Timing Is Bad, but Holland Excited by Move to San Diego

For the second time in three weeks, the University of San Diego had gathered journalists at its University Center to meet with a basketball coach. The first coach was apologetic because of when he was leaving, but painstakingly explained that timing had to be damned in the face of opportunity. The second coach was much the same way, except he was coming rather than going.

Hank Egan, 57, was the coach who met with the media Aug. 31 to explain that he was leaving after 10 years to be an assistant coach with the San Antonio Spurs. USD was caught off guard because this was a nice man and a good coach--156-126 for those 10 years--who would have been welcome to stay until he was coaching his players’ grandchildren.

Brad Holland, 37, stood in the same room Monday afternoon. He started Monday as Cal State Fullerton’s coach, but now he was Egan’s successor.

Holland visited San Diego early last week and received the job offer Friday, taking, he said, about 30 seconds to accept.

“It’s a fantastic move for my family and myself,” he said, “partially in terms of it being a good coaching career move and partially because this is such a beautiful area for my family to reside.”

As a coaching “career” move, it is not as though Indiana or Duke or even Fresno State came calling. USD is a member of the West Coast Conference, an alliance of private universities stretching from San Diego to Gonzaga in Spokane, Wash. With the exception of Loyola Marymount’s high-scoring offense of a couple of years ago, the conference has not made a national impact since Bill Russell’s USF teams of the 1950s.

Holland found himself in an interesting situation as he stood at the podium. He had left a university already in session for a university that also was bustling with the first few weeks of classes. This is not a time when basketball coaches move to new positions. Even in his new setting, the timing of leaving the old one was disturbing.

“I was unpopular this morning,” he said, “telling the team and the administration, and I’ll probably be fairly unpopular meeting the team here at USD. I’ll try to blend in as much as possible and, when the dust settles, make adjustments and move forward.”

A popular head coach usually leaves a popular assistant behind. Coping with the popularity of the assistant who did not get the job, in this case, Randy Bennett, can be more of a challenge than coping with the popularity of the guy he’s replacing. Holland intends to keep all the assistants.

“We’ll talk through it,” Holland said. “I’m sure he’ll do the job for me he did for Coach Egan.”

Of particular interest to Holland was USD’s stated intention of building a sports center on campus, something that never seemed likely to happen at Cal State Fullerton. For now, USD plays in a facility that seats 2,100. However, USD has been talking about its new facility for at least 10 years and no ground has been broken.

“We’re working very diligently,” said Tom Iannacone, USD’s athletic director. “These things move slowly and methodically, but I feel very confident we’ll have a new facility in the near future.”

Holland’s first home game at USD will be at the 13,000-seat San Diego Sports Arena against Notre Dame. That home opener may not be as tough as the season opener. That will be Nov. 26 at Kansas.

“I still took the job,” Holland said.