Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 7, 1990 TAG: 9003071504
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By DOUG DOUGHTY SPORTSWRITER
DATELINE: CHARLOTTESVILLE LENGTH: Long
There can be little question that the UVa program, like the coach who is leaving it, is on sound footing.
"I just made a conscious decision to stand," said Holland, who strikes an imposing figure at 6-feet-7. "No particular reason. Sometimes I'll crouch, but I don't sit down anymore. I think you're involved a little more; you're a little more in control."
Some would say Holland has made himself more visible to any referees who might feel they no longer have to face him. He may be a lame duck, but he hasn't coached like one, witness the scene Saturday afternoon at halftime of the Cavaliers' game at Maryland.
Holland was so upset by UVa's uninspired play in the first half that he threw a chair, kicked a tray full of orange halves that landed in the lap of guard Anthony Oliver, and turned over the water cooler. All this from a man who said after the game that he had used up all his coaching gimmicks.
"The most explosive I've ever seen him," observed UVa assistant Jeff Jones, who has been a player or coach under Holland for the past 12 years. "The hang time on those oranges would have made [football coach] George Welsh proud."
Holland's wife, Ann, to whom he has been married for 25 years, said she noticed several weeks ago that her husband was beginning to experience withdrawal symptoms. Holland, a Division I head coach for 21 years, will step down after this season to become the athletic director at Davidson.
"He's really enjoyed the year," she said. "I think he's sad it's over. Usually by the end of the season, it's a real drain on the family, then you have recruiting season. But he doesn't want to let go."
Like a lot of people, Ann Holland said she thought it would have been appropriate for her husband to retire after the 1988-89 season, when the Cavaliers were picked to finish seventh in the Atlantic Coast Conference but got all the way to the final eight of the ACC Tournament. UVa was picked for seventh again this year but faced the loss of leading scorer Richard Morgan and center Brent Dabbs.
Holland, who has had one losing season since 1977, realized the potential for a disappointing finish.
"That was something I had to look at and say, `If things don't work out, if we lose and lose badly, for me to be upset and whine after all the years I've had would be absolutely shallow,' " he said.
Few considered it a workable situation when Holland announced June 23 that he was stepping down but would coach the 1989-90 season. Athletic director Jim Copeland came under fire for agreeing to the arrangement, particularly because of the potentially disastrous effect it would have on recruiting.
"There was no lack of people who questioned my sanity for that decision," Copeland said. "Not a lot of people are questioning it now. There was never any doubt in my mind that Terry would coach very well and the players would play very hard."
In the pattern of past overachieving Holland teams, the Cavaliers carry a 17-10 record into the ACC Tournament and have at least a decent shot of making the NCAA Tournament field. Moreover, Holland and his staff signed two promising recruits in November, forward Corey Stewart and guard Derrick Johnson, and have redshirted two players for the new regime.
"It has not been awkward at all," Holland, 47, said. "The main thing I was concerned about was the distractions [and] the team being constantly concerned about who the new coach is, the rumors, etc.
"One thing we worried about was the players ending up in specific camps. We cautioned the players about getting involved in the process. Obviously, it was a no-win situation. But it hasn't been bad. I don't think there's been a lot of brouhaha."
Although the season has had its down moments, none lower than UVa's 51-50 loss to Wake Forest in Holland's final home game, he may find it difficult to replace the high from beating rival North Carolina or ending a 16-game losing streak to Duke.
"It will be very difficult to leave," Holland said. "I could not leave cold turkey. If we were losing a coach and two or three players, that would be a tremendous rebuilding job. But this should have as little impact as it could ever have."
It helped that Holland was at the end of a five-year coaching contract he received after the 1984-85 season.
"The real question was, how could I get out of coaching?" Holland said. "It was all very rational. I wanted a timetable. Everybody either dies or gets fired and that ain't the way to do it. It was time to make an exit."
It would have been much harder for Holland to make that exit if he knew Virginia was anywhere close to replacing 25-year-old University Hall, whose capacity of 8,864 is the smallest in the ACC. UVa has released the results of a feasibility study for a new arena but has not raised any money or shown any movement on the project.
