PHILADELPHIA – La Salle’s month-long search for a head men’s basketball coach is over. Maine coach John Giannini will be named the coach at La Salle on Monday, according to a source familiar with the school’s coaching search.

Giannini, who coached Rowan to the 1996 NCAA Division III national title, was at Maine for the last eight seasons. He had been La Salle’s primary target since talks ended with Penn coach Fran Dunphy a week ago.

At Maine, Giannini, who could not be reached for comment, had a 125-111 record and coached the school to its first two 20-win seasons. The Black Bears never made it through the America East conference tournament to the NCAAs, but they reached the conference final twice in the last three years. Over the last six years, Maine had more victories than any other America East school.

Around the America East, Giannini was known as Doctor John. A Chicago native and 1984 graduate of North Central College in Naperville, Ill., Giannini has a doctorate in kinesiology with a specialization in sports psychology from the University of Illinois. He was a graduate assistant at Illinois under Lou Henson from 1987-89 before he went to Rowan, where he had a 168-38 record in seven seasons and went to the Division III Final Four three times.

Sources said Giannini had actually been targeted by La Salle during the talks with Dunphy in case Penn’s coach didn’t take the job. The surprise over the last week was that La Salle contacted a number of other coaches, including some from the America East. Tom Brennan, the coach at Vermont, told La Salle athletic director Tom Brennan that he was flattered, but Giannini was the right guy.

“He’s really good. He can do it. He’s got great integrity,” Brennan remembered telling Brennan.

And a regular guy, Brennan said. When the America East was telling Brennan that Vermont couldn’t play the Van Morrison tune always used for his entrances at home games before the America East title game at Vermont, because it was the conference title game, Brennan called Giannini, the visiting coach.

“T.B.,” Giannini told him, “You can play the whole album as far as I’m concerned.”

Giannini was a top candidate for the La Salle job when he interviewed in 2001, but he pulled his name out. That year, the school hired Billy Hahn, then Maryland’s top assistant. Hahn resigned on July 24 after it was alleged he did not report a sexual assault the previous year by one of his players. That all came to light after two prominent La Salle players, Gary Neal and Mike Cleaves, were arrested and charged with sexual assault and dismissed from school.

It remains to be seen how local Giannini’s staff gets at La Salle. Rowan graduate Mike Burden recently joined Giannini’s staff at Maine. It also will be interesting to see if Giannini tries to get current Rowan head coach Joe Cassidy, Giannini’s top assistant during his time at Rowan.

In addition to dealing with the fallout from this summer’s events at La Salle, Giannini will be taking over a program that hasn’t had a winning season since 1992-93.