Shumard Figures Longshot Is the Best Shot

Grab the ball, dribble across the half-court line and fire away.

That’s the way Brad Holland used to play basketball.

That’s the way Bill Shumard hired his first basketball coach as athletic director at Cal State Fullerton.

This was no slam dunk, Wednesday’s announcement that Holland had signed a three-year contract to replace John Sneed. Holland was the obvious choice only if you know Shumard. If you don’t, and if you examine only the credentials and track record at hand, this was a 35-foot off-balance castaway over a double team with 0.2 seconds left on the clock.

Holland is 35 years old.

He has no head coaching experience--not Division I, not Division II, not high school, not junior high school, not anywhere.

He has been an assistant coach for only four years.

He has, in his own words, “never called a timeout, never made a substitution.”

A low percentage shot?

Depends on who’s doing the shooting.

As a player, anywhere in the front court was a good shot for Holland. He launched them for Crescenta Valley High and UCLA in the 1970s and for the Lakers, the Bullets and the Bucks in the early ‘80s--in other words, he was born a decade too soon.

“I’d have loved to have had the three-point shot when I played,” Holland said Wednesday, eyes widening. “I sure would have been drafted higher if I did.”

The point is: A longshot is what you make of it. And, as Moses Malone so eloquently elocuted stated in his legendary television ad, “If you ain’t got the ball, you can’t shoot the ball.”

Holland’s got the ball--and at no small risk to Shumard. Eight months on the job and Shumard makes what could be the make-or-break decision of his career at Fullerton, or beyond.

“My wife mentioned that to me,” Shumard said. “She said, ‘Sweetheart, we’re eating on this one.’ ”

Shumard needs his new basketball coach to succeed--only to the point that his entire athletic department probably depends on it. The budgetary body blows Fullerton has absorbed in recent years has left the financially stricken athletic department desperate for a high-profile, crowd-pleasing money maker--and soon.

Baseball wins, but brings in the spectators by the half-dozens.

Football is what helped start this mess in the first place.

Men’s basketball is really the only option on the board. And the 12-16 records and crowds of 2,100 under Sneed weren’t getting it done.

For that reason, Cal State Bakersfield’s Pat Douglass, the Mike Krzyzewski of Division II, figured high on Shumard’s short list until Douglass took himself off it.

And, for the same reason, Mater Dei High’s Gary McKnight, who has no coaching experience above CIF, never really rose above Intriguing Dark Horse status.

Holland, too, with his wallet-sized resume caused Shumard to sit back and take deep breaths before extending an offer.

“Oh, sure,” there was reticence on Shumard’s part. “But only to the extent that I heard, ‘There’s nothing that replaces experience.’

“At the same time, though, I was also hearing that ‘People are not born head coaches.’ Somewhere along the way, they have to become one.”

Then again, the degree of the gamble rests in the eye of the beholder. And when Shumard looked at Holland and then looked in the mirror, he saw essentially the same image.

Young up-and-comer.

Firm believer in public relations.

Dedicated family man and devout Christian.

Tailor-made, and tailor-suited, for Orange County.

In essence, Shumard hired himself.

“His career is not that much different than mine,” Shumard said of Holland. “I came here with three years in college athletics and they took a big chance in hiring me.

“Actually, I think (Holland’s hiring) is a safer gamble than the university took with me. His background speaks for itself.”

Shumard and Holland also go back a ways, back past their Pac-10 days (Shumard was assistant athletic director at USC when Holland was assistant coach at UCLA), all the way back to Shumard’s days in the Dodgers’ publicity department. Holland had just retired from the NBA and was dabbling in the four-color printing business when Shumard threw some work his way. “We worked on a few Dodger yearbooks together,” Holland said.

So Holland knows how to print an NCAA tournament program.

What about building one?

When Shumard speaks of Titan basketball in the ‘90s, he envisions 18-to-20 victory seasons and NCAA subregionals. Holland has the same vision, but with a grin, acknowledges that “I hope he doesn’t want it next year.” And one more hope: “I hope they give me a fair amount of time to build the program and put my name on it, where people can point to it and say, ‘That’s a Holland-coached team.’ ”

And a Holland-coached team promises to be eclectically influenced, if nothing else. “I’m going to take some things from Pat Riley, Don Nelson, Gary Cunningham, Pete Newell--whom I studied with--and, of course, Coach Wooden,” Holland said. “Those are some pretty good names.”

Brad Holland figures to be another influence. “I played aggressively and intensely and, obviously, I was noted for my shooting ability,” Holland says. “I want my guys to do all of those things, so, yeah, I guess I will coach like I played.”

If you can shoot the three, or know anyone who does, you can assume Holland will be in touch.

“This is a good fit,” Shumard was saying in the aftermath of Holland’s introductory news conference. “It’s a good fit for him, it’s a good fit for this program at this point in time.”

They are taking this shot in tandem, the young athletic director and his young basketball coach. The two-handed set shot has been out of vogue for years, but if Holland and Shumard can bring it back, they might even do the same for Titan basketball.