They say you really should not speak ill of the deceased. Yet, how are “they” to justify when your only memories are subpar...at best?
I remember Massimino as making the cash-grab in Cleveland popular well before Mike Holmgren, Dwayne Bowe, and Nick Swisher pulled their infamous heists in recent memory. During my time writing for the student newspaper at Cleveland State, I remember that Massimino was moody, short-tempered, and the worst interview I have ever conducted. This seemed to show during his on-court persona, and transferred into the post-game press conference. I remember one game where the heavy-underdog Vikings took the AP-ranked Butler Bulldogs to double-overtime in front of a staunch--yet very loud--2,000 CSU faithful. The Vikings fell in the end, but Massimino was as seething after the game as if his squad was throttled by 50 points.
My memories of Massimino are much more negative than most, because all but one of his teams at Cleveland State flat-out sucked. He did achieve his 500th career win with the Vikings, but that was the lone bright spot during his tenure. Massimino was supposed to put CSU back into relevance within their conference when he took over in 1996. His time at the helm was littered with his players being involved for seemingly more criminal activity than on-court performance. Players were cited for drug and alcohol problems, and the academic fraud that came to light nearly put the program into probation. His teams were 90-113 over seven years, and not a single NCAA tournament appearance. In fact, there were many who thought he did more damage to the program by the time his contract was bought out in 2003. In speaking with then-athletic director Lee Reed, it was his natural inclination to deflect every time I brought up the possibility of Massimino leaving during that dismal 2002-03 season, but you could tell by his expression that something was in the works.
Massimino was in the stands when Villanova won their second championship in 2016. When Kris Jenkins hit a 30-foot three as time expired, one of the first sights the CBS Sports cameras turned to was Massimino celebrating as confetti rained down over the NRG Stadium crowd.
Massimino also coached at Stony Brook (1970-71), UNLV (1992-94 - which included his dismissal after it was found that he had been working a plan with the school president to boost his salary) and NAIA Division-II school Keiser University (2006-present) in his career. His career record was 816-462 over 40 years. Massimino coached longer than some schools even established basketball programs. His teams made the NCAA tournament 11 times, and the NIT four times. His time at Keiser (formerly known as Northwood) made the NAIA D-II tournament 9 of his 11 years, and was the 2012 runner-up. The 816 wins place him 22nd on the all-time list for men’s college basketball head coaches, and would have likely cracked the top-20 by the end of this season, being only six wins behind the legendary Eddie Sutton, and eight behind Bob Chipman.
Northwood/Keiser never experienced a losing season with Massimino running the program. Their fewest wins in a season were 18 (2014-15).
Massimino had been battling lung cancer in recent years, and was moved into hospice care earlier this week. He passed away surrounded by his family and friends in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
-JC24