Published: March 20, 2008 04:00 am         

OHS grad gets lucky

Between the sayings, "Some guys have all the luck" and "The harder I work, the luckier I get," sits 1986 Oneonta High graduate Paul Molinari.

Sure, Molinari has had some good fortune. He admitted as much from Denver's Pepsi Center via cell phone Wednesday, on the eve of his fourth consecutive NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament appearance as an assistant coach for Winthrop University.

But you don't go from a guy whose only court time for the Yellowjackets during a two-year varsity stint came "when we were either down 20 or up 20" to a Division I assistant without impressing some people along the way.

"I took a charge off King Rice," Molinari said of the former Binghamton High standout who went on to lead North Carolina to a Final Four appearance in the 1991. "That's my claim to fame."

As a player, anyway.

As a coach/manager, he's been involved with Division I basketball for 19 years, including 14 under former Villanova, UNLV and Cleveland State coach Rollie Massimino.

At Villanova, where Molinari graduated with a degree in operations management in 1990, he got his big break. His father, Joe, who died in a plane crash just outside of Oneonta's airport in the mid-1980s, played a big role in his start as a coach.

Joe Molinari, also a Villanova grad, had been involved in fundraising at the school and knew Massimino. Through that connection, Paul became a manager under Massimino, the architect of the Wildcats' stunning, 66-64 upset of Georgetown in the 1985 National Championship game.

"That's how that opportunity opened up," said Molinari, who'll be on the bench for the 13th-seeded Eagles (22-11), when they play fourth-seeded Washington State (24-8) at 7:20 tonight in a first-round East Regional game. "You have to be lucky sometimes."

Molinari, 39, followed the fiery Massimino to UNLV in 1992 and again to Cleveland State in 1996.

In his final year with Massimino, Molinari met then-Winthrop head coach Gregg Marshall at a tournament in Corpus Christi, Texas. He interviewed with Marshall in July of 2003 and accepted an assistant coaching position at Winthrop that August.

When Marshall left this past season to take the head coaching job at Wichita State, the Eagles hired Marshall's top assistant, Randy Peele, to take his place at the school in Rock Hill, S.C.

"Randy and I came to Winthrop the same season, and I said to him, I love South Carolina, I have a lot of friends in the area and if you want to keep me, I'd love to do it," Molinari said. "I knew all the players and just to have the opportunity to win every year is a blessing."

The Eagles knocked off Notre Dame in a first-round tournament game last season before falling to Oregon in the second round.

This past offseason, Molinari and the entire Winthrop program were dealt a difficult blow.

Backup point guard De'Andre Adams, a player Molinari helped recruit, died after sustaining a brain injury in a car accident in May.

"I talked to him that day," Molinari said of a conversation that took place on the eve of Mother's Day. "He'd just finished a workout and said he was working on his jumpshot, and was ready to push (starting point guard) Chris Gaynor for the starting spot.

"Later that day, I got a message from a teammate (Mantrois Robinson) that said, Call as soon as possible. There's a major problem,'" Molinari said. "Right then, I knew something bad happened."

Adams was hospitalized after a single-car accident and died four days later.

"It was truly like losing a son or a family member," Molinari said. "He had a wonderful smile and was a great kid. It was really a tough time."

Still, with a new coach, a tragic death and seven new players, the Eagles won the Big South championship for the fourth consecutive season, defeating UNC Asheville, 66-48, in the conference final.

"Sixty-five teams make the tournament and there are 341 Division I teams," said Molinari, who is single. "I've been blessed to be able to go to the tournament for four straight years. You have to be lucky, but there's a lot of work involved."

Molinari credits high school coach Bob Zeh, Oneonta High's current girls basketball coach, with his development as a coach.

"To play for Bob Zeh was an asset," he said. "As a basketball coach, he was ahead of his time. I learned so much from his practices that have helped me."

Zeh, who headed Oneonta's boys program for 32 years, said Molinari loved basketball.

"There's a name I remember," Zeh said of Molinari. "My 5-10 post player. He practiced hard. If he was 6-1, he'd have been an all-STAC player. He was a bench player and never played an awful lot of minutes, but he studied the game and knew it well.

"Paul was a good football player and his football coach said he thought he could play Division III (ball) for someone," he continued, "but he loved basketball. He has the type of personality that's good for recruiting. He has a good rapport with the players and coaches, and he's a hard worker. The assistants, those guys work hard. They do all the grunt work."

Zeh also said Molinari is not camera shy.

"When he was at Villanova, he knew how to get into the TV camera during a timeout," he said. "I'd tell him, you know where to go to get into those TV timeouts."

Molinari said he'd like to become a head coach in the near future.

"I always said I wanted to become a head coach by the time I'm 40," said Molinari, who added his last trip to Oneonta was about five years ago. "Be it Division I or Division II, that's one of my goals and I'd like to have it be in the south. Take nothing away from away from Oneonta, but I like warm weather."

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Rob Centorani can be reached at rcentorani@thedailystar.com or 607-432-1000, ext. 209.