John Holland remembers walking off the court of Patrick Gym in last year’s America East Championship game, and that feeling of losing is something he’ll never forget.
To make matters worse, the 6-foot-5 swingman from the Bronx, N.Y., struggled throughout last season’s AE tournament. He capped it off by totaling just nine points on 3-of-11 shooting in the conference title game, as the Boston University men’s basketball team dropped an 83-70 decision to University of Vermont.
The Catamounts earned an automatic NCAA Tournament berth and celebrated with their jubilant fans at center court, while Holland and the Terriers left Burlington, Vt., in a daze after seeing their Big Dance aspirations come to an abrupt end.
“It was just heartbreak, disappointment,” Holland said. “Anytime you make it so far and fall short, you’re going to feel some type of major disappointment. You give everything you have for the whole year, and to fall short, it’s tough.”
The Vermont loss provided Holland with even more motivation entering his senior season at BU. It added more fuel to his offseason workouts as he prepared for one last run at an NCAA Tournament appearance.
On Saturday at Agganis Arena, Holland, one of the greatest players to don a BU uniform, has an opportunity to add yet another accomplishment to an already decorated career, which includes a conference Player of the Year award, all-conference honors, program records and various other individual accolades.
All that stands in Holland’s way of a completely polished resume is guiding the second-seeded Terriers to their first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2002 with a victory over fifth-seeded Stony Brook University.
“When you make it so far, you just want to make that last little step,” Holland said. “[Last year] did motivate me personally to not experience that feeling of losing again. It’s always there. It makes you push that little extra inch in the offseason and go a little bit harder because you know how close you’ve gotten.”
Despite being the lone senior on a BU squad with seven freshmen and three transfers, Holland was not chosen to be one of the Terriers’ three co-captains. Instead, BU coach Patrick Chambers elected to go with junior forward Jake O’Brien, junior guard Matt Griffin and junior forward Patrick Hazel.
With enough pressure on Holland to shoulder the offensive load for a young and inexperienced team, Chambers sought more leadership from his star player, without giving him an official captain title.
“John is a great teammate,” Hazel said. “He’s our only senior. He’s a great leader. He might not be a captain, but he’s a good leader. As long as he continues to work hard, all the young guys and all of us will follow his lead as well.”
Just as Holland’s senior year has been one of personal ups and downs, so too has the Terriers’ 2010-11 season. Heading into a road matchup at University of New Hampshire with a 10-12 record, BU didn’t resemble a team that was tabbed in the preseason to win the conference, and Holland had fallen behind University of Maine senior forward Troy Barnies as the leading candidate for AE Player of the Year.
But since that Jan. 29 loss to UNH, BU has rattled off 10 straight victories, due in large part to the play of Holland, who has averaged 19.8 points in that 10-game span.
During that stretch, Holland recorded his 2,000th career point in a win over Maine and poured in a game-high 25 points against University at Albany at Madison Square Garden. His ability to dominate games late in the season now has the Terriers on the brink of the Big Dance.
“This season has been a growth,” Holland said. “I was in a different role. Everybody was in a different role from wherever else they’ve been or just coming in as freshmen. I feel like it was an adjustment that we had. It’s been a growth that we’ve experienced together, just learning how to play with one another.”
Holland showed signs of vanquishing his postseason demons last weekend in West Hartford, Conn., posting solid numbers in wins over seventh-seeded UNH and sixth-seeded Hartford – solid enough to bring BU back to the championship game in which its dreams were dashed a year ago.
Saturday is Holland’s final chance to put those demons to rest with a conference crown and, in the process, write a storybook ending to a long and storied career.
“He would give all [the individual records] away for this,” Chambers said. “He might not be able to articulate that, but he truly wants this more than anything. Player of the Year is nice. First-Team honors is really nice. Think about what he’s done for this program. All the points he’s scored. All the rebounds he has. All the minutes he’s played.
“To end it, hopefully like this, would be a great thing.”
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