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 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 was outstanding in the first half. It forced turnovers, they sped up and it keyed the game for us.
That was a great gut-check win for our team, our program. We are happy, but we want to win our next game (Saturday at Stanford to win the title outright).
We've got to make our free throws and out-board our opponents if we're going to win any more games in this tournament.
I expect it would take an awful lot to keep him out of the game (against Louisiana State) tomorrow.
To shoot 3 for 19 from the threes and still win the game is a testament to our defense and rebounding.
There are a lot of games yet to be played. It's going to be a great year. The thing that's good about the Pac-10 is anyone can beat anybody on any given night. And Oregon is playing solid basketball.
Defense is what wins games on the road.
Coach is always there at the home games, sitting behind the bench. He's the greatest coach in the history of college basketball.
Coach is always there at the home games, sitting behind our bench. What was accomplished by John R. Wooden . . . will never, ever be seen again at the college level. They won 38 straight NCAA (Tournament) games in a row at one point . . .
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.
He can score from 3, he can score off the bounce, he can score in the post, he rebounds his own shot as well as anybody. He poses a lot of problems. There's only a handful of people that are playing the game in college that would ever be talked about in that same light.
We feel very, very fortunate to move on to the next round.
We hit some tough shots. It was a night of tough shots.