Holland still has the touch

Long before Charles Schulz gave birth to “Peanuts” or Bill Watterson conjured up “Calvin and Hobbes,” comic page connoisseurs around the country reveled in the adventures of “Terry and the Pirates” from 1934 to 1973. Now the story, if not the strip, has been revived in Greenville, N.C., of all places.

The Terry in question is Terry Holland, the miracle worker whose 16-year reign as lord and master of men’s basketball at Virginia included a miraculous ACC tournament title in 1976. The Pirates are the players and teams at East Carolina University, where Holland has been athletic director for two years now in pursuit of improved programs, facilities and community involvement at the Conference USA school.

Collecting attention and blue-chip recruits isn’t easy in a state where the ACC’s Big Four — North Carolina, N.C. State, Duke and Wake Forest — dominate the jock scene. Then again, Holland has always relished a challenge. Just ask any of the players or fans who remember UVa’s stirring title run 30 years ago last spring.

It’s hard for old-timers to compute the image of Holland, now 64 and white-haired, sitting behind a desk doing paperwork rather than at courtside yowling at the zebras. But the boyish smile, enthusiasm and easy laughter remain part and parcel of a guy who has reflected the best in college sports for more than 40 years.

Holland enjoys a good (or bad) one-liner more than most of his peers. Once a columnist who was feuding with Lefty Driesell, Terry’s own college coach at Davidson, observed rather uncharitably, “I can’t understand how a guy as smart as you could have played for somebody as dumb as Lefty.”

Retorted Terry, fast-breaking to the humor hoop: “Maybe I’m not as smart and Lefty’s not as dumb as you think.”

Since retiring his clipboard and game plans at Virginia 16 years ago, Holland has been athletic director at three schools: Davidson from 1990 to 1995, Virginia from 1995 to 2001 and now ECU. He sometimes misses coaching — “usually when practice begins and before the ACC tournament” — but being an athletic director presents different if no less difficult problems.

“Besides,” Terry noted on a recent visit to Portsmouth, Va., “ADs last longer than coaches.”

Especially losing coaches, though Holland wouldn’t know much about that. His record for 21 seasons at Davidson and Virginia was 418-216 (.653) with 10 NCAA tournament appearances.

“Coaching is much more intense than being an administrator,” he said. “You have clear goals [read: win now!] … and there are higher highs and lower lows.”

There also are higher risks to physical and mental health, which makes you wonder how lifers like Driesell, Bobby and Gary Williams stand the relentless pressure. Some coaches simply can’t or don’t want to do anything else, and perhaps they should be pitied as much as admired.

Over the past decade and a half, Holland has been chairman of the NCAA Division I Basketball Committee, active in USA Basketball and a member of the Senior National Team Committee that selected Dream Teams I and II. Like most others who have been around a while, he abhors the current trend that sees many college stars departing campuses early to turn pro.

“The NBA’s [19]-year-old [minimum age] rule is well-intentioned but doesn’t really make any difference,” he said. “The worst-case scenario is that a player will enter college for one year, never go to class and leave as soon as he can. I’d encourage kids to try the pros for a year or two and return to college ball if they don’t make it, maybe after sitting out a year.”

Might the NCAA ever let that happen?

“Not a chance!”

Holland originally eyed a six-month interim stint at East Carolina, then agreed to a five-year contract.

“Our plan is for athletics here to be a part of what East Carolina wants to be as a school,” he said. “We’re not going to let the rest of the world tell us how to run our business. For instance, we want our schedule to be as good as it can be [in football and basketball] rather than scheduling [weaker teams] just to get a bowl bid or NCAA tournament berth.”

On immediate competitive fronts, Skip Holtz’s football team is 6-4 and on track for its first winning season since 2000. Ricky Stokes’ men’s basketball team is expected to improve drastically after an 8-20 record a year ago. But regardless of what happens this winter, the retired coach won’t be looking over Stokes’ shoulder.

“Heck, [the team] won’t even know I’m there unless I walk through the gym on the way to the men’s room,” Terry Holland said.

Believe him because — apologies to you-know-who — he’s a guy who tells it like it is.