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
We feel very, very fortunate to move on to the next round.
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 had a great year. Our goal is to get back here again next year and win it.
Who we start Thursday (at center) will be based solely on practice the next two days. It'll be based on rebounds, who sets the best screens and blocks.
Josh had surgery back in late September and at this point his pain levels are just unacceptable, just too much to handle. He has constant throbbing during every practice and every game, he's very sore every day and the next morning he's obviously very stiff. And it's not getting better.
If that's not a very good team we just played then I don't know what is. We feel very, very fortunate to move to the next round.
In competitive athletics, you have to deal with the next set of circumstances. There's always adversity; we have had a lot more than our fair share. But you just have to fight through it. That's just the way it is.
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.