Quotes from Ben Howland

That's AAU ball. That's what you do: 'I want to get out there first and score.' You see it in games during the summer. There are not a lot of great blockouts going on.

When you take over a screwed-up situation, you need time.

UCLA will always be involved with great players, and those players always draw scrutiny. That's just the way it is.

I love to visit New York, but Los Angeles, to me, is a great city.

It's amazing, as a player and as a coach, how you always remember the tough losses better than the victories. They're just way more vivid.

I wear Johnston & Murphy, not penny loafers.

Field-goal percentage is very important.

One thing a shooter loves is to make his first shot. He makes his first shot from three; that builds confidence.

This is always one of my big pet peeves is that 65% of NBA players, three years out of the NBA, are broke. I mean, so, maybe maturing a little more on the front end and getting an education might serve you well down the road.

No one is perfect. I would never claim to be that person.

Pittsburgh is a football town.

You're always trying to learn from the past to plot a course in the future that will be better. You're always trying to learn.

I've had a number of kids in the NBA that I've coached and a number of other great players that I've coached.

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.

Northern Arizona was a job no one had ever survived, and a lot of people said I was crazy to take it. But to build a program and win there gave me a lot of confidence when people said we couldn't do it at Pitt.

You have more control of things if you play defense. And you can control how you play defense, too, with effort and preparation.

Both my children have degrees from UCLA.

My wife and I - her more than me - are really strong Christians. Her whole life revolves around studying the Bible, Bible study, after-school Bible class she does for little kids on Wednesdays, teaches Sunday school.

We've got to get everybody to sacrifice, be on same page, be a team.

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.

I don't get to fish that much, believe me.

Basketball movies don't really accentuate the flow of the game.

You can never blame somebody for wanting to go home.

I'm a good person and a good guy.