Rollie Massimino

ONLY TWO PLAYERS on Northwood's basketball team had been born when its only coach, Rollie Massimino, took Villanova on that ever-enduring national title run in 1985. But he tells them all the stories. Many of which involve the Spectrum, the Wildcats' home away from their Fieldhouse (and later the Pavilion). They played there four times in the championship season, including two-point losses to both Georgetown and St. John's. Tomorrow night, he's giving the Seahawks their first look, and quite likely their last, at the building, which is scheduled to be razed on an as-yet-unspecified date.

Rollie Massimino was stomping down the sideline, balling his hands into fists and working up a sweat. Massimino, who led Villanova to its "perfect game" in the 1985 NCAA championship game upset of Georgetown, was back to himself last night, coaching for the first time against his former Wildcats, as the head coach of Northwood University. There was no miracle for the coach, who turns 72 tomorrow - except for maybe the fact that he was back on the basketball court instead of basking in retirement.

STEVE LAPPAS got the job late, after Rollie Massimino had surprisingly left Villanova for UNLV. One of his first tasks was trying to convince Kerry Kittles that Villanova was still the right school for him. So he went to New Orleans. "As soon as I walked in [to the Kittles' house], he wouldn't even look at me," Lappas said yesterday at the Palestra before the Big 5 Hall of Fame inductions. During the meeting, Kittles warmed up to Lappas. When Lappas left, the local media were waiting on him. He told them he thought the time with Kittles and his family went well.

Next Sunday, former Villanova coach Rollie Massimino will return to the Palestra, the very place he got his start in college coaching. Back in the early 1970s, Massimino was, for a time, a rather anonymous assistant at Penn. Much has changed. Next month will mark the 10-year anniversary of Villanova and Massimino's amazing run to the 1985 national championship. But Rollie will not be returning to town as a hero. He will be returning as a color commentator for all four Atlantic 10 Tournament quarterfinal games on Sunday as well as the two semifinals on Monday.

Villanova basketball coach Jay Wright said yesterday that he is close to naming an associate head coach to replace Fred Hill, who left the Wildcats in April to take a similar position at Rutgers. One possibility is that Wright will promote from within, elevating assistant Brett Gunning to associate head coach and moving Pat Chambers from coordinator of basketball operations to an assistant's position. Ed Pinckney, a star on Villanova's 1985 national championship squad, is also on Wright's staff.

His broadcasting philosophy is one that any Philadelphia fan of any sport can relate to: "Broadcasting to me is like the two of us sitting in a living room watching the game and talking about it, without the cursing. " It is part of the reason Whitey Rigsby has become as recognizable a face in Villanova basketball lore as Rollie Massimino, Jay Wright and anyone else who has ever been a part of it. Saturday, for the second time in his career, Rigsby will be calling a national semifinal game that features his beloved Wildcats, who face North Carolina (CBS3, approximately 8:40 p.m.)

He was a man preparing to play Georgia Tech, a man talking about this year. But there was a funny tone to the questions people were asking Rollie Massimino yesterday. They were asking not about Georgia Tech, but about Michigan, about Georgetown, about Lexington, Ky. About memories. They were asking not about this year, but about last year. It didn't seem to matter that this was a different Villanova team, a team that Rollie Massimino frankly admitted wasn't as good as the one that toppled an NCAA tournament full of giants last year.

Villanova welcomed back former coach Rollie Massimino for an evening of reminiscing and exhibition basketball, but the real news for the Wildcats last night came off the court. Villanova coach Jay Wright said senior forward Shane Clark underwent arthroscopic surgery yesterday to clean out loose particles in his right knee at Bryn Mawr Hospital. He will be out for four to six weeks. Clark, who averaged 7.1 points and 4.3 rebounds last season, had been practicing but felt it best "to have a minor procedure to ensure that this problem doesn't persist during the season," Wright said.

Manhattan coach Steve Lappas was not about to wait by the phone for Villanova to contact him. He has taken the initiative and applied for the head coaching position there. Lappas, who served as an assistant under Rollie Massimino from 1984-88, is credited with turning the once-struggling Manhattan program into a contender in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference. This season, Lappas coached the Jaspers to the finals of the MAAC Tournament, where they lost to La Salle, and then to the quarterfinals of the NIT. Manhattan finished the season 25-9.

Villanova basketball coach Steve Lappas is going to have to wait even longer on Kerry Kittles. Apparently, the 6-foot-6 'Nova recruit from New Orleans has not made up his mind on whether to attend the school this fall - even after a meeting Friday with Lappas. Kittles' high school coach, Bernard Griffith, said yesterday that he didn't expect his player to arrive at a decision until Tuesday, at the earliest. "Steve asked the kid to think about it, so that's what Kerry is going to do," said Griffith.

