First Time Is a Charm for Holland

Despite the Titans’ two basketball losses last week, Coach Brad Holland is faring well in his first season when compared to other new Division I coaches across the country.

There were 33 Division I coaching changes before this season, and Fullerton’s 14-10 record places Holland tied for eighth in the new-coach rankings.

The overall records of the top 11 Division I teams with new head coaches:

--Nevada Las Vegas (Rollie Massimino), 19-5.

--Manhattan (Fran Fraschilla), 20-6.

--Rice (Willis Wilson), 16-7.

--St. John’s (Brian Mahoney), 17-8.

--Southwest Missouri State (Mark Bernsen), 17-9.

--Baylor (Darrel Johnson), 15-9.

--Wisconsin (Stu Jackson), 14-9.

--Alabama (David Hobbs), 14-10.

--Fullerton (Brad Holland), 14-10.

--Eastern Kentucky (Mike Calhoun), 15-11.

--Santa Clara (Dick Davey), 15-11.

UNLV, at No. 16, is the highest-ranked team with a new head coach. And Fraschilla has the best record of any rookie head coach in Manhattan’s 88-year school history.

The coach struggling the most through his initial season? Don Newman, who is 3-24 at Cal State Sacramento.

John Sneed, the man whom Holland replaced at Fullerton, has discovered that they take their basketball seriously in Saudi Arabia, too.

Sneed was fired as the head coach of the Saudi Arabia National team in October but then accepted a job as the head coach of the United Arab Emirates National team in Dubai in December.

“The (United Arab Emirates’) rationale was that now that he had worked with the Saudi Arabian team, he would have an inside track to beating them,” said a coaching source in Saudi Arabia who declined to be identified. “It’s all about beating Saudi Arabia.”

Sneed, who could not be reached for comment, was on the hot seat in Saudi Arabia as early as September, after losing two of four in the Arab Games in Damascus, according to the source. Then, in October, Sneed’s Saudi Arabia team lost to the United Arab Emirates in the Gulf Coast Championships on a tip-in at the buzzer.

It was the first time the United Arab Emirates had defeated Saudi Arabia in any sport, and it was the final straw. Sneed, who didn’t care much for Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, anyway, according to the source, was out.

“As far as Sneed was concerned, it was a blessing to be released from his contract,” the source said.

So the Fullerton baseball team makes a last-minute switch, cancels its tournament last weekend because of the weather, arrives at the airport on Wednesday morning with instructions to sit tight and possibly board a flight to Florida, watches Coach Augie Garrido pull up at the last minute and give them the thumbs up. . . .

The players board the flight, arrive in Florida around 11:30 p.m. Wednesday to prepare for a three-game series with Florida State over the weekend, practice on Thursday, and then look out their hotel room windows on Thursday night and see . . .

Rain.

“All night,” second baseman Jeremy Carr said. “We were laughing.”

The Titans lost to Florida State on Friday, 3-2, in their first game in nine days, and then defeated the Seminoles on Saturday and Sunday, 6-2 and 13-6.

For that, they dropped from sixth to seventh nationally in this week’s Baseball America poll but moved from 11th to ninth in the Collegiate Baseball poll.

At least they have a guarantee that they will not be rained out this weekend. They’re playing in the Oscar Mayer tournament--in the Minneapolis Metrodome.

The football season is over. Most of the Titan players who will play somewhere next fall have been placed.

So what is an ex-coach to do?

Would you believe work as a travel agent?

Gene Murphy, former Fullerton coach, figures he will be on a field again sometime, somewhere. But for now, he is working at Mega Travel in Corona.

“It’s a gender-equity thing here,” Mega Travel co-owner Jeanette Cox said, laughing. “We have about 17 women and no men. Every time he comes in, we yell, ‘GE! GE!’

“Actually, he’s been using Mega Travel for the past seven years. We know him and we trust him. He knows a lot and it’s a good job.

“He’s been telling us what to do for seven years, so why not give him an office and have him tell us what to do? He has to have somewhere to hang his pictures.

“I think he can make some good money. We want him to work for the agency and not ever coach again.”

Titan Notes

In a meet being heavily promoted by Titan corporate sponsor Arrowhead, the Fullerton women’s gymnastics team--ranked 20th nationally--returns home for the first time in a month on Friday to play host to No. 6 UCLA, Southern Utah State and Illinois State. Coach Lynn Rogers said the Titans are expecting a crowd of between 1,800 and 2,000. The Titans lost at UCLA on Feb. 6, 192.95-191.0. Brandi Baldasano, who suffered a broken left hand last month, will get the cast off on Wednesday and Rogers said it is possible she may even return in time for the NCAA Regionals on April 3. . . . Today’s Fullerton-University of San Diego baseball game will begin at 2:30 p.m. at Titan Field.