You might say that Ben Howland has gone into the family business.
His three siblings are all teachers. His mother taught English at a junior college for 20 years. His father was a minister, certainly a teaching profession. It’s just that Howland’s classroom at UCLA will be a little different than what other members of his family have experienced. His pedagogical forum will be the court of Pauley Pavilion, where, as UCLA’s new head basketball coach, he will be tackling one of the toughest teaching jobs of all: molding the character and skills of athletically talented and highly competitive young men in an environment where expectations are high.
“If you’re not willing to risk failure, you’ll never really enjoy true success,” Howland says. “Every job in this business of coaching has pressure, probably even more so in terms of expectation levels. You can’t be afraid of pressure. I’m going to go right at it.”
Introducing Howland to the press in April, Athletic Director Dan Guerrero ’74 said it was “a very proud moment” for UCLA. “We got our man,” Guerrero said. “I looked for someone with integrity, someone who can achieve on the court at a very high level. Ben stresses fundamentals of discipline and believes in defense and rebounding. His teams play with chemistry and intensity. We expect big things from Ben, no more than what Ben expects of himself.”
Said Howland: “I understand what a privilege it is to be the basketball coach here at UCLA. To work for and represent UCLA, one of the most outstanding institutions of higher learning and research, is a dream come true that started for me as a kid.”
Howland grew up watching UCLA basketball on TV in the late ’60s and early ’70s. Lew Alcindor, Bill Walton, Keith Wilkes — those were the players he decided he wanted to emulate on the court.
“I remember wishing I could be a Bruin,” he says. At age 8, he started playing basketball every day in the summer at the Boys Club in Goleta, Calif. During Howland’s sophomore year in high school, his father became the minister of a church in Norwalk and the family made plans to relocate to nearby Cerritos. So eager was Howland to play for the Cerritos High School basketball team that he moved south two months before his family did so he wouldn’t miss the start of the season.
That sort of enthusiasm and dogged persistence proved useful when Howland went on to college, playing guard at Santa Barbara City College and at Weber State University in Ogden, Utah. Weber State went to the NCAA tournament in 1978 and 1979, and Howland was named the team’s Most Valuable Defensive Player both years. He received his physical education degree in 1980 and played professionally in South America for a year.
His first coaching job was as an assistant at Gonzaga University in Spokane, Wash., where he was unexpectedly pressed into service as a backup guard in practice against John Stockton. “We had no idea at that time how good he was going to be,” says Howland of the future Utah Jazz star and NBA all-time leader in assists and steals. While coaching, Howland earned his master’s degree in administration and physical education at Gonzaga.
In 1982, Howland moved to UC Santa Barbara, where he served as an assistant coach for 12 years until he was hired, in 1994, as head coach at Northern Arizona University, taking over a program that was ranked 280th out of 290 Division I schools.
After a couple of rough years, Howland built the program into a 21-game winner for each of the next three seasons, and in 1998 the Lumberjacks went to the NCAA tournament for the first time in school history, after capturing the Big Sky Tournament championship.
The next year, Howland was made head coach at the University of Pittsburgh. His Panthers reached the NCAA Sweet 16 in 2002 and 2003 and won the 2003 Big East Tournament championship. Howland was named National Coach of the Year in 2002, and Pittsburgh finished the 2003 season with a sizzling 28-5 record and a No. 4 ranking on the final AP poll.
Now at UCLA, Howland says he feels like he has come home. He hired Donny Daniels, former head coach at Cal State Fullerton, and Kerry Keating, former assistant coach at the University of Tennessee, to be part of his staff and has brought assistant coach Ernie Zeigler with him from Pittsburgh. Director of Operations Chris Carlson, who worked with Howland at UCSB, Northern Arizona and Pitt, has also joined Howland at UCLA.
“One of the main reasons I have continued my working relationship with Coach Howland is that he always instills in his colleagues the feeling that they, too, have ownership in the program,” Carlson says. “In that sense, you always feel as if you have a stake in what is going on around you, and that your position is more than just a job.”
That feeling has spilled over to the players, who have already begun individual regimens of strength conditioning and weight lifting. Howland is excited about the work ethic the team is showing. He’s also pleased about the department’s academic support programs, declaring that UCLA is doing “a great job” in helping student-athletes reach their potential in the classroom.
Emphasis on academics is one big reason Chancellor Albert Carnesale was sold on Howland. “We conducted an exhaustive search for the new coach and decided that Ben Howland is the perfect choice for UCLA,” says Chancellor Carnesale. “He understands the importance of academic and athletic excellence at UCLA, and he will ensure that his players meet both their scholastic and their athletic goals.”
Since Howland’s arrival, UCLA has received a verbal commitment from prized recruit Arron Afflalo, a 6-foot-4-inch, 180-pound guard from Centennial High School in Compton. Afflalo, with a 3.25 GPA, is considered the No. 1 shooting guard on the West Coast for the Class of 2004 and is expected to sign a national letter of intent in November.
The fact that Howland’s first recruit is such a sought-after player sends a powerful message, say those who watch such things closely.
“I think [Howland] pretty much laid down the law that there’s a new sheriff in town,” said Dave Nahabedian of Networx Scouting Service in a recent interview with the Pasadena Star News. “I think people knew this day was coming, when the so-called sleeping giant would awaken. And for Howland to get this done basically by himself is really, really impressive. Arron’s a well-liked kid, and I think his commitment sends a message to other recruits that UCLA is once again a top contender for elite players on the West Coast.”
While landing Afflalo is a coup, Howland also likes what he sees in his current players. T.J. Cummings and Dijon Thompson are going to be team leaders, he says. He’s enthusiastic about the progress of centers Ryan Hollins and Michael Fey and looks forward to working with point guard Cedric Bozeman, who is recovering from shoulder surgery.
“We have a lot of work to do,” Howland says. “But my plan is that once we get to where we want to be, we’ll be able to sustain it because of the resources, because of the tradition, because of all the things we’re able to offer these young men.”
Howland has already reached his first goal, that of becoming a Bruin. “I wasn’t good enough to play here, but the opportunity to coach here is even better,” he says. “You know, as a player you only get to stay for four years. I hope to stay a lot longer than that.”
