All the incredible work he did with ECU is known and appreciated by the people that understand ECU. You can still see it in the incredible facility expansion he oversaw and the conference ECU currently sits in. One that will continue to pay ECU more than any other G5's for at least the next decade. Without Holland taking over a program that was at rock bottom and building it into something that could play alongside national programs a decade later, who knows where ECU is. His record here is unmatched in my opinion and it's only his successors that failed to build on any of the advantages he gave ECU for the last decade that tarnished it. His track record at Davidson and Virginia as AD has their own successes too.
He did great things in his work as an AD but that isn't what I want to talk about. I'd rather take the time to appreciate how underrated he was as a basketball coach and in the history of the sport. It's really a different kind of path that he walked away at 47 years old from the sport. A sport he was a star in to do the boring job of athletic director at Davidson. Davidson at the time had fallen to a lowly independent/ Big South team coming off of a 4-24 season under ECU alum Bob McKillop who he retained smartly. They may have even been on probation at the time and considering moving down. This was also the time the money in basketball coaching was starting to pick up substantially as well when he walked.
I think coaching prime is probably around 50 years old. You've learned how to deal with every kind of personality and situation by that point and still have the energy to recruit and connect. You also have accomplishments that earn the respect of recruits and assistants to come. He walked just as he entered his peak.
It's not like Virginia was bad at the time he walked and he was getting out before the mob. UVA was coming off of back-to-back NCAA tournaments and 4 of the last 5 even after the Sampson era. They won a game in the NCAA tournament his last season and the year before that they had gone to the Elite 8.
Bryant Stith was a 21ppg, 7rpg star in the ACC and only a sophomore. He had averaged 16ppg on that Elite 8 team as a freshman and Holland would have had him for the next 2 seasons. His 2nd best player John Crotty, another NBA player also returned. He walked away from what likely would have been one of his best teams ever and left UVA is a great position from a talent perspective.
Virginia was nothing before Holland arrived. They had never been to an NCAA tournament. from 1959-1970 the program didn't win more than 10 games any year. He took over a program in 1974 that had wen 11-16 the year prior. To go from that to a top 5 team and two Final Four's a decade later is pretty impressive stuff.
People forget but one of those Final 4's was also without Ralph Sampson. He had freshman Olden Polynice in the middle instead and it was lead by Othell Wilson and Rick Carlisle. Not exactly all-timers. This was when the NCAA expanded to 6 rounds as well. It was a real NCAA tournament whereas some of those prior Dean Smith and others were getting to the Final 4 were fewer rounds.
UVA went through 2 seed Arkansas with Eddie Sutton, 3 seed Syracuse with Jim Boeheim, and 4 seed Indiana with Bob Knight. That's three all-time coaches he beat with likey inferior talent. They also only lost by 2 to Houston with Hakeem Olajuwon in the final 4. It's probably one of the better deeper seed runs ever in retrospect and his best coaching job.
Holland was well on track to be one of the legends of coaching in college basketball had he continued on. Its possible he could have stalled like Bobby Cremins or others of the era, but I think he was better. Had he coached as long as he worked as an AD he would have gone down in the conversation with almost anyone.
I respect that he decided it wasn't for him and he probably lived a more chill life after. I actually encountered him once around 1996 on a school convention at whatever the Koury Center is now. He was checking into the hotel when my group was. I think he was kind of shocked some kid my age even knew who he was. Even then I was a bit of a student of history and was aware of him though I never saw him coach. He was polite but I gathered just from that interaction he probably liked being out of the spotlight.
I do wonder how his coaching career would have played out in the next decade. UVAs facilities were lagging until he helped build the new arena as the AD. Pete Gilliam was a pretty good coach and struggled there. I do think Holland would have continued to win though. I wouldn't put landing another superstar or surprise championship out of reach. You coach long enough at a high level you give yourself chances. He certainly could have ended with 700 or 800 wins IMO and probably at least finds another final 4 or two.
