Holland Quits Coaching Job at Fullerton : Basketball: In surprise move, he leaves to take over University of San Diego program.

Brad Holland, whose two-season basketball coaching tenure at Cal State Fullerton went from high hopes to growing uncertainty, has resigned to become the coach at the University of San Diego.

“This is an opportunity my family and I are extremely excited about,” Holland said Monday. “The timing wasn’t the best for either school, and I wish it were better. But I had to base the decision on other things: the location, the level playing field of the conference, and it’s a beautiful area to raise kids.”

John Easterbrook, the new Cal State Fullerton athletic director, was in his office briefly Monday and learned of Holland’s resignation on the eve of his first official day on the job. Easterbrook said Monday night he will study the situation today and discuss it with university officials.

“That will be my first order of business,” Easterbrook said.

Preseason practice is scheduled to begin Oct. 15. One of Holland’s assistants, Bob Hawking, is a possible choice to be named interim coach. Hawking is a former high school coach at Simi Valley and an assistant at Pepperdine. Holland said he supports Hawking for the permanent position. One player, Chris Dade, said he and several of his teammates also think Hawking should get strong consideration as Holland’s successor.

Holland, who was an assistant for four years at his alma mater under UCLA Coach Jim Harrick, replaces Hank Egan. Egan resigned Aug. 31 to take an assistant position with the San Antonio Spurs.

“Fullerton was caught way off-guard, but when a tough decision comes along, regardless of the timing, you’ve got to make them,” Holland said.

Holland informed his Fullerton players of the decision Monday morning, then went to the University of San Diego for the official announcement. “The players were startled and caught off-guard,” Holland said. “I told them that I understand that the timing is difficult. I think a lot of them felt disappointed.”

Holland said telling his Fullerton players was “the toughest part.” He added: “I signed them up to be with us, but there were no guarantees I would be there for four years . . . There are no guarantees in life.”

Holland will take over a team that plays in the West Coast Conference along with Pepperdine, San Francisco, St. Mary’s, Gonzaga, Portland, Santa Clara and Loyola Marymount. “I’ve always admired the West Coast Conference,” Holland said at the press conference. “It has both quality coaches and quality student-athletes.”

Holland said the conference was part of the attraction. “Budgets and facilities are similar, and these are all private universities with similar enrollments,” he said.

Holland’s contact at Fullerton went through the 1995-96 season.

He originally signed a three-year contract with a one-year rollover clause. That contract was extended for one year under that clause after his first season. The Titans finished 15-12, which was Fullerton’s first winning record in four years. The Titans were 10-8 in the Big West, finishing fifth, and along the way defeated every team in the conference except New Mexico. The Titans ended the regular season with a one-point victory over Nevada Las Vegas. After that season, Nevada sought permission to talk to Holland about its coaching vacancy, which eventually went to Pat Foster.

The next season, however, turned sour before it began. Starting guard Don Leary was ruled ineligible academically, and two other players, guard Chris Dade and forward DeVaughn Wright, were sidelined for the season with injuries before the first game. Senior forward Todd Satalowich played two minutes in the opener, and was lost the remainder of the season because of recurring back problems.

The Titans fell to 8-19, the worst record at the school since the 1980-81 team went 4-23. But Fullerton still managed some rousing victories, including winning at UNLV, 84-75, in February and at Nevada and UC Santa Barbara.

Bill Shumard, who resigned as Titan athletic director in May, confirmed Monday that he again had sought a one-year extension for Holland under the rollover clause last spring, but his request was denied by the university administration. Shumard said the reason given was that the team’s academic performance had not been strong enough.

The university’s failure to extend Holland’s contact was one of the factors in Shumard’s decision to resign. He later accepted a job as an assistant athletic director at his alma mater, Long Beach State.

Holland’s program recently had its second eligibility setback in two seasons when Darren Little, a 6-7 forward who started 20 games last season, was ruled ineligible. He was the team’s third-leading scorer with an average of 11.7 points.

The Titans also lost their top young prospect when 6-7 forward Josh King decided last spring to transfer to Rhode Island. He averaged 6.7 points as a freshman.

Holland also had some recruiting disappointments this spring and summer. Guard Dion Holton of Long Beach Poly High committed to Fullerton, then decided to sign with Portland. His high school coach, Ron Palmer, said Holton switched when he heard that Holland was mentioned as a possibility for the Pepperdine job, which was vacant at the time. Fullerton also missed on coveted community college player, 6-8 Brian Yankelvitz of Garden City (Kan.) College. He signed with Long Beach State.

The Titans wound up signing four players, three of them from community colleges, and Holland said he was optimistic about them. “I felt the opportunity definitely was there to have a much better season than a year ago,” Holland said. “I was quite excited about the personality of the team that was starting to take shape.”

At this point, none of Holland’s assistants at Fullerton will move with him to San Diego. The current San Diego assistants remain under contract there.

“It will continue to be business as usual for me,” said assistant coach George Tuttle. “We’ll continue to work to keep the kids focused and looking to the new season.”

Fullerton players indicated they were more surprised by the timing of the change than anything else.

“I was kind of surprised,” senior forward Fred Amos said. “I heard that he was interested in the Pepperdine job, but when he didn’t get that job, I expected him to be around. If it’s a better situation for him, though, I wish him well. It’s just so close to the season. That’s what makes it surprising.”

Dade said he also was disappointed by Holland’s decision.

“I feel let down as much as anything,” Dade said. “One of the reasons I came to Fullerton was because of Brad Holland. We had a team meeting and several of us would like to see Coach Hawking get the job. We hope to be able to talk to the new athletic director about it soon.”

Holland said he thinks promoting Hawking would be in the best interest of the program. “He’s put his heart and soul into the program, and he’s been involved in the recruiting of most of the players,” he said.

Hawking was not available for comment.

Correspondent Dave Distel contributed to this story.