John Manfredo Giannini (born October 31, 1962) is an American

college basketball In United States colleges, top-tier basketball is governed by collegiate athletic bodies including National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the United States Collegiate Athleti ...

coach. He served as the head men's basketball coach at

Rowan University Rowan University is a public research university in Glassboro, New Jersey, with a medical campus in Stratford and medical and academic campuses in Camden. It was founded in 1923 as Glassboro Normal School on a site donated by 107 residents. ...

from 1989 to 1996, the

University of Maine The University of Maine (UMaine or UMO) is a public land-grant research university in Orono, Maine. It was established in 1865 as the land-grant college of Maine and is the flagship university of the University of Maine System. It is classifie ...

from 1996 to 2004, and La Salle University from 2004 to 2018. Giannini led Rowan to an

NCAA Division III men's basketball tournament The NCAA Division III men's basketball tournament (officially styled as "Championship" instead of "Tournament") is a tournament to determine the NCAA Division III national champion. It has been held annually from 1975 to 2019 & since 2022, but no ...

championship in 1996.

Early life

The son of Italian immigrants, Giannini grew up in Elmwood Park, a suburb of

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, and has three younger brothers. He attended Fenwick High School in Oak Park, and received a

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six ...

in psychology from

North Central College North Central College is a private college in Naperville, Illinois. It is affiliated with the United Methodist Church and has nearly 70 areas of study in undergraduate majors, minors, and programs through 19 academic departments organized in thre ...

Naperville Naperville ( ) is a city in DuPage County, Illinois, DuPage and Will County, Illinois, Will counties in the U.S. state of Illinois. It is in the Chicago metro area, west of the city. Naperville was founded in 1831 by Joseph Naper. The city was ...

. Giannini also holds a

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

in physical education with a specialization in sports psychology from

North Texas University The University of North Texas (UNT) is a public research university in Denton, Texas. It was founded as a nonsectarian, coeducational, private teachers college in 1890 and was formally adopted by the state 11 years later."Denton Normal School," ...

, as well as a doctorate in kinesiology with a specialization in sports psychology from the

University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Univer ...

Coaching career

Illinois

From 1987 through 1989, Giannini served as a graduate assistant on coach

Lou Henson Louis Ray Henson (January 10, 1932 – July 25, 2020) was an American college basketball coach. He retired as the all-time leader in victories at the University of Illinois with 423 victories and New Mexico State with 289 victories. Overall, Henso ...

's staff at the

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Univer ...

. In Giannini's final season on Henson's staff, the Fighting Illini, led by

Kendall Gill Kendall Cedric Gill (born May 25, 1968) is an American former professional basketball player who now works as a television basketball analyst. Early life Gill was born in Chicago and attended Rich Central High School in Olympia Fields, Illinoi ...

Kenny Battle Kenneth R. Battle (born October 10, 1964) is an American former professional basketball player. High school career In 1984, Battle led Aurora West High School to third place in the Illinois High School Association Class AA state basketball tourn ...

, Stephen Bardo, Tyler Cottingham,

Lowell Hamilton Lowell Hamilton (born May 3, 1966) is an American former basketball player. High school Hamilton was a dominant high school basketball player at Chicago's Providence St. Mel, where he led the Knights to four consecutive IHSA boys' sectional ch ...

and

Marcus Liberty Marcus Liberty (born October 27, 1968) is an American former professional basketball player. He played four seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Liberty played college basketball for the University of Illinois. High school After ...

, made the Final Four.

Rowan

Giannini's first head coaching job came at

, a Division III school, when he was hired as the men's coach in 1989. His 1992–93 team, led by Terrence Stewart, went to the Final Four. Two years later, Giannini's team was the favorite to win the national championship, but again lost in the final four. The following season, Giannini gambled in accepting two Division 1 transfers, a Division 2 transfer and added them to a team centered around Stewart. After a slow start to the season, Rowan caught fire and defeated

Hope College Hope College is a private Christian liberal arts college in Holland, Michigan. It was originally opened in 1851 as the Pioneer School by Dutch immigrants four years after the community was first settled. The first freshman college class matricu ...

to win the 1996 national championship.

Maine

Following Rowan's championship season, Giannini accepted the head coaching position at the

, a position he held for eight years. His Maine teams made five trips to the

America East Conference The America East Conference is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with NCAA Division I founded in 1979, whose members are located in the Northeastern United States. The conference has nine core members including eight public research ...

semi-finals or better, and made appearances in the conference championship game two of Giannini's last three seasons. Giannini's two 20-win seasons are the only two on record in program history, and his .530 winning percentage is the highest in school history.

La Salle

On August 23, 2004, Giannini was hired as the eighteenth head coach of the La Salle men's basketball team. He succeeded

Billy Hahn Billy Hahn (born June 22, 1953) is an American former basketball coach who was most recently an assistant coach for the West Virginia Mountaineers under head coach Bob Huggins. During his head coaching and assistant coaching career, Hahn has coac ...

