Bumped from fanposts. - BN Eds.

Failing to prepare is preparing to fail.

- John Wooden

In order to evaluate Howland's weeknight/weekend record, we have to look at only conference games since you play each team both home and away and for the last several years, each on a weeknight and a weekend. However, games with USC should not be counted because unlike for other opponents (a) you get a full week of preparation for weekend games and (b) there is no travel for the visiting team.

Not counting this season, Howland's record for the weeknight games is quite good, 58-14 (80.6%). Breaking that down even further, he is almost unbeatable in home weeknight conference games, 34-2 (94.4%), including the last 32 in a row (not counting a few USC wins).

On the other hand, his record in weekend games is a rather mediocre 39-33 (54.2%).

Evidence that these numbers are closely associated with preparation time, we see a linear trend. He has the most time for home weeknight games (94% winning pct), next for road weeknight games (67%), then home weekend games (64%) and least for road weekend games (44%). Unfortunately this isn't football where you get a whole week to prepare for every game.

So what is the reason for the wildly imbalanced numbers? Only a small percentage of that is explained by strength of oppposition on weekends versus weekdays. (For his first few seasons, you would play the same team on a weekend both home and away, usually the stronger of the two. But now, the schedule is rotated so that you play everyone equally on weekdays and weekends at home and on the road.) Does he spend way too much time obsessing on every little detail for the first game while neglecting the second? Are his teams in such poor condition that they can't play hard enough with a short turnaround time? Or maybe he just takes weekends off (24-26 overall the last four years).