Looking forward, looking back
Watch: UCLA Season Highlights
Pitt Season Highlights
SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Ben Howland said he didn't want to talk about it. But he did.
When the inevitable question came only a few minutes into Saturday's postgame press conference about facing his former school, Pittsburgh, in Thursday's West regional semifinals, the UCLA coach didn't exactly duck it. But, appropriately, he first wanted to finish answering questions about the Bruins' 54-49 win over Indiana that sends them to San Jose, Calif.
His plan backfired when nobody offered any such queries.
He leaned back and said, "OK, now we're talking about Pitt then," amid suppressed laughter in the room.
He took a deep breath, then talked nonstop for nearly two minutes.
"My daughter's a student at Pitt. I was there for four years," Howland said. "I was very blessed to be hired by Steve Pederson. It was really just, to begin with, an unbelievable break of a lifetime for somebody to go from the West Coast and the mountains of Flagstaff to Pittsburgh.
"Everybody laughed at that. Then I hired an assistant out of Hawaii, OK? So instead of your No. 1 assistant being an East Coast guy who knows everything and knows everybody, I went as far away as you could possibly go because I knew how good [current Pittsburgh head coach] Jamie [Dixon] was. What a great coach and assistant."
But Howland wasn't done. He then related how convincing Dixon – whose wife is from Hawaii – to move to Pittsburgh was "one of the great recruiting jobs of all time," given that the Panthers were playing in the Fitzgerald Field House, "the most dilapidated old building you could possibly imagine."
Howland said he "was truly blessed." And when he says, "There was only one job I was ever going to leave for if I ever left Pitt, and that was UCLA," people may scoff. But Howland sure seems to mean it.
He also seemed relieved to be reliving his great times at Pittsburgh, given that the Bruins' ticket to San Jose – and the opportunity to oppose the program he built – nearly disappeared amid a furious Hoosier rally.
UCLA squandered a 16-point lead to a team that had totaled a whole 18 points until a little more than 13 minutes remained in the game. The Hoosiers took the lid off their basket and went on a 31-15 run in the next 12 minutes to tie the game with a minute left and send Arco Arena into a frenzy.
It would have marked perhaps UCLA's worst-ever NCAA tournament collapse. But the Bruins coolly scored the game's final five points at the foul line.
Coincidentally, Pittsburgh also blew a huge second-half lead before edging VCU in overtime hours earlier.
Which set up the game everybody has been talking about. So who's his daughter going to root for?
"No question. She loves her daddy," Howland said. "She's been on a full scholarship now for 22 years; she'd better be pulling for me."
And Howland kept going, introducing his wife to reporters in the room and reminding her to make sure their daughter has tickets to San Jose, then relating that his daughter babysat the Dixon children.
"I've known Jamie since he was 17 years old," Howland said. "Jamie was a great player. He won two Southwest Conference titles at TCU …"
And he couldn't contain himself, rambling some more until he wrapped it up.
"It should be a great game," Howland said.
And it's one he's savoring.
