Toreros want Grier

Sources confirmed late Saturday afternoon that Gonzaga University assistant Bill Grier has been offered the head men’s basketball coaching job at the University of San Diego.

According to those sources, Grier and his agent, Brad Williams, were still going over details of the proposed contract on Saturday.

USD’s executive director of athletics Ky Snyder has been looking for a new face to lead the Toreros program after announcing earlier this month that the contract of longtime head coach Brad Holland would not be renewed.

Holland, who was twice named the West Coast Conference’s coach of the year, spent 13 seasons at USD, where he put together a record of 200-176.

Grier, 43, who first came to Gonzaga as a restricted-earnings assistant under Dan Fitzgerald in 1992, was promoted to a full-time assistant by Fitzgerald’s successor, Dan Monson, prior to the start of the 1997-98 season. He has served for the past eight years as GU’s top aide and defensive strategist under Mark Few, who took over the Bulldogs after Monson left for Minnesota following the Zags’ run to the Elite Eight of the NCAA tournament in 1999.

As part of his contract with Gonzaga, Grier has been guaranteed the Bulldogs head coaching job, should Few decide to leave.

Snyder could not be reached for comment and neither Grier nor Few returned phone messages.

But sources said Grier has also had at least informal discussions recently with officials at Santa Clara University, another WCC school, about the Broncos’ vacant head coaching position.

Details of USD’s contract offer were not immediately available, but Holland, who had a year remaining on his contract, was believed to be making an annual base salary of $150,000 at the time of his dismissal.

It is not known what Grier, whose wife, Nicole, gave birth to their first child, Giselle Marie, on March 3, 2006, is making at GU.

Holland, after learning his contract would not be renewed, told the San Diego Union-Tribune that his successor will face some difficult challenges, despite the fact that the school opened a new 5,100-seat arena, the Jenny Craig Pavilion, in 2000.

“Whoever takes over this program has a tough task with the (academic admission) requirements here of getting the kind of athlete to win a conference championship and go to the NCAAs year in and year out,” Holland explained. “It’s very difficult to do.”