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
We had autograph seekers knocking on our players' doors at midnight the night before we played Memphis .
We came out and felt like we got sped up by their defense.
Who we start Thursday (at center) will be based solely on practice the next two days. It'll be based on rebounds, who sets the best screens and blocks.
We were really sensitive to him shooting threes.
We have great kids and they're all on the same page about winning and getting the program back to the highest level.
What I think it's done is made us better. This team has gone through more adversity in terms of injuries than any team I've ever heard of, ever been a part of, for sure.
This will be unbelievably hard on everyone, even though, you know, religiously, we all understand that this is a celebration day of her life. But it's too short a life as far as we're all concerned.
This was a great gut-check win for our team, our program. To go through all that and have to go to overtime and to gut it out, it's a testament to these kids' character.
Typically if we get out-boarded by nine and shoot 5-of-13 from the foul line and allow someone to shoot 61 percent in the first half, we are not going to win. We gutted it out, found a way.
You know how hard it is during finals to get your mind right because you're so exhausted from studying. At practice, I'm sure guys are going to have a little mental fatigue from staying up all night cramming.
Usually, the team that makes the most mistakes is going to be on the wrong side of the win/loss column. Credit Florida. They were terrific. This was their night.
Those kids were connected at birth as far as I'm concerned. I just happened to be the coach that was lucky enough to get them to come.
To be down 11 at halftime (Thursday) and come out and play so well to start the second half - we have to stop doing that.
We beat an NCAA Tournament team without question. It's not even an issue.