Ben Howland Quotes:- Ben Howland (born May 28, 1957) is an American college basketball coach who most recently served as the men’s head coach at Mississippi State University from 2015 to 2022. He served as the head men’s basketball coach at Northern Arizona University from 1994 to 1999, the University of Pittsburgh from 1999 to 2003, and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) from 2003 to 2013.
Inspirational Ben Howland Quotes
“You can never blame somebody for wanting to go home.”
Ben Howland
“For the most part, I’ve been very, very blessed and lucky to have great kids. We want to recruit great kids, good people. For the most part, we’ve done that.”
Ben Howland
“I always think I put more pressure on myself than I feel from anywhere else.”
Ben Howland
“I’m a good person and a good guy.”
Ben Howland
“If you went and did a microscopic investigative report at Kentucky, Kansas, Duke, Carolina, and 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
“I watch a lot of games and analyze a lot.”
Ben Howland
“Las Vegas is a big draw. There are a lot of things to do there other than basketball.”
Ben Howland
“Winning, to me, is relief; losing is like dying. It’s gut-wrenching.”
Ben Howland
“We need to play tough defense and have a sound offense. But mostly, we have to outrebound the other team.”
Ben Howland
“You have more control of things if you play defense. And you can control how you play defense, too, with effort and preparation.”
Ben Howland
“Putting your feet in ice-cold water? That’s not fun.”
Ben Howland
“There are things that I will think about, that I have been a part of because I was the head coach at UCLA, that I will always cherish. I grew up loving this program as a kid.”
Ben Howland
50+ Powerful Ben Howland Quotes
“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
“I was raised to believe you are supposed to love everybody.”
Ben Howland
“It’s hard to get a job. There are more lawyers within a five-mile radius of wherever you’re sitting than there are Division I jobs.”
Ben Howland
“I will never leave UCLA and will stay at UCLA as long they will have me.”
Ben Howland
“What is the NCAA going to do a program if a kid leaves before two years? You can’t control it. The NBA is the one that has to control it.”
Ben Howland
“There’s no question we made a couple of mistakes there at UCLA at the very end.”
Ben Howland
“My first introduction to Russell Westbrook was as a leader. It was pretty impressive.”
Ben Howland
“My dad taught not only tolerance but appreciation for every human being.”
Ben Howland
“At UCLA, there will always be high expectations. That’s why you want to play here or coach here.”
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
Ben Howland Motivational Quotes
“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
“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
“You should want to run if you’re a player, shouldn’t you, on offense?”
Ben Howland
“The thing about New York is it is so exciting with so much to do.”
Ben Howland
“I have a strong belief in God.”
Ben Howland
“We’ve got to get everybody to sacrifice, be on the same page, be a team.”
Ben Howland
“The field-goal percentage is very important.”
Ben Howland
“I had a relationship with John Wooden. I spoke at his memorial service.”
Ben Howland
“I get to work with the best and the brightest at UCLA. We get to recruit great kids, and that makes coaching very fun for me.”
Ben Howland
“One thing a shooter loves is to make his first shot. He makes his first shot from three; that builds confidence.”
Ben Howland
Ben Howland Appreciation Quotes
“Usually, you have a feel for what a kid’s abilities are by the end of their sophomore year.”
Ben Howland
“Pittsburgh is a football town.”
Ben Howland
“No one is perfect. I would never claim to be that person.”
Ben Howland
“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.”
Ben Howland
“One of the very best things about being a coach or student-athlete at UCLA is if you need medical attention, you won’t find any better place in the country than at the incomparable UCLA Medical Center.”
Ben Howland
“When you take over a screwed-up situation, you need time.”
Ben Howland
“You’re only as good as your next game.”
Ben Howland
“It still comes down to attracting players, and UCLA can attract players as well as any place in the country.”
Ben Howland
“The Reeves Nelson debacle 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
Famous Quotes by Ben Howland
“I know I’m a really good coach.”
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
“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
“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 blackouts going on.”
Ben Howland
“I love to visit New York, but Los Angeles, to me, is a great city.”
Ben Howland
“That’s why I’m here at UCLA – to help them win a national championship.”
Ben Howland
“I just like to win.”
Ben Howland
Top 10 Quotes by Ben Howland
“I don’t always show my emotion. You don’t always get to see it.”
Ben Howland
“My team at Pittsburgh is the greatest example of unselfishness and giving of oneself. They bought into that, and it’s brought those kids championships, and it’s brought all those kids so much glory.”
Ben Howland
“UCLA will always be involved with great players, and those players always draw scrutiny. That’s just the way it is.”
Ben Howland
“The number one thing in recruiting in terms of making it a great job is players in your own area.”
Ben Howland
“Everybody makes mistakes. I’m definitely not perfect.”
Ben Howland
“Typically, you’ll see that zones work better in November than in February. As the season goes on, teams get better and better at attacking zones, and it becomes harder to become an effective zone defense as the season progresses. But early on, it can be good at times.”
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
“It’s very painful to lose, and it’s a very difficult process to go through, especially at a place like UCLA where the standards are very high.”
Ben Howland
“I just try to control what I can control.”
Ben Howland
