Giannini likes look of all of Maine> Coach of Div. III hoop champ thinks he can make winners of Black Bears

ORONO – Dr. John Giannini enjoys fishing. Actually, he said he loves it. And he grew up in Chicago. So he doesn’t mind the cold.

In short, Giannini, the head coach of the Division III national champion Rowan College men’s basketball team, would love to make the next step in his coaching career to Maine.

Giannini is one of the four finalists who are being interviewed in the next week by the University of Maine search committee seeking a replacement for former men’s basketball coach Rudy Keeling, who resigned to become head coach at Northeastern University.

Giannini said he is excited at the prospect of coaching at what he considers to be a nationally known state university in an improving conference in a beautiful easy-to-sell setting.

“This is an honor,” Giannini said in a press conference Friday. “The Maine basketball program is getting better. It’s on the verge of doing great things. My wife and I like the East, and we love the natural beauty of Maine.”

Giannini, who has only been an assistant coach at the Division I level, said his experience as an assistant coach at the University of Illinois from 1987 to 1989 and his success as a head coach at Division III Rowan College in Glassboro, N.J., where he has compiled a 168-38 record in eight years, has prepared him to coach a winning Division I team.

“My experience at Illinois coaching a team in the Final Four and the experience I’ve enjoyed as head coach at Rowan has given me the best experience to work as a Division I head coach,” Giannini said. “At Illinois, I watched a state rally behind a great basketball team. It’s very exciting when a state can provide that atmosphere.”

Giannini said having coached at Illinois in 1989, when he assisted Lou Henson in guiding his team to the Final Four, he’s learned what it takes to build an NCAA Tournament contender. And Giannini believes the Black Bears are ready to take another step next year with the experience last year’s starting freshman John Gordon and Allen Ledbetter got coupled with the leadership of senior Ramone Jones.

“The ideal would be to do what Drexel has done, to win the conference championship three years in a row,” Giannini said. “Not just to have the potential. But to do it.”

However, how quickly Maine could develop into a team like Drexel, which has dominated the newly named AMERICA EAST Conference, was a question Giannini couldn’t answer.

Giannini said his coaching philosophy is not to fit a team to a system that works, but to design a system around the best talent he is able to recruit.

“As head coach at Rowan, my teams have had a number of different looks,” Giannini said. “From constant pressure and up-tempo play to tough teams that win close games.”

Giannini said working at a major state university such as Illinois schooled him on the value and challenge of recruiting in-state. And at UMaine, he said he would work hard to retain Maine’s best high school talent.

Were he to coach at Maine, Giannini said he would work to develop a relationship with the high school coaches, the UMaine alumni, and the community in order to be successful in recruiting Maine athletes.

“There are good young players on the Maine team,” Giannini said. “I don’t see any reason why there won’t be improvements. If I’m a specialist, it’s in finding the right way for a team to win.”

Giannini received his bachelor’s degree from North Central College in 1984, and received a master’s in physical education from the University of North Texas, and a Ph.D in kinesiology from Illinois.