Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 24, 1991 TAG: 9103240092
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DOUG DOUGHTY SPORTSWRITER
DATELINE: CHARLOTTE, N.C. LENGTH: Long
That was the job he was leaving.
Virginia's hapless search for a successor caused Holland to reconsider his decision to become the athletic director at Davidson, his alma mater.
"I knew I was going to Davidson," said Holland, UVa coach from 1974-90. "There was no way around that. If there hadn't been that strong a tie - if it had just been me retiring - there would have been no question I would have had to stay with what was going on."
Holland said his most trying time was the 10-day period after the sudden pullout of Providence's Rick Barnes, who had told UVa athletic director Jim Copeland he would take the job.
"The embarrassment of what was happening at that time was a real concern for me personally," Holland said. "A sportswriter from Richmond said, `It's your baby. You can't allow this to happen. You've got to stay.' That really shook me up because it sort of articulated what I was feeling at that time.
"It did concern me, particularly how the staff would be treated and that kind of thing. There was a lot of emotion at that time. I don't think there was any doubt about that."
Holland went so far as discussing a possible return with his wife, Ann.
"We talked about it a good bit," Holland said. "It definitely got to at least that stage. In other words, `What is the right thing to do for everybody involved?' If I didn't have to go to Davidson, damn, I couldn't have walked away.
"The tie there was strong enough and Davidson had hired enough coaches in the past - Larry Brown, Gary Walters, John Kresse - who hadn't showed up. The reason for putting it off a year in the first place was because it was hard to step away from it, period."
Ann Holland said, at one point, she thought her husband would return to UVa.
"I really thought he had changed his mind," she said. "He was really upset. I think he probably could have been swayed very easily. That would have been fine with me, but I stayed out of it. I lobbied for him to go to Kentucky [in 1989] and make $3 million so he could retire to the beach."
The situation reached an impasse April 14, the day of Virginia's team banquet. There were reports that North Carolina-Charlotte coach Jeff Mullins, who earlier had taken his name out of consideration, was interested again.
Copeland's recommendation was that Mullins retain Holland assistant Jeff Jones. Mullins wanted the freedom to hire his own staff. But, before Copeland had to make a decision, Mullins withdrew for a second time.
Two days later, Jones was hired. Holland could rest secure with the knowledge that the program was in the hands of his protege, a man who had played and coached under him.
"I'll be honest, before Dave [Odom] left, I would not have thought Jeff was quite ready," said Holland, who had proposed Odom as his successor before Odom left for Wake Forest in 1989. "But by the time the [1989-90 season] had started, there was no question in my mind Jeff was ready. With Dave leaving, there were things to be done and Jeff stepped in and did them."
Holland and Jones talk as often as once a week, but they rarely discuss strategy. That was evident when Virginia drew Brigham Young in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
Holland had served as color commentator one week earlier when BYU defeated Utah in the championship game of the Western Athletic Conference tournament, but he was unwilling to share any inside information.
"I think that's as good an indication as any that he wants to stay in broadcasting because, obviously, he doesn't want to burn any bridges," Jones said.
In addition to his administrative duties at Davidson, Holland was an analyst for 11 games on television this year. Four were tape-delayed broadcasts of games involving Maryland, which was on NCAA probation and unable to appear on live television, and the others were late-night WAC telecasts.
"Everybody tells me, `I saw your game the other night. Who won?' " Holland said. "Nobody makes it past halftime. I enjoyed it and I was really impressed with the quality of play.
"I thought I'd do [television] for fun. To me, it's like a beauty contest. They either like you or they don't. I'm not trying to be a professional. It was a way for me to stay close to the game. It's accomplished that."
Holland said the most memorable game of his first year as an analyst took place Jan. 17 in Missoula, Mont., where Montana was host to Idaho. One night earlier, the United States had launched its first air strikes against Iraq, prompting a demonstration from anti-war protesters.
"The game gets ready to tip off and all these people come out dressed like they were dead, like bodies," Holland said. "They just laid on the floor and wouldn't move, so they dragged 'em off.
