Roland Vincent Massimino (November 13, 1934 – August 30, 2017) was an American basketball coach. He served as the head men's basketball coach at Stony Brook University (1969–1971), Villanova University (1973–1992), the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (1992–1994), Cleveland State University (1996–2003), and at Northwood University's Florida campus, which was sold in 2014 to Keiser University (2006–2017). At Villanova, he led his 1984–85 team to the NCAA championship. Entering the 1985 NCAA tournament as an eight seed, Villanova defeated their heavily favored Big East Conference foe, the Georgetown Hoyas, in the title game. It is widely regarded as one of the greatest upsets in NCAA history. Education Roland Massimino graduated in 1952 from Hillside High School in Hillside, New Jersey. In 1956, he earned a bachelor's degree in education from the University of Vermont (UVM), where he played varsity basketball for three years. He earned a master's degree equivalent in health and physical education from Rutgers University in 1959. While he was a student at UVM, he became a member of the Alpha-Lambda chapter of the Kappa Sigma fraternity. Coaching career High school After graduating from UVM, Massimino entered the coaching ranks, where he coached varsity baseball and freshman and JV basketball at Cranford High School in Cranford, New Jersey. In 1959, he began a four-year tenure as head varsity basketball coach at Hillside High School in Hillside, New Jersey, the town in which he had grown up. In his second year as head basketball coach at Hillside, he led his team to the finals of the State Group III Championship. They lost a tightly contested final game to Burlington High School from Burlington, New Jersey. The Hillside team was led by Frank Checorski, a unanimous Top-Five All-State Selection throughout The Garden State. In 1963, with the support of high school All-American Bill Schutsky—who later captained the Army Cadets basketball team—Massimino led the Comets to the state Group IV finals. In both seasons, Hillside was defeated in the final playoff game by Newark's Central High School. The Comets lost during both years to a team composed of taller players, despite pushing the thrilling 1963 championship game into double-overtime. For the 1963–64 season, Massimino moved to Lexington High School in Massachusetts. In 1965, he led the Lexington squad to a state championship and later led another to a 20–1 record. Along the way, Massimino was laying the foundation for an elite