Folks who are regular readers on BN have a pretty good idea about our ongoing love affair with Coach Ben Howland, who many of us believe is simply the best college basketball coach in America. Heck, in my eyes, if not for the Zen Master, I would consider Coach Howland as the best basketball coach in America.
I don’t think we need to go over Coach Howland’s numbers at UCLA to make the argument about what an amazing job he has done at Westwood. But, if you really want to appreciate what kind of coach Ben Howland is, take a look at up to date conference standings on ESPN:
- UCLA, Howland’s current team is of course at the top of Pac-10;
- Pittsburgh, Howland’s former team, under the direction of Jamie Dixon (perhaps Coach Howland’s heir apparent in Westwood 10-15 years down the line) is just 1 game out of first place in the Big East and is still in position to win its third consecutive regular season Big-East title
- Northern Arizona, the program where Howland coached before Pittsburgh, is just one game out of first place in the Big Sky conference, which leads us to
- Weber State, Howland’s alma mater is sitting atop the Big-Sky conference and was listed as a probable matchup for our Ben Ball warriors in Lunardi's ESPN brackets from last week.
If you are going to judge a coach by how his assistants have carried on his legacy or what kind if imprint he left behind at the programs he moved on from, Coach Howland’s record is nothing short of remarkable.
We are lucky to have this guy leading the greatest program of all time. And guess what everyone in Bruin Nation knows it.
Jason over at What’s Bruin, Dawg went as far as to suggest perhaps Coach Howland should be coaching our football team. LOL
And remember those "Howland is My Homeboy" t-shirts? Well, the word we are hearing is that since we posted the link, the t-shirts sold out fast. I know M tried to get a hold on one. I tried myself. But we haven’t been successful. Gotta say they look awesome. Here is Meredith Howland and her friends sporting those sweet t-shirts:
Coach’s daughter (second from right) was kind enough to give us her permission (via facebook) to post that picture on BN.
If you want to still try to get a hold of those t-shirts you can try going to the website and contacting those folks via information posted on their website.
As for me, yeah, sure I would have loved to get one of those t-shirts. But it doesn’t matter. I got Howland fever baby. Here is to UCLA doubling Coach’s salary after the season is over and making sure he is locked in Westwood at least for a decade, before Coach Dixon comes in to gun for more banners in Westwood.
GO BRUINS.