New Jersey has lost a coaching legend. Mike Granelli, who passed away last week at age 87, leaves behind a legacy that stretches far beyond the basketball court. With 607 wins over 32 seasons at Saint Peter's University, he holds the record for the most college basketball victories by any head coach in New Jersey history—at any level. But numbers alone don't tell the full story of the man from Hoboken who made his home in Bradley Beach.

Granelli saw himself as a teacher first and a coach second. His son Kevin remembers a father who demanded excellence in the classroom just as fiercely as he demanded it on the hardwood. "You didn't get good grades, you didn't play," Kevin recalled. Granelli made his players sign a real contract: play for him, and he would guarantee they earned an education. He collected weekly progress reports from teachers and even required sick players to check in with the trainer before missing class. His greatest accomplishment wasn't the wins—it was being a mentor.

That old-school approach defined a career that simply could not exist in today's game. Incredibly, Granelli's total coaching victories actually number 770—he also led Saint Peter's men's soccer program to 163 wins from 1970 to 1989. He took over the basketball program in 1972, right as the Title IX era was launching women's sports, and held both head coaching jobs simultaneously for 17 years. All while teaching history and physical education in the Hoboken school district.

"Things were different then—recruiting wasn't what it is today," said Rich Ensor, who worked as a student-manager for Granelli in both sports and later became commissioner of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference. "But he did a remarkable job doing that type of coaching while switching between two sports."

In 1972, women's basketball was still emerging from the era of archaic 6-on-6 rules, where three guards and three forwards were confined to separate halves of the court. Granelli helped transform the game, recruiting primarily from Hudson County high schools and building teams that played an aggressive, full-court brand of basketball. "He had an ability to identify players who would fit into his system—very aggressive defense and fast break offense," Ensor said. "He knew how to develop players."

Mike Granelli will be laid to rest Friday. There won't be another like him. And in a sport that changes faster than a fast break, that kind of legacy is something to cherish.