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
Good, because we'd like to have a tournament with all Pac-10 teams advancing far into the tournament.
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.
There's no question Cal is an NCAA Tournament team. It's just a matter of seeding.
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.
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.
Jordan is a perfectionist, so everything that doesn't go right he wears on his sleeve.
This gives us the opportunity to feed off this.
I don't feel any of the shadow. I know who I am. I'm proud to be the one carrying the torch at this time.
I thought they were terrific. They did an outstanding job of dealing with our press. We were trying real hard.
He didn't want to go. Sounds like Coach. His family made him do it. He's going to be fine, based on all the information we have.
His No. 1 attribute that makes him great is his toughness, competitiveness and his pride. He is unique.
His season may be over. If so, we will fight to get him another year.
He's a great player. He'll be playing in the NBA whenever he leaves college.
I saw him at Nike camp. He played hard. He was under the radar.