USD Men's Basketball 1996-1997

HEAD COACH BRAD HOLLAND

BRAD HOLLAND~~ 3rd Year The 1996-97 season is Brad Holland's third at the helm of the USO basketball program. The immediate future looks bright as the 39- year-old Holland returns four starters and ten lettermen from last year ' s team that finished 14-14. In addition, he has landed three top recruits (one junior col lege transfer and two high school prep stars) that will give the team added depth at the guard and forward spots . Last season the Toreros overcame injuries to starters Sean Flannery (knee; played just six games) and Brian Bruso (foot; missed fourteen games), and rebounded to win five of their final seven games and finish 14-14 overall. The Toreros advanced to the semifinals of the WCC Tournament after upsetting #3-seed Loyola Marymount in the opener. Among the team' s fourteen wins were so lid performances against the likes of Santa Clara, San Diego State, UC Irvine, Portland, and a sweep of Pepperdine. In his first year Brad guided the San Diego Toreros to an 11-16 overall record and a fifth place finish in the West Coast Conference. The season was highlighted early on when the Toreros downed visiting Notre Dame, 90-76, on December 3rd before 6,522 fans at the San Diego Sports

Arena. Coach Holland enters the 1996-97 season with a 4-year coaching record of 48-61. Prior to USO Holland won rave reviews for the manner in which he revitalized th e Ca l State Fullerton men's basketball program. During the 1992-93 season, his first as a head coach, th e Titans finished 15-12 and posted the school's first winning record in four years while going 10-8 in the Big West Conference. Along the way they beat every team in the confe rence except New Mexico State, capping the year with an exciti ng one-point home victory over nationally ranked UNLV. His 1993-94 team, which lost three players to season-ending injuri es prior to the start of the season, finished 8-19 overa ll and eighth in Big West play. They did have some memorable victories - they won at Nevada and UC Santa Barbara 's Thunderdome; they won for the third year in a row at UC Irvine; and they knocked off UNLV with a 84-75 victory at the Thomas and Mack Center. Prior to his appointment at Cal State Fullerton, Holland was an assistant coach on Jim Harrick' s staff at UCLA from August, 1988 to March, 1992. He helped the Bruins return to national prominence w hil e compiling a 93-35 record that took them to four NCAA tournaments. Success as a head coach is merely the latest positive mark I"'"".............................................................................. ~

Holland has made on Southern California basketball. He was a bas– ketball and football star at Crescenta Valley High School. He was a four-year basketball letterman at UCLA and played with the Los An– geles Lakers and two other National Basketball Association teams before retiri ng in 1982 due to a knee injury. He entered private business and also was a broadcaster for Prime Ticket from 1985 to 1988. Holland was the last player recruited by Coach John Wooden and became a part of four Pac-10 championship teams at UCLA from 1976 to 1979, two under Coach Gene Bartow and two under Coach Gary Cunningham. The Bruins went 102-1 7 during Hollands's playing career and he was honorable mention Al l-America and sec– ond-team Academic All-America as a senior. That year he averaged 17.5 points and 4.8 assists and had a .598 field goa l percentage, the best ever by a Bruin guard. He graduated in 1979 from UCLA with a B.A. degree in Sociology. The Lakers drafted Holland in 1979, the 14th player taken in the first round, and went on to win the 1980 NBA championship. The rookie guard scored eight points in the decisive sixth game at Philadelphia. He finished hi s playing career in 1981-82 with Wash– ington and Milwaukee. Holland and hi s wife, Les li e, have three children, Kristin and Lisa, 14-year-old twins, and Kyl e, age 4.