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
I think our team embodies the spirit of what Coach is all about, which is teamwork, which is unselfish play, which is a commitment at both ends of the floor to play together, team defense, team offense, giving yourself up for your teammates. As we continue to win, they all get recognized.
There's things that happened in Oakland that I would assume could be magnified at the Final Four. Both guys were great at talking about the little things.
They both are premier players that have grown through a lot of adversity already. Both of them got a lot of experience last year and playing over the summer.
That's one of the things I think that you're going to continue to see, the George Mason run. I think they had three players that were fifth-year seniors. It's such an advantage to be older than your opponent both mentally and physically, and to have that experience of having gone through the ups and downs.
This team never, ever gets affected by it. They just continue to battle back. There's nothing that they haven't seen in terms of adversity that's going to bother them.
We were the tentative ones in the first half. I think we did a better job of playing way more aggressively at both ends of the floor in the second half.
There's no big secret to this. If you want to win ... you have to be able to play both ends.
What a great feeling. To still be playing. To beat an outstanding team in Memphis. We're thrilled to be heading to Indiana.
What a great feeling, to still be playing and to beat an outstanding team like Memphis. I'm really proud of the defense we played today. The defense was just incredible.
With the last play of regulation, we didn't have any timeouts left and I am trying to be judicious, but also use my timeouts to the best of my ability. After all that and then go into overtime on a great shot by Robertson is just a testament to these kids' character.
We want to recruit the very best players in the country. That's why we're here right now: We have great players.
Very easily, (Gonzaga coach) Mark Few could be sitting where I am now, no question.
When I finished watching the tape from last year I was embarrassed with our effort. I am so much happier with where we are now than a year ago.
We're going up against the human fly-swatting machine.