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
advancing far teams tournament
Good, because we'd like to have a tournament with all Pac-10 teams advancing far into the tournament.
injuries minutes team
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.
arizona beat bounce good great hard improved kid last ncaa seen since team three
He's a great kid and a great competitor. He's going to bounce back and be great in the NCAA Tournament. We need to beat Arizona, but it's hard to beat a good team like Arizona three times. They've improved since we've last seen them.
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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.
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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.
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If that's not a very good team we just played then I don't know what is. We feel very, very fortunate to move to the next round.
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I'm glad we got that win. That's a tough, hard-nosed team that came in determined to beat us on our home court. We were fortunate to come away with a victory.
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The last time I checked, we were one of two schools ... that had played against five top 50 teams in the country. The RPI that they're using for the NCAA tournament is largely based on strength of schedule and we were fourth out of 330 teams, so we've absolutely been tested.
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The formula we're using is not new. It has been set. Our team embodies the spirit of what (Wooden) is all about, which is teamwork, which is unselfish play, which is team defense, which is giving yourself up for your teammates. As we continue to win, all of that gets recognized.
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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.
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They take a punch and keep on going with it. It's just a testament to their toughness and their character, and to the different guys on the team that get a chance to step up.
beat hard team three
It's hard to beat a team three times. They're improved.
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I feel very bad that Hassan is not here. Hassan Adams is a great kid, a great competitor, and he's going to really bounce back and do great in the NCAA tournament. But we need to beat Arizona. It's hard to beat a good team like Arizona three times. So it's going to be a big challenge for us to come out and have success.
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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.