Ask UCLA coach Ben Howland what he and John Wooden were
discussing during an impromptu get-together at a Bruin gymnastics
meet earlier this month, and the answer may surprise you. It
wasn’t basketball. “All we talked about was
gymnastics,” Howland said. For almost an hour, the architect
of UCLA’s storied basketball legacy and the coach faced with
the task of restoring it watched the meet intently, dissecting back
flips instead of back picks. That the conversation never once
shifted to basketball may be the most telling indication yet that
Howland believes the UCLA program is back on solid footing on the
eve of its first NCAA Tournament appearance in three years.
“I’m happy to get this program back to where we expect
to be ““ in the NCAA Tournament,” Howland said.
“We’re headed back in the right direction as a program,
and I feel good about it.” Restoring the Mystique If you had
asked Howland last March whether he thought the Bruins could make
the NCAA Tournament this year after back-to-back losing seasons, he
would have said yes. Just maybe not with this team. Certainly the
UCLA squad that will take the court in Tucson, Ariz., tomorrow
night against Texas Tech bears only a passing resemblance to the
team Howland anticipated having. Trevor Ariza, UCLA’s
third-leading scorer and second leading rebounder as a freshman
last year, surprised Howland by choosing to enter last June’s
NBA Draft. Then three-year starter Cedric Bozeman blew out his
right anterior cruciate ligament on the eve of UCLA’s first
exhibition game in November, and key reserve Janou Rubin also
sustained a season-ending knee injury two months later. That left
UCLA with three precocious freshmen in its starting lineup and a
senior, forward Dijon Thompson, who has taken it upon himself to
raise his game and lead by example. “When you factor in some
of the adversity we’ve had to deal with, it is somewhat
surprising we’ve had so much success,” said UCLA
assistant coach Ernie Zeigler, who spent two years on
Howland’s staff at Pittsburgh before following him to
Westwood. “Coming from where this program has been the last
three years, this is a heck of an accomplishment.” The first
UCLA coach since Wooden to inherit a team with a losing record,
Howland already had a reputation for reviving ailing programs when
he was hired in April 2003 to clean up the mess that former Bruin
coach Steve Lavin left behind. At Pittsburgh, Howland took over a
losing program and led it to consecutive Sweet 16 appearances in
his third and fourth seasons, garnering national coach of the year
honors after a 29-win campaign in 2002. Before that, he enjoyed
similar success at Big Sky Conference lightweight Northern Arizona,
molding the Lumberjacks into consistent 20-game winners by his
third season in Flagstaff. The past two years, however, have been
far different than the others. This time Howland is rebuilding at
UCLA, which is more like trying to put the polish back on a Rolls
Royce. “The fact that we’re in the NCAA Tournament in
his second year is nothing short of miraculous in a lot of respects
considering where we were,” UCLA Athletic Director Dan
Guerrero said. “It was a learning process throughout the
year, but our guys believed in the coaches and grinded it
out.” In his past two stops, Howland has needed three years
to build an NCAA Tournament team, but even though he has the Bruins
going to the tournament in only his second year, he is hesitant to
say the rebuilding process is ahead of schedule. “I’m
just happy that it happened in two years,” Howland said.
The Adjustment Process There were several times last season
where Howland’s hard-nosed philosophy clashed with
UCLA’s laid-back Southern California style. In a blowout loss
at Stanford, the Bruin big men lagged behind on transition defense.
In a drubbing on senior night against Notre Dame, it was the guards
who were a step slow on dribble penetration. And in perhaps
UCLA’s worst performance of the season, a dreadful loss at
St. John’s, it was the Bruins’ lackadaisical effort
that was their undoing. The result was a frustrating 11-17 campaign
during which Howland grew progressively more frustrated as the
season deteriorated and the Bruins lost 14 of their final 16 games.
“We knew last year was going to be all about coming in and
changing a mindset that had somewhat deteriorated in previous
years,” Zeigler said. “Last year we had seniors in T.J.
Cummings and Jon Crispin, and it was hard for them to fully welcome
the challenges that the staff was presenting to them. It was a
learning process.” The adjustment to Howland’s
expectations has been much smoother in year two. Thompson has put a
much greater emphasis on defense and rebounding and embraced his
role as the team’s senior leader. Junior Michael Fey added 10
pounds of muscle to his 7-foot frame. And freshmen guards Jordan
Farmar, Arron Afflalo and Josh Shipp have showcased their toughness
and tenacity, each starting every conference game and playing over
30 minutes per night. “It’s definitely exciting,”
Zeigler said. “Our players are coming together and buying
into what coach Howland wants our program to be about.”
“This year the returning guys know what he expects from
us,” Fey said. “He’s famous for turning around
programs, so we knew it was only a matter of time before he got us
on track.” Regardless of whether UCLA springs the upset
against Texas Tech tomorrow night or bows out meekly in the first
round, the Bruins are confident in the direction of the program.
Though Thompson, UCLA’s leading scorer and rebounder this
season, will be out of eligibility after this season, five heralded
freshmen will arrive to help the returners pick up the slack.
“I’m pleased with where we are as a program, and
I’m excited about what we’ve done so far,”
Howland said. “This is a dream come true.”