IT'S NOT UNTIL this weekend, but we're wishing all the very best for one of college basketball's coolest coaches ever, Rollie Massimino. In West Palm Beach, Fla., to lead the Northwood University Seahawks to what he hopes will be their second consecutive trip to the NAIA Final Four, he'll have a few games under his belt by Sunday, when he turns a spry 77. Coach Mass was back in town two months ago to have a cancerous tumor removed from his lung....

STEVE LAPPAS got the job late, after Rollie Massimino had surprisingly left Villanova for UNLV. One of his first tasks was trying to convince Kerry Kittles that Villanova was still the right school for him. So he went to New Orleans. "As soon as I walked in [to the Kittles' house], he wouldn't even look at me," Lappas said yesterday at the Palestra before the Big 5 Hall of Fame inductions. During the meeting, Kittles warmed up to Lappas. When Lappas left, the local media were waiting on him. He told them he thought the time with Kittles and his family went well.

When Villanova upset Georgetown to win the 1985 national title, the Big East was still in its youth - that was its sixth season - but the conference also was on top, winning an NCAA title for the second straight year, sending three of its members to the Final Four, still the only time in history for any conference. That supremacy was mostly based on people, on Big East coaches and players - Patrick Ewing and John Thompson, Pearl Washington and Chris Mullin, Rollie Massimino and Lou Carnesecca.

BRANSON, Mo. - The rest of the 75-year-olds staying in motels all over town put on their windbreakers to go catch the endless buffet at Golden Corral. They take in a show at Andy Williams' Moon River Theatre or try to see Tony Orlando or maybe some Osmond Brothers. Rollie Massimino wasn't in Branson for any of that. He skipped the Yakov Smirnoff Theatre, didn't catch any of the Elvis impersonators in town. The 75-year-old is skipping retirement entirely. He'd tried it, getting to the first tee every morning.

THE THREE MEN inducted into the Big 5 Hall of Fame yesterday were about much more than their numbers, which were considerable. They coached in the Big 5 for more than a half-century combined, and won more than a thousand games. But that wasn't really it, either. This was about the lives they influenced, the lessons they taught and the beliefs they instilled. John Chaney, Rollie Massimino and Speedy Morris had a way of making players believe in them and believe in themselves.

RON WILSON did all the grunt work when he played for Villanova in the mid-1990s. Diving for loose balls, rebounding, defending, blocking shots, boxing out, all those nasty things you don't find in a box score but lead to victories. The 1995 Villanova graduate wants to instill some of that work ethic into his first head-coaching job at Chichester High School. Wilson's once lean 6-11 frame is a little paunchier these days, but his attitude is still the same. He's trying to add stability to a program that has had three coaches in the last 4 years.

They hung in there, because they had seen this team make big comebacks before. They chanted, "Let's go 'Nova," even as North Carolina opened up a 15-point lead in the first half and maintained a double-digit lead over their beloved Wildcats for most of the second half. And once the outcome was no longer in doubt, they remained to support their team. When senior Dante Cunningham fouled out in the second half, the students chanted his name in appreciation. As the last second ticked off, they chanted, "Thank you, seniors.

DETROIT - They hung in there, because they had seen this team make big comebacks before. They chanted, "Let's go 'Nova," even as North Carolina opened up a 15-point lead in the first half and maintained a double-digit lead over their beloved Wildcats for most of the second half. And once the outcome was no longer in doubt, they remained to support their team. When senior Dante Cunningham fouled out in the second half, the students chanted his name in appreciation. As the last second ticked off, they chanted, "Thank you, seniors.

It was maybe the hardest decision Jay Wright ever had to make. His boss, Rollie Massimino, was headed to Las Vegas and wanted Wright with him. Steve Lappas, who had recommended Wright to Massimino in the first place, also had a job for him - Lappas was taking over for Massimino. Wright had a life in Philadelphia. His wife had a good job. He hadn't been looking to leave. "I had loyalty to Steve, but obviously Coach Mass gave me the job," Wright said this week. "I was a Philly guy. I didn't want to leave Philly.

Mark Jerant was still getting a crash course in all things Villanova yesterday - who, exactly, is Rollie Massimino? he asked - but soon he will be inundated with the 'Nova Nation. His tavern, Bookies Bar & Grille, has been designated the official hangout for Wildcats fans here for the NCAA men's basketball championship this weekend. The honor comes from the NCAA, not from any actual ties Bookies has to the university. Four bars in town were each given a region in the NCAA tournament and prepared to host fans from whatever teams emerged.