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 was really hoping we would play really well tonight so he and his family could enjoy that in the hospital room that he was in tonight. You know, in terms of what he means to the program, he's the patriarch. He is why this program is where it is. It's one of the elite programs in the country and has been since he started that job in 1948.
He didn't want to go. Sounds just like Coach. He's going to be fine, based on all the information we have. I was hoping we would play really well so he and his family could enjoy that in the hospital room that he was in.
We feel very, very fortunate to move on to the next round.
We hit some tough shots. It was a night of tough shots.
It was another outstanding job defensively. In the second half, we did a much better job of getting to the line and getting fouled.
The very best players are my kind of players.
Florida was terrific. Credit Billy Donovan. They were really well coached. They did an excellent job handling our pressure.
Florida has a great offensive team. It really is going to be a big challenge for us to be able to try to defend such skilled players and good passers. Everybody can shoot it.
Five should be average; four is a disappointment.
There's so much parity. And the margin of difference is so slight.
Our defense kept us in the game when we really had an inability to score. When you go on the road you've got to be able to rely on your defense.
Our defense is what kept us in the game. I thought Oregon played very good defense as well. Somehow we hung around because we were playing good defense, playing every possession really tough.
Our defense was outstanding in the first half. It forced turnovers, they sped up and it keyed the game for us.
We went through a lot of adversity earlier this year with injuries and we played a lot of people. I have complete confidence in our entire team.