"The Montana fans, I guess because they were playing Idaho, had brought potatoes. They started throwing those things. I tell you, it was scary. I've been down on the floor when ice has been thrown - even cups of ice - but potatoes are a different story. It took us a little while to get into the flow of the game."
Ideally, Holland said he would like to do commentary for 10 to 15 games per year. His duties as Davidson athletic director prevent him from spending much more time than that on the road, especially in places like Missoula or Laramie, Wyo.
Holland's primary concern, as it was when he took the Davidson job, is conference affiliation. Davidson is a member of the Division I Big South Conference in basketball but has run into an obstacle in its bid to join the Division III Old Dominion Athletic Conference in all other sports.
"Football is still up in the air," Holland said. "They made a rule [at the last NCAA convention] that you can't be multi-divisional. We can be Division III; we just can't compete for the [national] championship. But we plan to play the ODAC schools, whether we're I-AAA or Division III.
"The next thing we have to deal with is, the Southern [Conference] is inviting us to come back. It's very difficult because right now nobody knows what the next convention's going to do. Is the convention going to move toward Davidson - which most of the legislation last year did - or is it going to move more toward restructuring and encourage the school the size of Davidson to leave Division I?"
Holland said there were no strings attached when Davidson was invited and agreed to join the Big South, and he thinks it is a good fit athletically. Davidson was 10-19 in basketball this past season, but the Wildcats scared NCAA Tournament-bound Coastal Carolina before falling 58-55 in the semifinals of the Big South Tournament.
"We were in the Southern Conference for 50 years," Holland said. "The biggest problem is our alumni who remember the Southern Conference when it included the ACC schools. [They] have a hard time with that. None of our alumni competed against the schools we're competing against."
Holland played at Davidson from 1962-64 and, as a 27-year-old first-year head coach, directed the Wildcats to the NCAA Tournament in 1970. He had 418 career victories when he stepped down after the 1990 season.
"I've missed the coaching; I don't think there's any question about that," said Holland, who turns 49 on April 2. "The thing you miss the most is the fact you're with a small group of people with a very clear-cut goal and a very easily measurable gauge of your success.
"You find out at the end of the game whether you won or lost, whereas in most professions you can't tell whether you're winning or the rats are winning on a daily basis. But I don't miss the baggage that you take away after the game, mainly after a loss."
Although he is hesitant to second guess, Holland said he frequently gets caught up in the coaching strategy in his work as analyst.
"Oh sure, yeah, definitely," he said. "Wishing I could pull the strings a little bit or send a message to the guy pulling the strings, . . . I definitely found myself doing that. I think that's a typical fan reaction. It's something you did a little bit of as a coach because you saw so many games."
When he announced his resignation at Virginia, Holland noted that he was not so old that he could not resume coaching at a later date. However, he said nothing he has experienced has made him want to rush back to the sideline.
"I would not think I would make a decision like that quickly, even if I had second thoughts," Holland said. "I can honestly say, `No, I haven't thought of it,' in terms of, `Gee, I really miss it to the extent that I want to get back into it.' It [administration] hasn't been an obvious misfit."
Holland said the toughest thing for him this year was watching the Virginia team he had assembled. He saw the Cavaliers only twice in person, once when Davidson played at UVa, and the other time when UVa traveled to Davidson.
That day, Holland reserved one of the skyboxes at Joel Memorial Coliseum in Winston-Salem, N.C., and surrounded himself with enough friends from UVa and Wake Forest that he could not show any partiality to either of his two former assistants who were on the opposing benches.
Starting next year, Holland will have a family connection to Wake Forest, where his daughter, Kate, will be a freshman. She remained with a family in Charlottesville this year in order to complete her senior year at St. Anne's-Belfield.
"It was not a good time to move with a senior and sophomore in high school," Ann Holland said. "For months, our 15-year-old was saying, `Why am I here?' She's the only member of the family born in Virginia, but she's making the best of it."
For the first time in 21 years, Ann Holland is not teaching. She serves as official hostess for athletic department functions, travels when the opportunity arises and finds herself watching basketball games for the first time with her husband.
"Terry, I think, has missed it an awful lot," she said. "He has a hard time watching Virginia games. We both do. It hurts him. We sit there and it hurts our hearts."
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