PHILADELPHIA – La Salle’s introduction of its new men’s basketball coach, former Maine coach John Giannini, began with a pronunciation lesson. The last name, a school spokesman said, is pronounced Ja-NEE-nee.

That was a reminder that although La Salle’s new coach spent some time coaching around here, he is no local household name.

Giannini, 41, coached for seven seasons at Rowan University, winning an NCAA Division III title in 1996, his last season in Glassboro. After spending the last eight seasons at Maine, the newest Big Five coach takes over a program with a storied tradition but, more recently, 11 straight losing seasons and a summer of scandal.

“Sometimes when you have a big challenge and a new challenge, you wake up a lot earlier and a lot more excited, and that’s been happening to me,” Giannini said. “The reason you take a position like this is it is a big challenge and you want the challenge, and I think that’s how we all grow in life, by trying hard things. This is going to be a hard thing.”

A Chicago native who earned a doctorate in kinesiology with a specialization in sports psychology from Illinois, where he was a graduate assistant under Lou Henson from 1987 to “89, Giannini – known as Doctor John on the coaching circuit – can claim some hardworking roots.

“My dad moved here from Italy in his late “20s, learned to speak English,” Giannini said. “The trade he picked to learn was plumbing. I learned from him the true meaning of hard work. I remember him going out in the middle of freezing Chicago nights to fix water-main leaks, with water spraying all over you, gushing out of mains in sub-zero temperatures.”

What is Giannini’s leadership style? “John is the master of, I want to say, crisis motivation,” said Rowan coach Joe Cassidy, once Giannini’s top assistant. Cassidy gave an example of a league game at Rowan where Giannini started talking about how Rowan’s backup point guard wasn’t quick enough to guard Kean University’s best player, that team’s starting point guard. After listening to this for about 10 minutes, Cassidy finally said that while maybe that was true, their team still had the best player and the second best and the third best player on the court.

“In that case, the biggest problem in the world was that our backup point guard, maybe our ninth man, wasn’t as quick as their best player, but that’s the way he motivates himself to work hard,” Cassidy said. “So if he decides that the biggest problem here is recruiting, he’ll go out and recruit like a madman. If he perceives the biggest problem is shooting, he’ll go out and work like a maniac on shooting. If he perceives the problem here is the lack of team chemistry, something like that, he’ll attack team chemistry with a vengeance.”

At Maine, Giannini took over a struggling program, went 11-20 his first two seasons, then 61-27 over the next three years. Maine had a 12-18 season in 2001-02, although it advanced to the America East tournament finals, and went 14-16 in 2002-03. Last season, the Black Bears were 20-10 and reached the America East final, losing to Vermont. That and his 24-7 team in 1999-00 were the first two 20-win seasons in Maine history.

He’ll be taking over a program that has a premier A-10 player in junior forward Steven Smith, but also some well-chronicled problems. Former coach Billy Hahn resigned on July 24 after it was alleged he did not report a sexual assault the previous year by one of his players, whose case remains under investigation by the district attorney’s office. That allegation originally came to light after two prominent players, guards Gary Neal and Mike Cleaves, were arrested and charged with a sexual assault this summer and dismissed from the team.

La Salle’s administration professed itself pleased with how Giannini acted when two of his Maine players were arrested on separate assault charges involving women in 2001. Both Maine players were quickly dismissed from the team.

On Monday, La Salle’s president, Brother Michael J. McGinniss, did not attend the news conference, and it was the first time that La Salle athletic director Tom Brennan took questions at a news session since Hahn and women’s coach John Miller were forced to resign. Brennan was asked when he had become aware of the federal legislation known as the Jeanne Clery Act, which specifies that victims of sexual assault on college campuses are to be fully supported and assisted in notifying police. He also was asked whether he had informed his coaches about it.

“I’ll tell you, the issue for us at La Salle really was not the Clery Act, per se,” Brennan said. “The real issue is there are expectations and requirements that are defined in job descriptions and contracts and policy matters which require staff members, including coaches, to report serious matters to the appropriate administrator. So I guess with regard to the Clery Act, if they follow athletic department policy and university regulations, we’ll fully satisfy the Clery Act. We emphasize the importance of reporting.”