All the while, Holland can look out his office window and watch construction of a $10-million football support facility that will house coaches' offices, meeting rooms, weight rooms and training facilities.
Virginia received nearly $1 million from its extended stay in the NCAA Tournament last year, but the only major improvement in the basketball facilities in recent years was a new locker room installed before the 1988-89 season. Money for that came from a private donor solicited by Holland.
"You're looking at a minimum of five or six years until the new building is built," Holland has said. "It was not a direct factor [in his departure]. But if we had better facilities, I'd probably have been less likely to go.
"It's probably a little bit of a failing on my part. I should have used more of the clout we had built up. I'm disappointed we're not putting the kind of money into the arena to make it something unique. I point to Duke as an example. They made a monument to the old-fashioned gyms."
There are those who say Holland would still be the coach if Dick Schultz, a former basketball coach and chairman of the NCAA basketball committee, was still the athletic director. Copeland is a former UVa and professional football player, but the upgrading of the football program started long before his arrival in 1987.
"I can't say what Jim did was wrong," Holland said. "I see his point of view, but we did have a real set-to about the idea of how to reinvest in the program. There was never any money around and there are things that need to be done.
"We need an amount of money that needs to be set aside for basketball. Jim says, `That's not the way you do things administratively.' He says `First you determine the need, then you raise the money.' To me, you budget it ahead of time. I'm not going to go in and beg for a new floor. That's not the way I work."
Copeland is more of a hands-on administrator than Schultz, who spent considerable time on the road - or, in his case, the air. In fact, Copeland tried to use Schultz's system for interdepartmental communication while Copeland was athletic director at Utah, but eventually abandoned it.
"Everything totally changed once [Copeland] came in," said a source familiar with the Virginia situation. "Terry had carte-blanche with [Gene] Corrigan and Schultz. He had proven himself to be a good administrator of money, ethical and knowledgeable in basketball. Why not let him run it? That takes more off you as AD."
One is left with the impression that Virginia could have kept Holland under different circumstances.
"I don't want to leave, my girls don't want to leave, he doesn't want to leave," Ann Holland said. "I just wish they could be putting up a basketball arena instead of that new building. But if it takes us leaving to wake some people up, then maybe some good will come out of it."
Ann Holland said she could tell her husband wasn't looking forward to the Wake Forest game - "It seemed like he was really dreading it," she said - but otherwise he seems to be having fun. That was apparent when forward Matt Blundin got a flattop before UVa's home game with Duke, and Holland promised he would get a similar cut if the Cavaliers won.
"Most people who know me are not that surprised," said Holland, whose mischievous streak is legendary among his friends. "I certainly didn't say, `This is my last year, so I can do anything I want.' "
At 47, Holland seems stronger than ever in his relationship with his players. He went to church last Sunday with Oliver, Bryant Stith, Ted Jeffries and Chris Havlicek.
"This has been an interesting team to view as relates to Terry and his handling of the players," assistant Craig Littlepage said. "From Day 1, he has had a special affinity for this team individually and collectively. Not many people who follow ACC basketball thought there was much we could accomplish."
An NCAA bid, if the Cavaliers get one, would be Holland's eighth in the past 10 years. He twice made trips to the Final Four - once with three-time national player of the year Ralph Sampson and once without him - and won the National Invitation Tournament in 1980.
"It all adds up,," said former Virginia assistant Dave Odom, who is in his first year as Wake Forest head coach. "Plus, he's beyond reproach from an NCAA standpoint. He's one of those coaches who has never been questioned, and rightfully so. It's a tough legacy to leave for somebody."
Holland, who has won more than 400 games as a college coach, has a 323-171 record at Virginia and is one of only three coaches to win 300 games at an ACC program. North Carolina's Dean Smith and Holland's mentor, former Maryland coach Lefty Driesell, are the others.
"I would love to see my [UVa] record broken," Holland said, "but only because it would take 15 or 20 years and that would mean I'd still be living."
by CNB