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
Our team is definitely playing its best basketball right now. If you look over the course of the last eight games, we've really been playing great defensive team basketball.
He's playing the best basketball of his career. Without him, we would not be here.
He's playing the best basketball of his career right now.
This team never, ever gets affected ... they just battle back. We're playing our best basketball of the year by far right now.
Coach watches every game. I knew that and embraced it. He's the greatest coach in the history of basketball. What he did in college basketball will never be repeated. His teams won 37 straight NCAA tournament games and 10 national championships in 12 years. You know how everyone wants to be like Mike -- Michael Jordan -- as a player? Every coach wants to be like John. So I don't feel a shadow. I embrace it.
We're playing our best basketball of the year by far.
We're playing our best basketball of the season by far right now. We're improving, we're getting better.
You want to be playing your best basketball at the end of the season. But not only are we playing good, we're getting better. This is truly a team.
The last seven, eight games, Ryan is playing the best basketball of his career.
I thought they were terrific. They did an outstanding job of dealing with our press. We were trying real hard.
Last time I checked, Larry Brown started in college, for example, and he might be one of the top coaches.
I saw him at Nike camp. He played hard. He was under the radar.
I see it as a momentum thing all the way. We're going to feed on that win. We're going to feed on that emotion.
Well, I tried to guard him. That's the key. We played mostly half-court, so it was easier to hold, grab and foul as opposed to when you've got Johnny between the top of the keys. Once in a while when that happened, it was over for me.