Men’s Basketball: Former players defend Ben Howland

Two former Pitt men’s basketball players disagreed with a Sports Illustrated story released… Two former Pitt men’s basketball players disagreed with a Sports Illustrated story released this week that described former Panther head coach Ben Howland as a hands-off coach who doesn’t punish players who break team rules like partying on nights before games and intentionally injuring other players during practice.

Howland, the coach credited with returning the Pitt men’s basketball program to prominence, has been the Bruins’ head coach for nine years. He appeared at the center of a story that suggested that UCLA men’s basketball, one of the game’s most prestigious programs, was spiraling out of control.

However, some of Howland’s former Pitt players said they don’t believe that Sports Illustrated’s portrayal of their former head coach was accurate.

“You just don’t know what to believe,” former Pitt guard Jaron Brown said. “That wasn’t the Coach Howland I knew.”

Brown played for the Panthers from 1999 to 2004.

One of Brown’s former teammates, Julius Page, a guard for the Panthers from 2000 to 2004, said that Howland positively influenced both Page and his teammates.

“I feel like Coach Howland did a great job at doing everything in his power to make sure we were doing the right things,” Page said. “At the same time, there are only so many hours in a day he can coach. If the players are going to go out and party at 11 o’clock at night, there isn’t much he can do.”

Brown agreed with his old teammate.

“Coach Howland believed that we were mature enough to handle our own personal business,” Brown said, “But when we were together as a team, he did everything he could to make sure we were all on the same page and had team unity.”

Howland coached the Panthers from 1999 to 2003 and after two years of rebuilding, led Pitt to back-to-back trips to the Sweet Sixteen round of the NCAA Tournament in 2002 and 2003. After taking the Panthers to the Sweet Sixteen for the first time since 1974, he was named National Coach of the Year in 2002 by five major media outlets.

After moving to UCLA in 2003, Howland led the Bruins to three consecutive trips to the Final Four. But the early success has been followed by recent struggles and the Sports Illustrated story has put more pressure on Howland.

Page said that Pitt’s current head coach Jamie Dixon, who came to Pittsburgh as an assistant coach under Howland, has a similar coaching style to his predecessor.

“Coach Howland and Jamie Dixon are both what I would call players’ coaches,” Page said. “They relate to their players, expect them to be mature and allow them to police themselves, but that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t call them hands-off coaches.

“Both coaches really care about their players.”