Life Center (that's the actual name) on the Northwood campus drew an announced crowd of 300.

Even after the loss, Northwood was 25-7 for the season and will advance to the NAIA Division II tournament, which will be played in Point Lookout, Mo., beginning March 12.

"We lost in the first round last year," Massimino said. "I hope we do a little better this time."

Massimino is in a place now that is far, far away from the night 23 years ago when his Villanova team played a near-perfect game and pulled off what was arguably the most important upset in the history of the NCAA tournament, beating Georgetown, 66-64, in the championship game to deny the Hoyas a second straight national title. Massimino became a celebrity, the little rumpled coach who spent every game hopping along the sideline, mostly inbounds.

"He starts the game looking like James Bond," said his son, R.C., who played on Villanova's championship team, "and ends it looking like Danny DeVito."