'There's a lot of work to be done'

As UCLA’s season mercifully wound down and a coaching change went from probable to inevitable, it seemed all that Bruin fans wanted was someone not named Steve Lavin coaching their team.

The fans finally got their wish. Ben Howland sat down at the UCLA Athletics Hall of Fame on Thursday sporting less hair and none of the gel of his predecessor.

The differences are more than follicle deep, too. When UCLA Athletic Director Dan Guerrero was first hired, he listed the qualities he wanted in UCLA’s coaches.

Lavin seemed to fit few of them. Howland, on the other hand, is Guerrero’s kind of guy.

“Ben stresses fundamentals and discipline, and he believes in defense and rebounding,” Guerrero said as he introduced UCLA’s new head coach.

Howland built a name for himself at Pittsburgh as a hard-nosed, no-nonsense coach who made a habit of taking sparse talent to a level nobody could imagine. His conference-champion Pitt teams were composed of players that most of the Big East’s elite didn’t even bother to recruit.

Lavin, on the other hand, had a constant flow of McDonald’s All-Americans in Westwood, but had a tough time fully utilizing them.

“There’s a lot of work to be done,” Howland said about the team he inherits.

Although he is relatively unfamiliar with his new team, Howland said he saw a few UCLA games while watching television in his bed late at night. One of his first impressions is one Bruin fans are bound to appreciate.

“The big thing is, we need to get some guys into the weight room,” Howland said. “The bigger and stronger we are, the better off we’re going to be.”

Pittsburgh’s starting front line averaged over 240 pounds. UCLA’s biggest starter last season was wiry freshman Ryan Hollins, listed rather generously at 215 pounds.

UCLA players met with Howland on Thursday morning for about a half an hour in the locker room at Pauley Pavilion. Though some feared that the Bruin players’ loyalty to Lavin – and, perhaps more importantly, to Lavin’s less-disciplined approach – might have made for a difficult adjustment, Howland seemed happy with what he called an “attentive” audience.

“They were all sitting on the edges of their seats, making eye contact,” said Guerrero, who was also there. “To the person, I’d say they’ve already bought in.”

If Guerrero is right, expect a different kind of Bruin team from day one. In Pitt’s Sweet 16 game against Marquette, Howland benched three-point specialist Donatas Zavackas minutes after the senior pouted because Howland took him out of the game.

The Panthers missed a potential game-tying three-pointer minutes later and lost, 77-74.

“Kids make mistakes,” said an unapologetic but compassionate Howland.

Howland practices the kind of tough love that sometimes turns players off but more often earns him ardent defenders.

Howland phoned one of his players, Chevon Troutman, after taking the UCLA job. When Troutman told him about a bloody nose he had suffered, Howland called up Pitt’s trainer to make sure Troutman got himself checked out.

“It’s always something,” Howland said, smiling.

Bruin fans who suffered through this season and who feel the next one can’t start any sooner can take that comment to heart.