Coach Ben Howland has made plenty of recruiting trips during his time as a college basketball coach.
In 1999, Howland reached to the far ends of the U.S. to make one he’ll never forget.
During that trip to Hawaii, Howland was able to convince friend and former colleague Jamie Dixon to join him as an assistant coach at Pitt.
Both coaches’ paths will cross again Thursday as No. 2-seeded UCLA and No. 3-seeded Pitt meet in the Sweet 16.
“Me and Jamie have a very professional relationship, so we will be approaching this game just as that,” Howland said. “In the end, it’s the players who determine the outcome of the game.”
Only two players, seniors Aaron Gray and Levon Kendall, remain at Pitt from Howland’s tenure as coach, but the coach remains omnipresent.
The Panthers (29-7) play the same bruising defense Howland has brought to UCLA (28-5), and Thursday’s game has a chance of approaching the 33 first-half points scored during the Bruins’ victory over Indiana on Saturday.
“They play tough inside and are extremely physical,” junior center Lorenzo Mata said. “It’s the same thing we have been facing all year.”
Pitt’s frontline of Gray and Kendall, however, is certainly different from the average team the Bruins have faced this season in the Pac-10.
Senior center Gray runs 7 feet and 270 pounds, while redshirt senior forward Kendall is 6 feet 10 inches and 225 pounds. The Panthers feature five players over 6 feet 8 inches and three of them are seniors.
“They are an experienced team; it makes a difference,” Howland said. “We had Ryan Hollins and Cedric Bozeman as seniors during our run last year and that was a huge bonus.”
Gray leads the Panthers with 14.0 points per game and was named an All-Big East player this season.
The Bruins faced a similarly imposing presence on Saturday in junior forward D.J. White of Indiana and were able to double the Hoosier big man, but Gray presents an entirely new challenge, Howland said.
“He is a great passer and very smart player,” Howland said. “Everything starts with him inside, because if he catches it real close to the basket, it’s going to be a problem, not only for us, but for anybody.”
Mata and sophomore forward Alfred Aboya will be given the primary task of guarding Gray, but the Panthers offer much more than the senior center.
Sophomores Levance Fields and Mike Cook are the Panthers’ primary guards and the Bruins will have quite a task defensively.
“We are going to have to utilize our quickness, our athleticism, our mobility, because we are undersized,” junior guard Arron Afflalo said. “We have to take advantage of our teammates and the way we play.”
How Afflalo plays defensively, as well as offensively, against the Panthers on Thursday will be very instrumental in whether the Bruins make a return trip to the Elite Eight.
Everyone on the Bruin team knows that.
“He is our catalyst,” Aboya said. “This thing will only go as far as he carries us.”
On Thursday, the Bruins’ primary concern will just be winning its Sweet 16 game.
And although it may be expected for the Bruins to still be playing at this time in March, it’s something the team will never overlook.
“We will be playing like it could be our last game of the season,” Howland said. “This is a very, very special honor to be this far advanced in the NCAA Tournament ““ Sweet 16 ““ be one of 16 teams left playing for the national championship.”
DRIBBLERS: UCLA is 5-1 all-time versus Pitt. Pitt is making its fourth Sweet 16 appearance in six years. Howland’s daughter, Meredith Howland, is a senior at Pitt. Meredith is a former Pitt cheerleader. The Bruins last played Pitt in 1992. It is the first time in history that a former Pitt coach is coaching against his former team.