Legendary former Villanova basketball coach Rollie Massimino has entered hospice care, according to WPEC, the CBS affiliate in West Palm Beach, Fla.. Massimino, who famously coached the Wildcats to the 1985 national championship, is 82 and has coached for the past 11 seasons at Keiser University, an NAIA school formerly known as Northwood.
Word of Massimino's health issues went widely public when Kentucky coach John Calipari tweeted an update on Massimino on Tuesday.
Rollie Massimino, whose team pulled off one of the great upsets in the '85 title game in Rupp, needs our prayers. Say one for him if you can
— John Calipari (@UKCoachCalipari) August 29, 2017
Massimino is most known for his 19 seasons at Villanova, where he won 355 games. He has 816 career victories; he also coached at Stony Brook, UNLV and Cleveland State. Massimino was inducted into the College Basketball Hall of Fame in 2013.
Since 2006, Massimino has coached at the NAIA level. His school posted this to Twitter:
https://t.co/ticyP21e7v pic.twitter.com/774cUp8yMk
— KeiserUniversity (@KeiserU) August 29, 2017
Massimino has been an active presence into his 80s. He was on site, and celebrating, in 2016 when Villanova dramatically defeated North Carolina on Kris Jenkins' at-the-horn shot that gave the program its second national championship. Massimino is considered one of the most prominent coaches in Big East history, and because of Villanova's 1985 title, that conference was bolstered in reputation both within college basketball and across American sports.