"It's remarkable," former UCLA standout and collegiate head coach Brad Holland told FOXSportsKansasCity.com before the short-handed Jayhawks rallied to top West Virginia, 76-69, Tuesday, clinching sole possession of the Big 12 title -- the program's 11th in a row.
"Because it just shows you the tradition. It shows you how difficult it is to play at Allen Fieldhouse, how good a coach Bill Self is, and their staff, and how they've been able to maintain a level and a culture of winning and high-level recruiting.
"They lose a couple of guys to the (NBA), they quickly replace them, rebuild, remain on top. That's a very difficult thing to do. I don't care what anybody says."
Holland was at the heart of the next carrot KU is chasing -- the Bruins' Division I record of 13 consecutive Pac-8/Pac-10 titles won from 1967-79. The last player recruited by the legendary John Wooden, he served as an anchor in the UCLA backcourt for the final four of those 13 teams, a chain of excellence that stretched from Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band to Van Halen II.
"It was a lot of pressure," said Holland, a former first-round pick of the Los Angeles Lakers (1979) who would later win 200 games himself as coach at the University of San Diego. "Frankly, in a lot of eyes, and (with) the Los Angeles Times, and everybody else in LA, we didn't rate very well, because we didn't win a national championship."
Some places fear the pressure. The Bruins embraced it. To his mind -- and this from a man with no dog in the fight, a man who had Wooden's ear and ran the break with Magic and Kareem -- the Jayhawks do, too.
"They're the gold standard of the Big 12, like we were of the Pac-8 and Pac-10," said Holland, currently chief executive officer of the Carlsbad (Calif.) Boys and Girls Club.
"And the coaching staffs, let me just tell you how they recruit for the other teams. (They say), 'I have to have guys that can help us beat Kansas.' That's the standard. And that's how you recruit. That's how you have to recruit, because of what (KU has) established: Their run, their dominance."[/I]
Mountaineers coach Bob Huggins has a bit in his contract that says he gets $25,000 every time he beats the Jayhawks. Kansas basketball isn't just a dynasty anymore. It's a legal clause.
"That's how those staffs at the other Big 12 schools are going about it," Holland continued. "Yeah, they want to win a national championship, and yeah, they want to go far and they want to go far in the NCAA Tournament. But they have to go through Kansas to do everything they do. They have to have players that can compete against Kansas.
"So we can throw out the old cliches of, 'Oh, Kansas gets everybody's best shot.' Well, they do, because they're on top. They're the champions. They're wearing the crown until somebody knocks them off. 'We're the team that stopped Kansas' run of consecutive Big 12 championships.' So all that's going on, all that's being talked about, all that's being recruited to, to try and get that done."
…Some places fear the bar. In Lawrence, they embrace it. Lawrence, where the rafters are never satisfied.
Fox Sports Keeler
This post was edited on 3/5 9:49 AM by kcjcjhawk
http://www.foxsports.com/kansas-city/story/ex-ucla
"Because it just shows you the tradition. It shows you how difficult it is to play at Allen Fieldhouse, how good a coach Bill Self is, and their staff, and how they've been able to maintain a level and a culture of winning and high-level recruiting.
"They lose a couple of guys to the (NBA), they quickly replace them, rebuild, remain on top. That's a very difficult thing to do. I don't care what anybody says."
Holland was at the heart of the next carrot KU is chasing -- the Bruins' Division I record of 13 consecutive Pac-8/Pac-10 titles won from 1967-79. The last player recruited by the legendary John Wooden, he served as an anchor in the UCLA backcourt for the final four of those 13 teams, a chain of excellence that stretched from Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band to Van Halen II.
"It was a lot of pressure," said Holland, a former first-round pick of the Los Angeles Lakers (1979) who would later win 200 games himself as coach at the University of San Diego. "Frankly, in a lot of eyes, and (with) the Los Angeles Times, and everybody else in LA, we didn't rate very well, because we didn't win a national championship."
Some places fear the pressure. The Bruins embraced it. To his mind -- and this from a man with no dog in the fight, a man who had Wooden's ear and ran the break with Magic and Kareem -- the Jayhawks do, too.
"They're the gold standard of the Big 12, like we were of the Pac-8 and Pac-10," said Holland, currently chief executive officer of the Carlsbad (Calif.) Boys and Girls Club.
"And the coaching staffs, let me just tell you how they recruit for the other teams. (They say), 'I have to have guys that can help us beat Kansas.' That's the standard. And that's how you recruit. That's how you have to recruit, because of what (KU has) established: Their run, their dominance."[/I]
Mountaineers coach Bob Huggins has a bit in his contract that says he gets $25,000 every time he beats the Jayhawks. Kansas basketball isn't just a dynasty anymore. It's a legal clause.
"That's how those staffs at the other Big 12 schools are going about it," Holland continued. "Yeah, they want to win a national championship, and yeah, they want to go far and they want to go far in the NCAA Tournament. But they have to go through Kansas to do everything they do. They have to have players that can compete against Kansas.
"So we can throw out the old cliches of, 'Oh, Kansas gets everybody's best shot.' Well, they do, because they're on top. They're the champions. They're wearing the crown until somebody knocks them off. 'We're the team that stopped Kansas' run of consecutive Big 12 championships.' So all that's going on, all that's being talked about, all that's being recruited to, to try and get that done."
…Some places fear the bar. In Lawrence, they embrace it. Lawrence, where the rafters are never satisfied.
Fox Sports Keeler
This post was edited on 3/5 9:49 AM by kcjcjhawk
http://www.foxsports.com/kansas-city/story/ex-ucla
