Ben Howland sat slumped in his hotel lounge chair and bemoaned
his fate.
Not so much because his UCLA Bruins had lost the previous night
to Oregon State and would ultimately have to back into a mere
Pac-10 Tournament bid.
And certainly not because he could very well be back at
Pittsburgh, making a legitimate run at the Final Four.
No, it was just that the side order of fries that had come with
his sandwich wasn’t to his liking. Otherwise, Howland,
sitting with his shoes off and a sweatsuit on by a toasty
fireplace, is comfortable in what he has done and confident in what
he will do.
“This is a fireside chat,” Howland joked.
Burned out the 46-year-old Howland is not ““ even after a
first regular season campaign at UCLA that saw his team go 11-16.
The masses of Bruin fans, with visions of NCAA titles dancing in
their thick skulls, can at least find solace in knowing this:
“I have zero regrets,” Howland said. “This is
about building something special. This is one of the top programs
in the history of college basketball.”
Howland believes the foundation has been laid, and who’s
to question him? Before the renovation projects he spearheaded at
Northern Arizona and Pitt ““ which is currently 27-3 and
ranked sixth in the nation ““ were completed, he had suffered
through at least one sub-.500 season at each stop.
So despite the fact UCLA is now in the middle of its
second-straight losing season for the first time since 1941-42, and
Howland thus far has manufactured only one more win than his
notorious predecessor Steve Lavin did last season, he keeps at
it.
He remains a film junkie, watching horror flicks after games in
Pauley Pavilion and on a laptop during bus trips. It’s not
like he can sleep nights, anyway.
Coaching at UCLA for Howland, after all, is his dream, one he
had since childhood in Cerritos, and one that a setback of a season
apparently won’t prevent him from living out to the
fullest.
“He never gave up on our team,” freshman Trevor
Ariza said. “He just wants us to play hard and never give up
no matter the score.
“We learned to play through adversity.”
Howland learned to coach through it, as well. His minister
father, Robert, never got to see him in action at UCLA, dying from
complications from a fall at age 76 in June, not three months after
Howland was hired.
Then, Howland saw his team lose 13 of its last 15 games after a
5-0 start in Pac-10 play. Predicted in the preseason to finish
sixth in the conference, UCLA finished tied for seventh.
The Bruins remained last in the conference in turnover margin
again and steals. They were also last in 3-pointers and
uncharacteristically near-bottom in scoring.
“He’s still going to teach players to take charges,
dive on the floor, and take good shots,” Chris Carlson,
director of operations said. “That will come.”
But Howland is also still improving himself and has even turned
to the zone defenses in the latter part of the season that he so
hated using in the past.
“He’s a better coach now than he was at NAU and at
Pitt,” said Carlson, who assisted Howland at both
schools.
When the Bruins make their expected on-court blunders, they turn
to Howland and see him with his lips pursed and his hands
clapping.
“We’ve been very, very positive with our
players,” Howland said.
He added that his players would not misinterpret it as him
having given up on them. After all …”I still
yell.”
Howland recalled how center Michael Fey had a bad habit of
re-adjusting his shorts in transition rather than immediately
racing down the other end of the floor. Fey was told the next time
he was caught doing so on film, he’d be running after
practices. And that was that.
“It’s not personal, it’s not demeaning,”
Howland said. “It’s teaching.”
“He’s a very intense coach, and you respect that
about him,” center Ryan Hollins said. “He doesn’t
go for any BS He keeps us in line.”
Howland can teach discipline, as field-goal percentage defense
and rebounding margin are up from last year, but talent
Lavin’s recruits lack can’t be taught. For the first
time in 44 years, not a single Bruin was selected for this
season’s all-Pac-10 team.
“The key to having success is having great competition
during practices,” Howland said. “Right now, we
don’t have that.”
Howland has spoken glowingly of his prized recruits ““
Jordan Farmar, Arron Afflalo, Josh Shipp and Lorenzo Mata ““
all of whom are from Southern California and said to be both
physically and mentally tough.
After all, they reflect the burning fire in him that is apparent
as he screams and cusses during practices. But at the same time,
something Howland said to his players during one practice also
reveals him to be a realist about the road toward UCLA’s
resurrection.
“He said he’s not perfect and none of us are
either,” Hollins said.