[ WAHINE BASKETBALL ]
Jim Bolla compiled a 300-120 record during 14 seasons as head coach at UNLV.
Bolla introduced as
UH hoops coachThe former UNLV coach succeeds
Vince Goo as the head of the
Rainbow Wahine basketball team
Jim Bolla hasn't named his staff yet, but the new University of Hawaii women's basketball coach already has a consultant available.
His wife, Dallas Boycheck Bolla, was the head coach at Long Beach State for eight years. Bolla, whose teams at UNLV went 300-120 in 14 seasons, was out of coaching while his wife was at LBSU. Now it's the other way around.
"When you come home from a game and both of you are coaches, it can help a lot," she said. "We watched a lot of film together. When you've got someone in your house who's knowledgeable, you use it."
Bolla was approved by the Board of Regents and introduced to the media yesterday. He then met with former assistant coaches Da Houl and Serenda Valdez and, later in the day, four of the current UH players.
"They seem excited," Bolla said of the players. "I'm going to try to call the others over the next couple of days."
Senior guard Milia Macfarlane was on the committee that helped select Bolla, and she was among the players who met with him yesterday.
"I think he'll be real tough, but in a way to get the job done," she said. "He's replacing a legend in Goo, but he's a legend in his own right. He's got some great history."
Bolla said his meetings with Houl and Valdez went well. Houl had applied for the head coach position when Vince Goo retired. Houl and Valdez both said they have options, but also plan to apply to become assistants on Bolla's staff.
"Nothing's been determined yet," Bolla said. "I had good, positive meetings with (Houl and Valdez)."
The jobs will be posted Monday, and Bolla said he might be able to name a staff near the end of the month.
Bolla's three-year appointment by the BOR was not unanimous. Regent Jane Tatibouet voted "no," citing the $120,000 annual salary (plus incentives) that Bolla will be paid.
"That's OK. Everybody has an opinion," athletic director Herman Frazier said. "In a gender situation, you try to close that gap, not widen it."
Frazier's reference was to men's basketball coach Riley Wallace's annual salary of $210,000.
Bolla returns to the mainland tomorrow and then comes back to Hawaii on July 29.
"We're behind in recruiting. It started last week (for the high school class of 2005)," Bolla said. "I need to get on the road and get my face seen."
UH has one scholarship available for the coming season, but Bolla doesn't plan to use it yet.
Bolla said he plans to install an up-tempo system.
"We'll use pressure defense and we'll fast-break," he said. "I'm big on man-to-man defense, and the amoeba defense.
"You better know a pick and roll and you better be able to shoot off the screen," he added.
Bolla said he doesn't plan to look at any tape of the Rainbow Wahine players before working them out himself.
"We're going to just start from scratch. It's a good group of core players," he said.
UH returns 12 players from last year's team that went 8-20 and finished eighth in the Western Athletic Conference at 6-12.
Yesterday's introduction of Bolla completed a drawn-out process that began when Goo announced his retirement in February.
A total of 91 people applied for the job.
"We interviewed five people. We came to a conclusion in late May who we would offer the job to. On June 8 a name was given to the Board of Regents," Frazier said.
That was two days after Bolla interviewed here.
"I wanted to find the right job, and this is the right job," said Bolla, who said he had applied for only four coaching positions since he began looking for a job two years ago. "I was ready to sign the day I visited. I'm glad I stuck with it."
Bolla, 52, said he looks forward to a long stay in Hawaii.
"It's going to be longer than three years," said Bolla, who went to war against the Rainbow Wahine often during his years with the Lady Rebels, when both teams were in the Big West.
He's familiar with the plusses and minuses of coaching here.
"This program has tradition," he said. "It's been denied the NCAA Tournament unfairly. Just because you play in Hawaii doesn't discount the games you win."
Philosophically, Bolla said he will run a program similar to Goo's.
"No. 1 is family, No. 2 is school. Basketball is fourth or fifth," he said. "I'll be involved in the community. I enjoy spending time speaking to groups and fund raising."
Bolla is experienced at the latter.
After UNLV went 4-21 in 1995-96, Bolla "walked away" from coaching and UNLV re-assigned him to Director of Athletic Development. In that position, he generated more than $5 million for the UNLV athletic department.
"About 5 percent," Frazier said, when asked how much Bolla's fund-raising ability had to do with his hiring.
As a player, Bolla was a center at Pittsburgh. He started on the 1973-74 team that won 22 straight games and went to the Elite Eight.
He and his wife have a daughter, Sasha.
