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Jim Molinari enters his second season as an
assistant coach for the Golden Gopher basketball
program. Molinari came to Minnesota as a defensive
specialist and in his first season he reconstructed
the Gopher defense. Minnesota finished third in the
conference in scoring defense at 62.7 points per
game in Big Ten play, just a half-point behind
Michigan State and two points behind Illinois. The
Gophers led the Big Ten in field goal percentage
defense (.424) and three-point field goal percentage
defense (.274) in conference play. The Gophers have
held their last 10 opponents to 45 percent shooting
or below, including four below 40 percent.
Overall, Minnesota allowed 62.9 points per game in
2004-05, the fewest since the 1981-82 season when
the Gophers’ stingy defense surrendered 59.3 points
per contest. Street & Smith’s recently rated
Molinari as the best assistant coach in the Big Ten.
In the two seasons previous to his arrival in Gold
Country, Molinari was a NBA scout for the Toronto
Raptors and Miami Heat. Prior to his stint with the
Heat, Molinari enjoyed a 24-year career as a
collegiate head and assistant coach at the Division
I level. For 11 seasons, he was the head coach at
Bradley University where he amassed a 176-150 (.540)
record and guided the Braves to the postseason six
times - five NIT appearances and a trip to the 1996
NCAA Tournament. From 1989-1991, he was the head
coach at Northern Illinois University where he
posted a record of 42-17 and won the 1991
Mid-Continent Conference title. His 13-year head
coaching record stands at 218-167 (.566).
A two-time conference coach of the year — 1991
Mid-Continent Conference at Northern Illinois and
1996 Missouri Valley at Bradley — Molinari's
coaching success was built on defense. While
averaging better than 17 wins per season, Molinari's
teams finished among the nation's top 24 defensive
squads 10 times. In his two years at NIU, his teams
finished fifth and second respectively in team
defense on the national level. In his first nine
years at Bradley, the Braves placed among the
nation's leaders in all but two seasons for either
fewest points allowed per game or field goal
percentage allowed. In addition, Molinari graduated
nearly 90 percent of his student-athletes during his
head coaching career, and while at Bradley, 24 out
of 26 senior student-athletes received their
degrees.
Molinari earned his bachelor's degree in English
from Illinois Wesleyan University in 1977 and earned
a Juris Doctor from DePaul in 1980. His college
basketball-playing career began at Kansas State,
where he teamed with current UNLV head coach Lon
Kruger for two seasons. After transferring to
Illinois Wesleyan, where he teamed with former NBA
center Jack Sikma, Molinari helped the Titans win
consecutive league titles (1975-77), before entering
the coaching profession in 1978 as a part-time
assistant with DePaul.
After the beginning of the 1979-80 season, Molinari
was elevated to a full-time assistant and helped
both Ray and Joey Meyer return the Blue Demon
program to national prominence. Throughout the next
10 seasons at DePaul, Molinari helped recruit
college and professional stars such as Mark Aguirre,
Dallas Comegys, Tyrone Corbin, Terry Cummings and
Rod Strickland — players who led DePaul to nine NCAA
Tournaments and a runner-up finish in the NIT.
In addition to his collegiate coaching experience,
Molinari is a veteran of national selection
committees for international competition. Molinari
led the 1997 USA Basketball men's team to a gold
medal at the World University Games played in
Trapani, Italy.
Molinari has four children: sons Mark, Billy and
David and daughter, Joy. |
