Holland, longtime Virginia coach, dies
Terry Holland, who elevated Virginia basketball to national prominence during 16 seasons as coach and later had a distinguished career as an athletic administrator, has died, the school announced Monday. He was 80.
Holland died Sunday night. His health had declined since being diagnosed
with Alzheimer's disease in 2019 and he stopped taking his prominent courtside seat at Virginia home games.
Holland took over a flailing program in 1974. The Cavaliers had just three winning seasons in 21 years and Holland created a culture that proved a formula for success: His Cavaliers played rugged defense.
Two of his first three teams finished with losing records but only one more did as Holland compiled a 326-173 record, led Virginia to nine NCAA Tournaments, two Final Fours and the 1980 NIT title. He also guided the Cavaliers to their first Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament title in 1976 despite a modest 15-11 regular-season record.
Including a five-year stint at Davidson, Holland's overall record was 418-216.
His biggest victory, however, likely was luring the nation's most coveted recruit, 7-foot-4 Ralph Sampson of Harrisonburg, to join the Cavaliers for the 1979-80 season, and it was then that the turnaround took off.
Virginia won the NIT in Sampson's freshman year and went to the NCAA Tournament in his last three seasons, reaching the Final Four in 1981, losing to North Carolina in the national semifinals.
Virginia went back to the Final Four in its first season without Sampson, losing in overtime to Houston in the national semifinals, and appeared in the NCAA Tournament in four of Holland's final six seasons as coach.
When he stepped down as coach at age 48, it was to return to his alma mater, Davidson, as athletic director. He went back to Virginia five years later in the same position. In 2001, he moved to special assistant to the president of the university, and in 2004, he began an eight-year stint as athletic director at East Carolina before retiring in 2012.
• The top five spots in The Associated Press men's poll remained the same.
Houston was No. 1 for the second straight week, receiving 49 first-place votes from a 62-person media panel. No. 2 Alabama had five first-place votes and No. 3 Kansas received eight.
Pac-12 champion UCLA (25-4) and Purdue rounded out the top five. The Boilermakers held at No. 5 despite losing to No. 15 Indiana. NO. 7 BAYLOR 74, OKLAHOMA ST. 68 >> LJ Cryer and Dale Bonner each scored 15 points, and the visiting Bears held off the Cowboys on Monday night.
Baylor (22-8, 11-6 Big 12) played without leading scorer Keyonte George, who sprained his right ankle during Saturday's 81-72 victory over Texas.
John-Michael Wright scored 17 points for Oklahoma State (16-14, 7-10).
• After a week of upsets that saw 15 ranked teams lose, South Carolina ran its streak to 36 consecutive weeks atop The AP Top 25 women's poll to match Louisiana Tech for the secondlongest run in the history of the poll that dates to 1976.
The Gamecocks (29-0) finished the regular season unbeaten and were back to being a unanimous choice at No. 1. South Carolina only trails UConn (51 weeks) for the longest consecutive streak atop the Top 25.
Indiana, which lost at the buzzer to then-No. 6 Iowa, remained No. 2. Utah jumped up five places to No. 3 after beating then-No. 3 Stanford to clinch a share of the Pac-12 title. It's Utah's best ranking ever. The Cardinal dropped to sixth.
LSU and Maryland rounded out the top five.
UCLA (22-8) dropped two spots to No. 19. Fellow Pac-12 school Arizona (218) fell from No. 14 to No. 21.