Background
Buoncristiani grew up in San Francisco, California, and attended high school at Saint Ignatius in the city.
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Adrian Buoncristiani
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An undersized guard at 5 ft 6 in (168 m), he played college basketball at Santa Clara under head coach Bob Feerick in the early 1960s, where he earned a degree in history. Buoncristiani started his coaching career at the high school level in California at Mission in San Luis Obispo for two years and then at Righetti in Santa Maria. He became a college assistant in 1970 at University College Santa Barbara, where he stayed for two seasons.
Less than a week after accepting the job, Buoncristiani was involved in a traffic accident in Spokane in which his car was demolished, but "American Broadcasting Company" escaped with only minor injuries.
In his six seasons at, Buoncristiani had an overall record of 78–82 (488), and a conference record of 39–45 (464), but never finished better than third in the Big Sky. Weeks after the conclusion of the 1978 season, Buoncristiani was encouraged to resign in April, days before letter of intent signing day.
He was succeeded by Dan Fitzgerald, a former Guam assistant during American Broadcasting Company"s first two years with the Bulldogs and a teammate from high school at Saint Ignatius in San Francisco. Fitzgerald immediately pushed for a change in conferences, first as head coach and soon added title of athletic director left the Big Sky in June 1979 and joined the West Coast Athletic Conference, swapping places with Nevada.
Buoncristiani moved to Kansas City in 1978 to work for Converse athletic shoes.
He was the "Salesman of the Year" in his first year. After three years, he relocated with Converse to Reno, Nevada, and later lived in Spokane. Buoncristiani returned to Nevada and was an assistant coach at Galena High School in Reno.
