Ben Howland
Ben Howland
Benjamin Clark Howlandis an American college basketball coach for the Mississippi State Bulldogs and former player. He served as the head men's basketball coach at Northern Arizona University from 1994 to 1999, the University of Pittsburgh from 1999 to 2003, and the University of California, Los Angelesfrom 2003 to 2013. Howland became the first men's coach in modern college basketball history to be fired shortly after winning an outright power-conference title. He is one of the few NCAA Division I...
ProfessionCoach
Date of Birth28 May 1957
CityLebanon, OR
It was brutal. I was uncomfortable just standing there . . . And the kid is playing like you can't believe, just the fundamentals.
It's that magic third year. That's the plan. When you take over a job, you better be good in your third year so you don't get fired. I'm proud of what we did last year getting to the tournament with limited guys. We had four guys on the perimeter playing down the stretch. Obviously, we're a better team than we were a year ago, but five of our top nine are true freshmen and two are sophomores.
I've had more injuries with this team than I've ever had in my 25 years of coaching. (Almost) all our minutes are from underclassmen now.
It was a great second half. I can't wait to watch that again. We came out and played with passion.
It was a great win. I'm excited for our team. In the first half we forced 13 turnovers. Our defense was so active. It was misleading. Arizona shot 58 percent. It's astounding they can shoot 58 percent and lose. Usually, you win when you shoot a percentage like that.
Any time you're the conference champion, you get probably more votes for your players. As it should be.
Arizona's an outstanding team. I have the utmost respect for coach (Lute) Olson. He's one of the great coaches of all time.
Arizona has played the toughest schedule by far in our conference, playing some of the top teams in the country. (Olson) had done a good job of what works best.
The last three games, we've essentially been playing all freshmen and sophomores.
Their defense was terrific. We got sped up and a little hurried. We'd have opportunities, but we were way too fast.
Their defense was terrific. They did a great job defensively. We got sped up. We got a little hurried. We had opportunities to actually come into the paint and stop, but we were moving too fast.
They're coming at you in waves of athletes.
They're obviously a great shooting team. Any time you shoot 39 percent on the year from three as a team, that's outstanding.
It will take a team of horses to hold him from being able to play.