He played collegiate basketball at Minot State University in North Dakota from 1980 to 1984, where he was a four-year letterman and a team captain for two seasons.
After spending a year at Western Illinois, Giacoletti became an assistant coach for Oral Roberts University during the 1986–87 season.
After three seasons with Illinois State, Bender was named the head coach of the University of Washington, where Giacoletti accepted an assistant position with the program.
In his first season as a head coach, Giacoletti guided North Dakota State to an 18–9 (.667) record.
Giacoletti would then leave North Dakota State for the head coaching job at Eastern Washington University.
After successful stints with North Dakota State and Eastern Washington, Giacoletti was named the head coach of the University of Utah Utes.
Ironically, it was Kentucky who would beat Utah once again, ending the 2nd winningest season in school history.
Gone was All-American Andrew Bogut, starting point guard Marc Jackson graduated, Justin Hawkins decided to transfer to New Mexico State and Richard Chaney transferred to Troy State, all major players in Utah's Sweet 16 run the season before.
[3] At Drake, Giacoletti's teams got worse each season, just as at Utah (based on won-loss records).
Conference tournament champion *Resigned on December 6, 2016, with Jeff Rutter taking over for the rest of the 2016–17 season.