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
It's been frustrating, because we haven't been able to stay healthy. We've had one practice the entire year where we've had all 12 scholarship players healthy. But that's part of the game.
We will practice our foul shots, I promise you that.
After further consultation, Josh's family wanted to get a second opinion. This is a common practice and the family felt this was best.
That was about 20 minutes into practice. He did not practice the rest of the time. Has some swelling there. We'll see how it feels. ... I would expect it would take a lot to keep him out of the game.
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.
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.
I'm kidding . These guys are great shooters.
The biggest benefit, more than anything that we're excited about, is that the families of our players are able to get here relatively easier.
They've got really good quickness and push the ball well. They force a lot of turnovers with their pressure.
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.
This is like going into a human fly-swatting machine.
I'm indebted to them forever. They have helped start something we think is very special.
I mean, come on. That is very, very unfair of him to characterize his team like that after the kind of year they've had and some of the quality wins they've had.