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Bailey's
Take on Pirate Sports
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From the Anchor Desk
Wednesday, March 16, 2005
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By Brian Bailey |
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Holland laying groundwork
for hoops hire
©2005 Bonesville.net
He never named names, but East
Carolina Director of Athletics Terry Holland certainly has a game plan for
hiring a new basketball coach.
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BONESVILLE
BYTES |
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Terry
Holland holds media briefing on coach
search |
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Commercial Free >
REPLAY AUDIO |
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(Recorded
by Brian Bailey) |
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Just like he did in football,
Holland gathered the area media together to discuss the search in
generalities. It certainly wasn’t earth-shaking information, but it was
interesting to hear what Holland was looking for in a new coach.
And just like he did in the
football search, Holland described coaches in two categories.
“There is the high profile
assistant coach,” explained Holland. “These are assistant coaches in
successful programs. Some of them have been to the tournament, to the Sweet
16, and to the Final Four. You like the kind of experience.
"These guys are recruiting the
caliber of athlete that we would like to have to move our basketball program
to the next level. The problem with those guys is that they usually don’t
have much head coaching experience.”
Holland went on. “You also
have very successful coaches who are on a so-called lower level. In those
cases quite often the coaches are long established at places, they’ve been
there for a while, they know what it takes to build a program."
"The problem is that they are
in a comfort zone," he said. "You have to picture when you yank this person
out of that environment where they were so successful, will they blossom in
the new job?”
It is certainly a tough call,
but coming away from the presser I got the feeling that Holland was leaning
more towards hiring an assistant coach on the rise.
This is a tough job. Just ask
Charlie Harrison, Mike Steele, Eddie Payne, Joe Dooley and Bill Herrion.
Only Payne left on his own accord, but he struggled until shocking the
Colonial Athletic Association with that tournament title in 1993.
Holland says he has a pool of
around 15 candidates that is evolving to say the very least.
“We might add a guy at one
point and then take another guy off of our list,” Holland said. “It is a
fluid list and we will continue to move people on and off of it as the
search continues.”
Rarely do those in search of a
new coach put a timetable on hiring a new man, but Holland hopes to have
this process done in a couple of weeks.
“We are looking at between 10
days and two weeks,” Holland said. “Of course, if we have someone that we’d
like to talk to and their team is in the Final Four, then the search will go
longer.”
Holland may be looking for a
young coach that he can help to mold. He did say that his ties to the
Atlantic Coast Conference would help in his search, but he did not say that
he would exclusively look for an ACC assistant.
However, if there is a young
ACC assistant or a young coach from another of the major conferences that
wants a shot at a Division I job, what better place then East Carolina to
get a start?
That young coach would have
the knowledge of Terry Holland to call on daily.
Holland said he was not a
candidate for the job. But you can tell that coaching — or at least
consulting in basketball — is something that he would certainly welcome.
Bottom line: We may be 10 days
to two weeks away from naming a new coach — and we may not.
Holland hopes to have a new
man on board before the Final Four, but he says he will wait for the right
guy.
Let the speculation continue.
Heck, it’s half of the fun of naming a new coach. It’s our own version of
March Madness!
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Brian Bailey.
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02/23/2007 01:31:36 AM |
