Dec 27, 2001

Box Score

CLEVELAND (AP) - Rollie Massimino got his 500th coaching victory Thursday night as Cleveland State beat Duquesne 82-64.

Massimino, in his 29th season, is the 55th coach in Division I history and 92nd overall in the NCAA to accomplish the feat. He is the 19th active coach to reach the plateau.

Reserve guard Percell Coles scored 17 points - all but two on 3-pointers - to lead the Vikings (5-4), who scored the first seven points of the game and were never challenged. Coles was 5-of-6 from beyond the arc.

Junior guard Kevin Forney scored 12 points to lead Duquesne (3-6).

Massimino, 66, got a standing ovation from the sparse home crowd of 2,223 who chanted "Rollie, Rollie," during the game's final minute.

In ceremonies immediately afterward, he told the fans: "I'm very happy to have won it in Cleveland."

When he came to Cleveland State in 1996, Massimino inherited a program coming off a 5-21 season. The Vikings went 9-19 in his first year, but have steadily improved with 12-15, 14-14, 16-14, and 19-13 records before this season.

Massimino got 71 percent of his wins at Villanova, which he led to the national championship in 1985 when the Wildcats stunned Georgetown and Patrick Ewing 66-64 in the title game. He had an overall record of 355-241 in 19 years at Villanova.

Massimino got his first college win in his second game at Stony Brook, where he compiled a 34-16 record from 1969-71.

Then it was off to Villanova, where he went 7-19 his first season. Under Massimino, the Wildcats went to the NCAA tournament 11 times and the NIT four times over his final 15 years at the school.

He went to UNLV in 1992 and was 36-21 with the Runnin' Rebels, including one NIT berth.

Massimino is the second man to get his 500th victory as coach of the Vikings. Basketball Hall of Famer John McClendon, known as one of the pioneers of the fast break game, earned win No. 500 against Walsh College in a 24-22 slowdown game in 1967.

Earlier this season, Dave Bliss at Baylor and Nolan Richardson of Arkansas got their 500th wins. Richardson and Massimino are two of 16 coaches with 500 wins and a Division I national championship.

Five other colleges have had two coaches get their 500th career wins while at the school - Oklahoma State, Oregon State, Arizona, Washington and Old Dominion.