Grier, Toreros a match
The University of San Diego will hold a press conference this afternoon to introduce former Gonzaga University assistant Bill Grier as its new men’s basketball head coach.
Grier, who had been GU’s No. 1 assistant under head coach Mark Few for the past eight years, agreed to terms with USD over the weekend. The university has announced Grier will be introduced as Brad Holland’s successor at a 1:30 p.m. press conference.
Grier could not be reached for comment on Sunday, but Few admitted he had mixed feelings about Grier’s decision to leave – especially for a rival West Coast Conference school.
“I feel great about it for Billy, because I can tell he’s really excited about it,” Few said. “It’s a great opportunity for him and one he really deserves. He’ll do a great job, just like he’s done up here.
“Which brings up the only downside. I wish he wasn’t in our league.”
Grier, 43, will take over for Holland, who was dismissed earlier this month after spending 13 years as the Toreros’ head coach, posting a respectable record of 200-176 and twice being named the WCC’s coach of the year. Terms of Grier’s contract have not been made public, but Holland was thought to be earning an annual base salary of $150,000 at the time of his dismissal.
It will be the first collegiate head coaching job for Grier, an Oregon native, who arrived at Gonzaga in 1992 as a restricted-earnings coach under Dan Fitzgerald after serving one year as the boys’ head coach at Creswell (Ore.) High School. The 1990 University of Oregon gradutate was promoted to a full-time assistant in 1997 when Dan Monson replaced Fitzgerald. He became the Zags’ top assistant in 1997 when Monson left for Minnesota and was replaced by Few.
Grier’s move will also mark the first major shakeup on GU’s staff since Few took over, although Tommy Lloyd was promoted from an administrative assistant to full-time assistant in 2001 after Scott Snider decided to leave coaching.
“Change is inevitable,” Few said, “but we’ve had an incredible run. I don’t think there is a staff anywhere – at least at the high-major level, top-25, or whatever you want to call it – that has stayed together for eight years. There’s just no way.”
Few, who plans to hire Ray Giacoletti, a close friend and former head coach at North Dakota State, Eastern Washington and Utah as Grier’s replacement, said he has already received inquiries from other coaches interested in the position.
“The hardest thing is just losing a guy who’s been by your side for 16 years, a guy who’s been able to do so much at our place and a guy you’ve relied on so much,” Few explained. “Also, our wives were so close. I’m losing a friend and my wife’s losing a friend. Not that we’re losing them altogether, but they’re sure not going to be around as much.”
Few said he plans on retaining his other two top assistants, Lloyd and Leon Rice, but added graduate assistant and former Gonzaga player Kyle Bankhead will probably go with Grier to San Diego.
Few downplayed Grier’s lack of head coaching experience.
“He been making head coaching kinds of decisions at our place for a long time,” he said. “He’s got a great basketball mind, both offensively and defensively, and he’s a very good evaluator and recruiter. He’s just got it all.
“It’s going to be difficult moving on without him, but it was a great hire by them.”