Brad Holland
From Hoopedia
John Bradley (Brad) Holland (born December 6, 1956, in Billings, Montana) is a retired American professional basketball player. He played for four years at UCLA (1976-79) and was the 14th player taken in the first round of the 1979 NBA Draft by the Los Angeles Lakers. He served as a member of the 1980 NBA L.A. Lakers championship team. He was the University of San Diego head basketball coach until mid March, 2007. On April 25, 2007, he was named as one of three finalists to become the new head coach of UC Riverside's men's basketball program, but lost out to Jim Wooldridge.
Playing Career
Brad Holland was a basketball and football star at Crescenta Valley High School. Furthermore, he was a four year letterman at UCLA, before entering the Los Angeles Lakers franchise in 1979 and other National Basketball Association teams, before retiring in 1982 with a knee injury. Next he entered private business and worked as a broadcaster at Prime Ticket from 1985-1998. He was the last player recruited by coach John Wooden, becoming part pac-10 championships at UCLA from 1996-1979, two under Coach Gene Bartow and two under Coach Gary Cunningham.
During that year he averaged in 17.5 points and 4.8 assists and had a .598 goal percentage, the best ever for a Bruin guard. He graduated in 1979 from UCLA with a B.A. degree in Sociology. Holland also was a rookie guard who made eight points in a decisive sixth game at Philadelphia. He left his playing career in 1981-82 with the Washington Bullets and the Milwaukee Bucks.
Coaching Toreros
Hollands owned a 12 year mark of 164-150 at USD consisting of his two-year stint at Cal State Fullerton. His career coaching record stands at 187-181. During this tenure he owned nine seasons with .500 or better. From 1996-1997, he led the Toreros to a 17-11 record, those wins which were a personal best during his six collegiate years as head coach. This included the team's 17 victories against San Jose State, Cal State Fullerton, UC Santa Barbara and UC Irvine. The Toreros went on to the semifinals of the WCC Tournament by defeating Gonzaga first. They finished off strong, by winning several of the nine matches.
While coming up short, his team played Kansas for several points in Lawrence (1972-1979) and Stanford (1970-192) to two points at the San Diego Sports Arena. The season was highlighted earlier when the Toreros went visiting Notre Dame, 90-76; on December 3 before 6,522 fans in the audience at the San Diego Sports Arena. The 1995, 1996 club, ensured a lot of injuries, though finished strong and ended as 14-14. In his first USD year, he lead the Toreros to a 11-16 record, ranking 5th in the West Coast Conference.
He was fired at the completion of the 2006-2007 season to be replaced by Gonzaga University Assistant Coach, Bill Grier.
Cal State Fullerton
In his first year at Cal State Fullerton Holland received rave reviews for turning around the the CSUF basketball program. During the 1992-93 season, Holland's team finished 15-12, posting the school's first winning record since 1985 and going 10-8 in the Big West Conference.
His 1993-1994 team lost three players to season-ending injuries prior to the first game. They finished 8-19 overall, and 8th-place in the Big West. He would leave his post suddenly in September 1994, just two months before the start of the 1994-95 season. Several years after his departure from Fullerton, it surfaced that Holland was responsible for several NCAA violations, which resulted in the program being placed on probation for 4 years. Many Fullerton fans blame Holland's violations and sudden departure for damaging the program, and despise him to this day.
