Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, March 20, 1990 TAG: 9003202552
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Doug Doughty
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Holland and his family don't want to leave, the players don't want him to leave, the fans don't want him to leave, athletic director Jim Copeland doesn't want him to leave - nobody wants him to leave.
So, why is he leaving?
Almost nine months after Holland's announcement that he would become the athletic director at Davidson, there is an overriding feeling that it didn't have to happen. Holland finally became fed up with the continued neglect of the basketball program and was not sure the situation would improve under Copeland, the school's third-year athletic director.
The "final straw," knowledgeable observers have said, was Virginia's commitment to a $10 million football-support building that is under construction right outside Holland's window. Talk about rubbing his nose in it!
"Terry said it would just kill him to come to work every day and have to look at that building," a close friend of the coach said.
Holland would be the first to admit that UVa's football staff, which has been working out of a trailer, needed new offices. The new building will have a state-of-the-art weight room, an enlarged training room and meeting rooms, none of which qualify as frivolities.
But when a team brings in more than $900,000, as the basketball program did from its trip to the NCAA Southeast Region final in 1989, the least UVa officials can do is take some of the money and put backs on the chairs or carpets in the halls of University Hall.
"An orange-and-blue dump," is the way one college administrator has described it.
Fans are fickle, and many of the same people who ripped Holland after a 13-18 season in 1987-88 have become his staunchest supporters. UVa fans are up in arms, and the target of their disaffection is Copeland, who might be the most unpopular man in Charlottesville at this moment.
Let's get one thing straight. Copeland didn't fire Holland, never expressed any displeasure with Holland and was in the process of negotiating a new contract with Holland when the coach announced plans to leave UVa. Holland left on his own.
Copeland's mistake was in not realizing the depth of Holland's frustration. There have been unconfirmed reports that Holland and Copeland hardly spoke during one period, with then-basketball assistant Dave Odom serving as a go-between.
Dick Schultz didn't do a great deal for the basketball program when he served as Virginia athletic director from 1982-87, but under Schultz, now the executive director of the NCAA, Holland seemed happy. Under Copeland, he hasn't.
Rightly or wrongly, Copeland has been portrayed as a scapegoat. "If that's the case, then I'll have to live with it," he said. "I just don't think I can speak publicly [to the criticism]."
The furor is certain to die down if the Cavaliers have a successful season under their new coach in 1990-91. That possibility certainly exists with the return of all five starters, but Copeland can't afford to make a mistake with his selection of coach.
That is why Copeland needs to wait until Xavier finishes play in the NCAA Tournament in order to talk with Pete Gillen, whose Musketeers upset Georgetown 74-71 in the second round of the Midwest Regional. If the Cavaliers can't get Gillen, there had better be a good reason. Not money. Not a lack of commitment.
Virginia could net more than $500,000 from its two games in the NCAA Tournament and a share of other ACC receipts. No offense intended, but that money should not go to women's softball scholarships, as it may have in the past. Football should not get a cent. Pay the new coach whatever it takes, then put anything else back into the basketball program.
"We need to do one of two things," Copeland said. "We'll either have to say we're going to build a new arena or we'll have to come back and do what we can to University Hall. And it may not be an either-or situation. We may have to do both."
In that respect, Virginia supporters should be excited about the selection of University of Connecticut President John Casteen as UVa's new president. If Copeland can be blamed for letting Holland get away, then current UVa President Robert O'Neil has to be held accountable, too. Where was the guy? O'Neil should have raised the roof.
Casteen, a former dean of admissions at UVa and state secretary of education in Virginia, endeared himself to Connecticut basketball fans with the aggressive manner in which he pushed for the 8,302-seat Gampel Pavilion, which opened in January. Connecticut had been playing at the 4,604-seat UConn Field House.
"He was a tremendous factor in fine-tuning the funding package for the new building," said Connecticut athletic director Todd Turner, who followed Casteen from Virginia in 1987. "The thing was going down the tubes. It was 15 years in the planning and, in the 23rd hour, it was falling apart. He stuck his neck out."
Copeland said last week that he has not discussed the coaching search with Casteen, who will not become UVa president until Aug. 1. "It's something I haven't thought about," Copeland said. "I suspect we should touch base."
But, before Copeland does one more thing, before he interviews one more coach, he needs to march down the hall to Holland's office and ask, "What would it take to keep you?"
by CNB