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
This program is where it is right now, as the greatest tradition in all of college basketball, the greatest history in all of college basketball. Eleven national championships. It all starts with Coach Wooden.
Coach is always there at the home games, sitting behind the bench. He's the greatest coach in the history of college basketball.
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's the greatest coach in the history of the game. How can you not embrace it? That's what this is all about. The love you see his former players have for him is just incredible.
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.