As UCLA’s season mercifully wound down and a coaching
change went from probable to inevitable, it seemed all that Bruin
fans wanted was someone not named Steve Lavin coaching their
team.
The fans finally got their wish. Ben Howland sat down at the
UCLA Athletics Hall of Fame on Thursday sporting less hair and none
of the gel of his predecessor.
The differences are more than follicle deep, too. When UCLA
Athletic Director Dan Guerrero was first hired, he listed the
qualities he wanted in UCLA’s coaches.
Lavin seemed to fit few of them. Howland, on the other hand, is
Guerrero’s kind of guy.
“Ben stresses fundamentals and discipline, and he believes
in defense and rebounding,” Guerrero said as he introduced
UCLA’s new head coach.
Howland built a name for himself at Pittsburgh as a hard-nosed,
no-nonsense coach who made a habit of taking sparse talent to a
level nobody could imagine. His conference-champion Pitt teams were
composed of players that most of the Big East’s elite
didn’t even bother to recruit.
Lavin, on the other hand, had a constant flow of
McDonald’s All-Americans in Westwood, but had a tough time
fully utilizing them.
“There’s a lot of work to be done,” Howland
said about the team he inherits.
Although he is relatively unfamiliar with his new team, Howland
said he saw a few UCLA games while watching television in his bed
late at night. One of his first impressions is one Bruin fans are
bound to appreciate.
“The big thing is, we need to get some guys into the
weight room,” Howland said. “The bigger and stronger we
are, the better off we’re going to be.”
Pittsburgh’s starting front line averaged over 240 pounds.
UCLA’s biggest starter last season was wiry freshman Ryan
Hollins, listed rather generously at 215 pounds.
UCLA players met with Howland on Thursday morning for about a
half an hour in the locker room at Pauley Pavilion. Though some
feared that the Bruin players’ loyalty to Lavin ““ and,
perhaps more importantly, to Lavin’s less-disciplined
approach ““ might have made for a difficult adjustment,
Howland seemed happy with what he called an “attentive”
audience.
“They were all sitting on the edges of their seats, making
eye contact,” said Guerrero, who was also there. “To
the person, I’d say they’ve already bought
in.”
If Guerrero is right, expect a different kind of Bruin team from
day one. In Pitt’s Sweet 16 game against Marquette, Howland
benched three-point specialist Donatas Zavackas minutes after the
senior pouted because Howland took him out of the game.
The Panthers missed a potential game-tying three-pointer minutes
later and lost, 77-74.
“Kids make mistakes,” said an unapologetic but
compassionate Howland.
Howland practices the kind of tough love that sometimes turns
players off but more often earns him ardent defenders.
Howland phoned one of his players, Chevon Troutman, after taking
the UCLA job. When Troutman told him about a bloody nose he had
suffered, Howland called up Pitt’s trainer to make sure
Troutman got himself checked out.
“It’s always something,” Howland said,
smiling.
Bruin fans who suffered through this season and who feel the
next one can’t start any sooner can take that comment to
heart.