Coach who lured Sampson to Virginia built top program
Terry Holland, the coach who transformed the Virginia men’s basketball program into a national power, died Sunday in Charlottesville, four years after being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. He was 80.
Holland coached the Cavaliers to nine NCAA Tournaments and a pair of Final Fours from 1974 to 1990. His 326 wins at Virginia over 16 seasons were a school record until Tony Bennett passed him earlier this year.
“I’m no cutthroat, but I am damn competitive,” Holland said after he was hired by Virginia following five seasons as the head coach at Davidson, his alma mater.
Holland led Virginia to its first ACC tournament championship in 1976, in only his second season. He would take the program to even greater heights after recruiting 7-4 center Ralph Sampson to Charlottesville in 1979.
Led by Sampson and senior guard Jeff Lamp, the Cavaliers went 29-4 during the 1980-81 season, which ended with a loss to North Carolina in the national semifinals. Virginia made a surprising run to the Final Four under Holland in 1984, the year after Sampson, the three-time national college player of the year, was the No. 1 pick in the NBA draft.
“Virginia Athletics mourns the loss of legendary men’s basketball coach, Terry Holland, who first showed us what Virginia basketball could be,” the school said in a statement on Monday.
“I think if you boil it all down, I’m not sure U-Va. athletics would be in the position it is now across the board if not for coach Holland, and along with that, Ralph Sampson,” Old Dominion coach Jeff Jones, who played for Holland from 1978 to 1982 and succeeded him as Virginia’s head coach, told the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
“Terry Holland,” Sampson told the Associated Press in an interview earlier this month when asked what made him choose upstart Virginia over more established suitors. “He was mainly the deciding factor. Good school, good teammates, good education, ACC. I mean, you had Dean Smith and all those people around, but he understood my demeanor and fit what I wanted in a coach. He was the perfect fit for me.”
Jones, Dave Odom, Craig Littlepage, Jim Larrañaga and Seth Greenberg are among the former assistants who found success as head coaches after working under Holland.
“RIP Coach Holland,” Greenberg, the former Virginia Tech coach who is now an analyst for ESPN, wrote Monday on Twitter. “I was fortunate to have you as a mentor and a friend. You helped guide me through almost every major decision I have made in my adult life.”
Before his coaching career, Holland, a Clinton, N.C., native, starred at Davidson for legendary coach Lefty Driesell. Holland averaged 13.5 points per game and led the nation in field goal percentage (. 631) as a 6-7 senior forward in 196364 before joining Driesell’s staff. Holland was promoted to head coach after Driesell left to take the Maryland job in 1969 and his replacement, future Hall of Famer Larry Brown, resigned after less than two months on the job.
Holland led Davidson to 92 wins and an NCAA Tournament berth in his five seasons before thenVirginia athletic director Gene Corrigan hired him to replace Bill Gibson in 1974. Before Holland arrived, Virginia had managed four winning campaigns in the previous 25 seasons, and had never made an NCAA Tournament. Holland’s Virginia teams posted only three losing seasons, and qualified for the NCAA Tournament in eight of his last 10 seasons at the school.
In June 1989, Holland announced that he had accepted an offer to become the athletic director at Davidson, and that the 1989-90 season would be his final one at Virginia. Holland returned to Virginia in 1994 as athletic director, a position he held until 2001. After serving as a fundraising special assistant to then-Virginia president John Casteen for three years, Holland was the athletic director at East Carolina from 2004 to 2013.