Story Links
March 10, 2000
By Chris Boyer
TheACC.com
Throughout the 2000 ACC Men’s Basketball Tournament, we will take a look at the league, the personalities, and the tournament through the eyes of those behind the scenes, behind the cameras, and behind the keyboards in Charlotte. It will be first-hand account of the nation’s premier college basketball conference event through the eyes of those who plan it, cover it, and see it up close. We are giving you a set of BACCSTAGE Passages.
“I still remember Ralph Sampson’s last game, out in Utah against N.C. State,” says former UVA head coach and current Athletic Director Terry Holland, still seemingly envisioning 1981 like yesterday. “After the game I just kept telling the press how bad I felt for Ralph and somebody asked what about you, coach, how do you feel, and I said I am just dumb enough to think we would be right back in the Final Four the next year.”
Everyone laughed at Holland’s notions that night – either the notion that he would take the Cavaliers right back to the Final Four the next season or the notion that he actually cared more about his players’ feelings than his own. Perhaps they laughed at both. Little did they know they were laughing at the truth.
Even today, as he sits in the cavernous press room of the Charlotte Coliseum, 10 years and several hundred yards removed from the team benches at the ACC Tournament, Holland still reiterates that the student-athletes are what it is all about.
“You still reduce it (the ACC Tournament) down to the kids. When I was coaching the main thing I was concerned about was the seniors. You really do think about the kids because they are the ones who put so much into it, especially the ones who won’t have a chance to come back the next year. So I think everyone personifies it in their seniors, and as a former coach I still tend to do that as well. If we ever get to the point that we think of it in terms of , ‘If we lose this game we are losing this much money”, I hope we are smart enough to get out of this business.”
In light of the recent rash of player incidences involving the NCAA, Holland is candid in calling for some changes.
“I think the way they (the NCAA) has handled these different cases has been really haphazard. I think some of the judgments that have been made, if applied evenly across the board would have made any player who played AAU basketball ineligible. They all probably took stuff beyond the normal from their AAU coach thinking it was OK. If I remember correctly, a few years ago we had a very public situation where an AAU coach gave a player in our conference a car. It was investigated and there was never any penalty for that, so I think we all assumed some things from that.
How do they think these kids go to prep school? If we made every kid that went to prep school and that played AAU basketball ineligible for the NCAA tournament, we would have a huge problem, and that’s the kind of precedent someone on that staff set when they made those rulings.”
Now in charge of an athletic program that sponsors 24 Atlantic Coast Conference teams, Holland sees the conference tournament as a whole lot more than just a basketball event. “This tournament is a showcase for the ACC. That is what it is really for. I think it does attract a lot of national attention, it is a hot ticket, it is something everybody talks about in a lot of different ways. Has the basketball part lost some its glamour because no longer does just one team emerge to go to the NCAA Tournament? Probably, but we are talking about something that has been so great, that if there is a little bit of glitter gone, I haven’t noticed it.”
In his over 20 years associated with the ACC Tournament as a coach and administrator, Holland has noticed some subtle differences.
“Of course the format changed when we added the ninth team, and I think it is different having a four-day tournament as opposed to a three-day tournament. It is an awful long time to hold everyone’s attention, and yet having all the games on one day, with television timeouts that was really long day as well. So this new format is the best thing under the circumstances, but it’s still not like the old days when there was three days of bang-bang-bang basketball. It was also easier to sit through four games in the old days without feeling like you had been there for two days.”
Holland also spoke how he would feel about the conference’s unique one vs. nine game on the tournament’s first day, if he were still on the sidelines.
“As the championship team I probably wouldn’t like it much, but for the other teams I think it is by far the best we can do under the circumstances. I did not like the 8-9 play-in game. I thought that was eventually going to hurt us. That Thursday game was going to become a real non-factor, and I still think we struggle with that a little bit. The enthusiasm in the arena tonight for the beginning of the 7-8 game was not what I expect at an ACC Tournament. With the new format it does enable us to have the number one seed here and a good, enthusiastic crowd in the arena on the first day. Additionally, that fourth game in the quarters of the old format was killing us, in particular when those games were going well past 11 o’clock. They were brutal even for the teams involved. I know because I coached in those games.”
Entering his fourth different decade involved in college basketball, Holland has seen a dramatic change in the amount of media coverage the sports garners. He sees both positives and negatives.
“For a long time the ACC had the only legitimate television package and television made us what we are. Today, with the overwhelming amount of television inventory you don’t need to be a great league to get a decent amount of television exposure and what ends up happening is the kids get filtered out a little bit. Even though I don’t think any of the regional television packages are working out financially, people still keep paying money to put these games on TV, and I think it has watered down the impact of some of the things we do best. And to be honest, we are a conference of relatively small schools, so it is important for us to keep our fan base and teams in a relatively small geographic region.”
He has also seen the conference be increasingly affected by it’s players’ early entry in the NBA draft.
“I think anything we can do to encourage students to stay in school is helpful, but we should never do it just to hang on to the kids that want to play in the NBA and play right now. I do think that every situation that I know of where a player has elected to stay in school, with few exceptions, has ended up in the player benefiting greatly in the short term or long term. I would always say stay in school, that there is a natural order to the way things are done. Yes, you can always come back and get a degree, but it won’t be the same experience.
As far as how it has affected college basketball, I think it has increased parity. Now some people say parity is equitable with mediocrity, but I will argue against that in most cases. I think it results in some great college basketball games. Some years that will be tough luck for the ACC, but we will never be at the bottom of the pile. In fact, I think we will still be the conference by which the rest measure themselves on an annual basis.”
Holland has also seen his former profession change over the years from his current view from the Athletic Director’s box.
“I do think that even during my days as a coach I saw the pressures increase because you are just so visible today and there is so much expectation of instant gratification. Plus the fact that we give a platform to people that have absolutely no credentials to speak is alarming. Now I believe in the freedom of speech, but what happened to the days when we answered letters to the editor instead of just printing them? Please call me, I’ll answer the questions they ask. To print these things without giving someone the chance to respond is just irresponsible.
So where would he rather being watching this year’s Cavalier team play in the ACC Tournament?
“To be honest, I think I watch the game more as a fan than as a coach now. I am able to enjoy from a fan’s standpoint. I try not to coach. Now certainly there are times like any other fan that I catch myself saying, ‘Why in the world is he doing that’, but now I am doing it as fan not as a coach or even as an Athletic Director.”
Terry Holland is watching as a fan that did take his UVA team back to the Final Four 1984. Terry Holland is watching as a fan that did care more about how Ralph Sampson felt 19 years ago in Utah.