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 was just a great gut-check win for our program. We beat an NCAA tournament team tonight, and to come out in this type of environment and play so well is a testament to our guys.
This team never, ever gets affected ... they just battle back. We're playing our best basketball of the year by far right now.
This team never, ever gets affected by it. They just continue to battle back. There's nothing that they haven't seen in terms of adversity that's going to bother them.
We've played some very good teams this year. And I'm very pleased with how our team has responded to all the adversity. If we get everybody healthy, I think we have a chance to be an outstanding team.
I think our team embodies the spirit of what Coach is all about, which is teamwork, which is unselfish play, which is a commitment at both ends of the floor to play together, team defense, team offense, giving yourself up for your teammates. As we continue to win, they all get recognized.
Our team is definitely playing its best basketball right now. If you look over the course of the last eight games, we've really been playing great defensive team basketball.
I feel very fortunate. I thought our defense was much better in the second half. If that's not a very good team we just played, I don't know what is. We knew they were very, very good and we feel very, very fortunate to move on.
I feel very bad that Hassan is not here. Hassan Adams is a great kid, a great competitor, and he's going to really bounce back and do great in the NCAA tournament. But we need to beat Arizona. It's hard to beat a good team like Arizona three times. So it's going to be a big challenge for us to come out and have success.
For us to beat us the team that I think is still going to be right up there for the league title is great.
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.
He's a great kid and a great competitor. He's going to bounce back and be great in the NCAA Tournament. We need to beat Arizona, but it's hard to beat a good team like Arizona three times. They've improved since we've last seen them.
Good, because we'd like to have a tournament with all Pac-10 teams advancing far into the tournament.
He's going to be with our trainer all night. It will take a team of horses to keep him out.
What a great feeling. To still be playing. To beat an outstanding team in Memphis. We're thrilled to be heading to Indiana.