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BAILEY'S TAKE
ON PIRATE SPORTS
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From the Anchor Desk
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
By Brian Bailey |
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Expect the
unexpected from Holland
By
Brian Bailey
©2010 Bonesville.net
All rights reserved.
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East Carolina Director
of Athletics Terry
Holland is certainly
earning his salary these
days. After an
exhausting search to
replace Skip Holtz in
football, Holland is now
looking for a head
basketball coach after
the resignation of
Mack McCarthy
on Saturday night.
Multiple sources said
Holland was in deep
conversation with Kansas
assistant coach Joe
Dooley on Sunday.
Holland would not
confirm the story, but
did say that he thought
Dooley would make an
excellent candidate.
Dooley had a 57-52
record with East
Carolina from 1995-99.
Dooley didn’t return
phone calls on Saturday
or Sunday, but did
contact me via a text
message on Monday
afternoon.
In the text he indicated
that it was against KU
policy to discuss jobs,
but that he would not be
returning to Greenville.
Dooley said that was all
that he would say on the
matter.
Holland said the search
could end soon, or could
be drawn out until after
the upcoming NCAA
tournament.
“Naming a coach tomorrow
would be one extreme,”
said Holland. “Naming a
coach after the
tournament would be the
other extreme.”
Holland is a poker
player when it comes to
hiring a coach. His
meeting with the media
on Sunday night was
reminiscent of a meeting
he had just before
hiring Skip Holtz.
At the time, he gave the
indication that there
was no leading candidate
and that the process
might take a while.
Twenty-four hours later,
he had his coach in
Holtz.
This will be Holland’s
third shot at hiring a
basketball coach at East
Carolina. The lack of
success for Pirate hoops
obviously wears on him.
The problem is that
there is no easy fix,
and this might not be
the easiest job to sell
to potential candidates.
LeClair book is a Home
Run!
Congratulations to
fellow Bonesville.net
writer Bethany Bradsher
on
the debut of the book
on Keith LeClair,
“Coaching Third.” The
book’s release date was
this past Friday, which
was also the start of
the 7th Annual Keith
LeClair Classic at East
Carolina.
Tears streamed down my
face at different points
of the book. Many of the
stories in “Coaching
Third” were about
situations and games
that I was so much a
part of in covering East
Carolina baseball.
The different players
and coaches’ stories and
their relationships with
Keith brought back so
many vivid memories.
Tommy Eason, George
Whitfield, Kevin
McMullan, Chuck Young
and so many others are
friends of mine, and it
was great reading about
all of the people that I
still work with just
about on a daily basis.
The details about
Keith’s funeral and the
unbelievable service at
Clark-LeClair Stadium
afterwards were equally
as compelling. We get so
busy in our day to day
lives that it’s most
refreshing to take a
step back and think
about all that Keith and
his family went through
battling ALS.
I saw Lynn LeClair a
couple of times during
the weekend. She and
children Audrey and J.D.
look great. Audrey is
growing into a very
sweet young lady and
J.D. is almost a man.
Keith would be very
proud.
Lynn told me that Audrey
read the book on her
Dad’s life in an hour.
“She would poke her head
in every so often with
tears in her eyes,” Lynn
said. “I would ask her
if she needed a break,
but she would just
return to her reading.”
J.D. had vowed to read
parts of the book every
night before he went to
bed.
Again, Keith would be so
proud.
BB
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03/09/2010 02:02 AM |
