Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, March 6, 1993 TAG: 9303060174
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Jack Bogaczyk
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
HOLLAND WILL HELP MAKE CALL ON WHO MAKES NCAA FIELD
When Terry Holland left coaching for administration, he wanted to find a way to stay close to his former sideline peers and college basketball.He's found it, but not only as a telecast analyst for ESPN and a handful of ACC games on the Raycom/Jefferson Pilot network. Next weekend, Holland is goin' to Kansas City, where he will be holed up in a hotel conference suite with eight other men, picking and seeding the 64 teams in the NCAA Tournament field.
The Davidson athletic director and former Virginia coach is a rookie on the NCAA Division I Basketball Committee. He coached in the NCAA 10 times and reached the Final Four twice, but Holland never saw the tourney quite the way he does now.
"The responsibility of being on this committee, and what it does, is rather humbling," said Holland, who will work ESPN's telecast of the Sun Belt Conference Tournament championship game Monday night in Biloxi, Miss., before heading for the three-day selection process. "There is no way though that doing this can match the pressure of being a coach and waiting to see if you get a bid.
"What has impressed me the most is the tremendous amount of material that is available to the committee on which to base decisions. The volume is incredible. As a coach, I can remember sitting there in a panic, waiting, and saying, `They [the committee] probably don't know this,' or, `Somebody needs to tell them that.'
"Believe me, the committee probably knows it. And if it doesn't, it's right there at our fingertips."
Holland will work 10 ESPN games this season and another five in the ACC package. He enjoys his TV time, although he admits, "I don't know how good I am at it. There's no real way to tell." It has gotten more difficult this season, however, as ESPN has given Holland a mixture of games.
He's worked Richmond-George Washington, James Madison-LaSalle, Auburn-South Carolina and Miami (Ohio)-Illinois State, among others. Because he's working games of teams that rarely appear on TV, it's tougher to get a handle on preparation, Holland said. He also has missed the continuity of working a single league.
While Holland has gotten to see more teams this season, he called the basketball committee experience "fairly confined work, and only a few meetings." At one of those, in October, the committee went through a mock selection and seeding of a 64-team field, repeating the steps of the 1992 tournament - an eye-opening session for Holland and his fellow rookies, Metro Conference commissioner Ralph McFillen and Texas athletic director DeLoss Dodds.
"It's obviously a process that's been refined over the years, so much so I have a sense you really can't make many mistakes," said Holland, 50. "The tough thing is when you get down to the last four or eight teams, and you have 16 or 24 choices for those slots.
"It's like something I heard about health insurance recently. Someone said 90 percent of the money that's spent on you will be spent during the last 10 years of your life. This process seems like that. Ninety percent of our time will be spent on the last 10 teams."
Holland said the seeding process, once the 64 are selected, is more time-consuming, "because it's tricky due to the listed objectives, and trying to prioritize among those. What's more important? A balancing of seeds is necessary, but do you have to move a team two [regions] away from home to achieve that? Those are the questions you answer."
The former UVa coach of 16 seasons said that when the Cavaliers become a subject of discussion for the committee, he will zip his lip. He doesn't want anyone perceiving a conflict of interest.
"If your team [Davidson, in Holland's case] comes up, you're required to bow out," he said. "If a team in which you have a vested interest comes up, you're expected to bow out. I think I can honestly say that on this committee, everyone leaves his ego at the door. The people involved really do approach things as what's best for the game."
Holland said that although he's three seasons removed from coaching, he can see situations where some of his friendships from days on the sideline may cause an inner struggle.
"I can see where you might be in a little bit of a bind if a team with whom you have a friend in coaching or administration is on the bubble, and you have to make a judgment," Holland said. "I think what you do in that situation is put your hat on and let the other people on the committee know exactly where you stand on it. Explain just where you're coming from.
"There are obvious advantages to having [former] coaches on the basketball committee, but there are disadvantages, too, and that situation is one of them. You just have to be up front about your opinions and feelings."
Holland said he has no idea how or why he was chosen to serve a six-year term on the committee chaired this year by Duke athletic director Tom Butters. He does know that when he decided to retire from coaching after the 1989-90 season, he was urged by several peers to seek a basketball committee spot, ostensibly to put a coach's point of view on the panel.
He was at the NCAA Convention in January 1992 when several people came up to him and offered congratulations on his being named to the most prestigious committee the NCAA has.
"Nobody had said anything to me," Holland said. "I don't know how it came about or who they heard it from, or who picked me. I'm happy they did though. I've been through this on the outside looking in. It will be interesting to see the other side of it."