, who was forced to resign that July, following a rape scandal. The university had originally sought to hire Penn head coach and La Salle alumnus

Fran Dunphy Francis Joseph Dunphy (born October 5, 1948) is an American college basketball coach, who is the head coach of the La Salle Explorers of the Atlantic 10 Conference. He is the former men's basketball coach at Temple University and the University o ...

, but settled on Giannini after Dunphy turned the school down. The 2005–06 season, Giannini's second at La Salle, set records for most

Atlantic 10 The Atlantic 10 Conference (A-10) is a collegiate athletic conference whose schools compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's (NCAA) Division I. The A-10's member schools are located in states mostly on the United States Eastern ...

wins in a season (ten), most Atlantic 10 road wins in a single season (four) and was the program's first winning season since the 1992–93 season, when the school competed in the

Midwestern Collegiate Conference The Horizon League is an 11-school collegiate athletic conference in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I, whose members are located in and near the Great Lakes region. The Horizon League founded in 1979 as the Midw ...

(now known as the

Horizon League The Horizon League is an 11-school collegiate athletic conference in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I, whose members are located in and near the Great Lakes region. The Horizon League founded in 1979 as the Midw ...

). Giannini was named a

Jim Phelan Award The Jim Phelan National Coach of the Year Award (formerly called the CollegeInsider.com National Coach of the Year Award from 2003 to 2009) is an award given annually to the most outstanding men's college basketball head coach in NCAA Division I ( ...

candidate for National Coach of the Year. However, the 2005–06 season was one of only two seasons in which La Salle finished above .500 in Giannini's first seven seasons leading the program. Though Giannini recruited heavily in the

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...

area, his teams were plagued by poor chemistry and missed opportunities, and La Salle became an afterthought in the

Big 5 Big Five may refer to: Animals * the Big Five, large African wild animals said to be most difficult to hunt: lion, leopard, rhinoceros, elephant and Cape buffalo * Big Five animals of the Kaziranga National Park, Assam, India: Indian rhinocero ...

. On March 23, 2018, Giannini and La Salle mutually agreed to part ways after 14 seasons.

Postseason breakthroughs

The 2011–12 Explorers won 21 games, the program's highest win total since 1992, and received an invitation to the

2012 NIT The 2012 National Invitation Tournament was a single-elimination tournament of 32 NCAA Division I teams that were not selected to participate in the 2012 NCAA tournament. The annual tournament began on March 13 on campus sites and ended on Marc ...

, the program's first postseason tournament appearance since 1992. La Salle lost its first-round game at home to eventual tournament runner-up

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...

. The following season, La Salle again won 21 regular season games, including consecutive victories over ninth-ranked Butler at home, and nineteenth-ranked VCU on the road. The Explorers received their first invitation to the NCAA tournament since 1992, when they received an at-large bid. In the opening round, La Salle defeated fellow thirteen seed Boise State, before defeating fourth-seeded

Kansas State Kansas State University (KSU, Kansas State, or K-State) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Manhattan, Kansas, United States. It was opened as the state's land-grant college in 1863 and was the first public instit ...

in the second round. After defeating twelfth-seeded Ole Miss in the third round, La Salle lost to

Wichita State Wichita State University (WSU) is a public research university in Wichita, Kansas, United States. It is governed by the Kansas Board of Regents. The university offers more than 60 undergraduate degree programs in more than 200 areas of study in ...

in the Sweet Sixteen. La Salle's appearance in the Sweet Sixteen made it only the sixth program seeded thirteenth or lower to advance that far, and its three tournament wins were the program's first since

1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of humanity on Earth, astrophysicist ...

. It was also the program's deepest tournament run since 1955, when the

Tom Gola Thomas Joseph Gola (January 13, 1933 – January 26, 2014) was an American basketball player and politician. He is widely considered one of the greatest NCAA basketball players of all-time. Gola was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball ...

-led Explorer's lost in the national championship game. The team's 24 overall victories were the seventh-most in school history, and its 11 victories in the Atlantic Ten were the most ever. The Explorers also finished ranked 24th in the nation in the final

USA Today Coaches Poll The Coaches Poll is a weekly ranking of the top 25 NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) college football, Division I college basketball, and Division I college baseball teams. The football version of the poll has been known officiall ...

of the season.

Personal life

Giannini and his wife Donna have two daughters.

Head coaching record

References

External links

La Salle profile

{{DEFAULTSORT:Giannini, John 1962 births Living people American men's basketball coaches American men's basketball players Basketball coaches from Illinois Basketball players from Chicago College men's basketball head coaches in the United States College men's basketball players in the United States Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball coaches La Salle Explorers men's basketball coaches Maine Black Bears men's basketball coaches North Central College alumni People from Elmwood Park, Illinois Rowan Profs men's basketball coaches University of Illinois alumni University of North Texas alumni