No New Offer to Holland, Shumard Says : College basketball: Despite Nevada’s interest in Cal State Fullerton coach, Titan athletic director says he can’t sweeten the deal.

FULLERTON —  Bill Shumard, Cal State Fullerton athletic director, said on Wednesday that the school would be unable to sweeten the pot for basketball Coach Brad Holland or for his program in the wake of Holland’s interview at Nevada.

“Brad told me at the beginning that this is not about trying to position himself for a counter-offer,” Shumard said. “Brad understands that our resources here are limited. We stretched (them) when we hired him.”

Holland, who just completed his first season at Fullerton, interviewed for the Nevada job on Tuesday with an eight-member search committee after Wolf Pack Athletic Director Chris Ault obtained permission to speak with him from Shumard. The job opened when Ault fired Len Stevens after the Wolf Pack finished a 9-17 season.

Sources say the package put together by Nevada is worth approximately $150,000. Holland’s base salary at Fullerton is $70,000, plus a $10,000 augmentation by Titan boosters, a corporate car and the opportunity to make more money through a summer camp and a shoe contract.

In addition to Holland, a Nevada source confirmed that the school has interviewed five others: Paul Westhead, former coach of the Lakers and Loyola Marymount; Pat Foster, head coach at Houston; Sherman Dillard, an assistant at Georgia Tech; Jessie Evans, an assistant at Arizona, and Herb Sendek, an assistant at Kentucky.

Shumard acknowledged that the biggest problem for Fullerton, at least until the situation is resolved, will be recruiting. The first day high school and community college recruits can sign letters of intent is April 14.

“We’ll handle it the way we handle anything else in our business,” Shumard said. “We’ll be up front and honest. The only way you will gain anything is through integrity, both personally and professionally.

“It’s an obvious hindrance to recruiting. We have every hope that the situation will be resolved one way or another by the end of the week.”

Reaction to Holland’s possible departure from two prominent Fullerton boosters was mixed.

Bob Williams, a CPA in Irvine who was on the Fullerton men’s basketball search committee last spring, said he does not begrudge Holland the interview.

“I look at it like a businessman who is trying to work his way up in his career,” said Williams, a 1982 Fullerton graduate. “You can’t fault Brad for taking a look at other opportunities. . . . Obviously, with the turnaround job he did, I’ve got to imagine that almost anybody looking for a coach would be interested in him.”

Jim Woods, chief executive officer of an oil equipment manufacturing company in Houston, was not happy to hear about Holland’s interview.

“I’m disappointed,” he said. “I really have the highest respect for Brad. He’s a fine young coach. If we’ve got a chance to win, it’s with a guy like Brad. I was hopeful he would take the talent and make us winners in three to four years and then move on to a big school.

“If he’s out interviewing. . . . “

When told that Nevada approached Holland rather than the other way around, Woods still didn’t like the situation.

“He didn’t have to go,” said Woods, a 1967 Fullerton graduate. “I’m CEO of a Fortune 500 company and I get calls to go interview and I don’t go. Nobody holds a gun to your head and says, ‘Go interview.’ So there’s a little fishing expedition going on.”

But Williams said it isn’t like Holland sent out his resume with the intent of skipping town after one season.

“He’s not out looking for a job, as best as I can tell,” Williams said. “People looking for a coach have sought him out. . . . If he gets the job offer and accepts it, it’s a super move for him and we’ll be glad we had him for a year.”

Holland, who was hired April 8 after working as a UCLA assistant for four seasons, took a Titan team picked to finish ninth in the Big West and guided it to a tie for fifth in his first season as a head coach at any level. The Titans finished 15-12.

Holland said Wednesday that Nevada officials did not tell him when they might make their decision.

“My impression is that they wanted to make a decision in the near future,” he said. “I assume as quickly as possible. They want to give the coach an opportunity to recruit as much as possible in the spring recruiting period.”

Ault did not return phone calls on Wednesday.