No, Holder responded, but he had a list of golf coaches.
"I know a lot of golf coaches,” he said.
As a highly respected coach who won eight national championships, Holder has fielded calls soliciting advice on golf coaches to hire from ADs and coaches for years.
"And anytime someone called me about an opening for a golf coach, I always considered that flattering that they would ask my opinion, and I always felt a sincere responsibility,” Holder said. "If I was going to recommend someone, I wanted to be sure it was somebody I thought would get the job done because I stuck my neck out there.”
In the dozens and dozens of calls Holder made about his basketball coaching opening — he sought advice from a variety of people, from former OSU player and ESPN personality Doug Gottlieb to former Texas Tech coach Bob Knight — one person's opinion stuck out: Former Kentucky athletic director C.M. Newton, who, as a newly-hired AD, hired Rick Pitino after Eddie Sutton quit. Newton, Holder thought, took the responsibility the same way he did about all those golf coaches.
Newton and Holder first spoke early in the search, before Bill Self turned the job down.
"Frankly, after talking to Mike I thought Bill would probably want to take the job,” Newton said.
After Self decided to stay at Kansas, Holder and Newton spoke again. Newton, who chairs the NIT committee, had just spent a week around University of Massachusetts coach Travis Ford, whose team lost in the championship game to Ohio State.
Newton had known Ford for years. He recruited him when he was the coach at Vanderbilt. Ford eventually went to Missouri, then interacted with him as an athletic director after Ford transferred to Kentucky to play under Pitino. He was struck in New York by how Ford's UMass players responded to him.
"I told Mike, ‘I watched his practices. I watched his team meetings. I watched him with the press. I watched him with his boss,' ” Newton said. "I think he is the next (Florida coach) Billy Donovan.”
Newton should know. While he isn't a professional matchmaker or a search firm, he has played a role in more hires than just those he made at Kentucky, which include Rick Pitino and Tubby Smith.
"When Jeremy Foley at Florida called me in reference to hiring a basketball coach, I told him, ‘Billy Donovan at Marshall. If you interview him you're going to think, ‘Gosh, this guy looks like a player, not a coach,' ” Newton said. "But I told him, ‘Billy Donovan will be the next Rick Pitino.' ”
Newton is a firm believer that coaches and universities have to be specific fits.
"There are a lot of great coaches that just won't work certain places,” he said.
He considered Ford a fit like a glove for OSU.
"I think he's just what they need,” Newton said. "I think he brings energy and work ethic and discipline as a coach, and his staff will be the same way.”
Said Holder: "He was right about Pitino. He was right about Billy Donovan. I think he might be 3-for-3.”
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