SAN JOSE “”mdash; For anyone that’s covered the UCLA team long enough, what happened at Friday’s press conference should come as no surprise. As Arron Afflalo sat down to answer the first question at the press conference, Howland interrupted him in order to quiet down the noise in the back.
Howland would go on to interrupt the press conference three more times. Once was in an attempt to correct a reporter who mentioned in a question directed to junior guard Afflalo that Kansas didn’t have a particular go-to player.
“That’s your opinion that they don’t have a go-to player, right?” Howland asked.
Another time, Howland talked to the moderator, suggesting that in the future, he be allowed to make an opening statement before opening the floor to questions to players, so that they could leave quicker and he could answer all of his questions afterward.
Howland also interrupted once more to try and quiet the noise in the back.
When Howland was asked why he felt the need to interject, he had this to say: “I think when you have a press conference, it should be run to where there’s respect toward the players No. 1, up here, so that we can all hear, and respect to you so you’re able to get exactly what they’re saying, not have people talking over in the background. “¦ I don’t know if you can tell this, but I’m a detail-oriented guy.”
The fact that Howland is so detail-oriented is one of the reasons why the players on the team respond so well to him.
“I think it’s important in your pursuit of perfection, you have to pay attention to the detail,” Afflalo said. “A lot of people get caught up in the bigger picture. As you grow and mature a little bit, you understand it’s the small things that makes that bigger picture work.”
The players also talked about Howland’s enthusiasm on the sidelines. Howland can frequently be seen standing up, pacing, and screaming out at players where to go and what to do during the course of any game. While some players might take exception to such behavior, the UCLA players love it.
“Ben is going to continue to be Ben,” sophomore point guard Darren Collison said. “He’s going to be really detailed and if he feels that something is not going right, he’ll be the first one to tell you.
“But I mean, how would you want it better? That’s our coach. You don’t want a coach just staying in the shadows and not saying anything. You want a coach that is more like a cousin.”
COLLISON/FARMAR: Another topic that came up at the press conference was the now infamous punch that Collison threw at former teammate Jordan Farmar in practice last season.
The story goes that Farmar was talking trash to Collison when they were matched up against each other, and Collison just lost it and connected with Farmar on a swing.
Collison reserved comment when the topic was brought up at the press conference, but addressed it in his sit down with the media immediately afterward.
“Anytime you have two competitors going at it, it’s going to happen,” Collison said. “We were competing for a spot, but by the end of the day, we were always cool. He was my boy and we did things respectfully.”
BUSY KEATING: While assistant coach Kerry Keating has had enough on his mind worrying about UCLA, his name is being mentioned in many different contexts as the season winds down.
Keating’s name is being mentioned in connection with head coaching jobs that have opened up all over the country, including jobs at Santa Clara and Long Beach State.
When the Bruins take on Kansas on Saturday, there is yet another story line for Keating: His dad is the senior athletic administrator at Kansas.
PRACTICE MOVED: Howland was concerned about his team’s mind-set after doing extended media interviews at HP Pavilion on Thursday. So rather than put his team through their scheduled practice at the arena after the 1:30 press conference, Howland had them practice earlier in the morning at a local community college.
“After you go through this whole deal, the focus would not be as good having to go through and answer nine million questions, deal what we deal with in terms of an hour-and-a-half media session,” Howland said. “So we did it this morning. That isn’t something that would have been ideal. Ideal would (to) not have to do this at all, just concentrate on the game.”
DRIBBLERS: Former Bruins Baron Davis and Matt Barnes attended Thursday’s game versus Pitt and attended the Bruins’ first two games last weekend in Sacramento. Former UCLA center Bill Walton was also in attendance. Nearly 300 UCLA students were in attendance at Thursday’s game, and they figure to make up a large part of Saturday’s crowd at HP Pavilion.