Ben Howland Quotes

Ben Howland

Profession : Coach

Birth : May 28, 1957

How many people do you know who love their jobs? Did your dad love his job? Was he passionate about it? Because I am. I love it. I love the relationships. I love teaching. I love the competition. I love everything about it.

Ben Howland

One thing I've always prided myself on is understanding that to have success, you have to have high-character kids.

Ben Howland

I can't think of much higher praise to give a player than to say, 'This point guard reminds me of Jason Kidd.'

Ben Howland

You're only as good as your next game.

Ben Howland

The summer in Arizona is too hot.

Ben Howland

You can never blame somebody for wanting to go home.

Ben Howland

I always think I put more pressure on myself than I feel from anywhere else.

Ben Howland

Winning, to me, is relief; losing is like dying. It's gut-wrenching.

Ben Howland

I know I'm a really good coach.

Ben Howland

The Reeves Nelson debacle, that hurt me. There are certain things regarding him that I couldn't say then and still can't. But I should have pulled the plug on him after his sophomore year. We tried to make it work, but we couldn't make it happen.

Ben Howland

For the most part, I've been very, very blessed and been lucky to have great kids. We want to recruit great kids, good people. For the most part, we've done that.

Ben Howland

There's no question that I've made mistakes along the way when you look at recruiting in terms of evaluations of players or character in an instance or two.

Ben Howland

I don't know where people got that I didn't have a good relationship with my players. I'm demanding, yes; I'm on their butt. I expect 100%, but they all knew I loved them, I cared for them, and I'll always be there for them.

Ben Howland

This is UCLA. The expectations are higher here than anywhere. The amount of success both in terms of championships and wins as well as success off the floor has been second to none in college basketball. I knew that when I took this job. I know the expectation level, and no one has higher expectations than I do.

Ben Howland

I'm a good person and a good guy.

Ben Howland

I'm a good coach. I do the right things for my players, and I try to support them; I try to help them almost to a fault.

Ben Howland

Tweeting - let's be honest: it's like I'm the center of the universe; it's all about me. Everybody is listening to my every thought, and my current thought at this very moment is... it's ridiculous.

Ben Howland

If you went and did a microscopic investigative report at Kentucky, Kansas, Duke, Carolina, Indiana - what are you talking about? You're always going to have some stuff come out that will be looked upon as not being good.

Ben Howland

You're not going to see Bill Walton or Kareem coming in every three years. Those days are over. That's what makes the job so difficult. But it's the dream job for anyone who has spent a career in coaching and has a sense of what UCLA means.

Ben Howland

I watch a lot of games and analyze a lot.

Ben Howland