Change May Be Howland’s Most Effective Pitch

Here is the challenge for every coach who soon will be preparing to face Ben Howland in his early days as UCLA coach.

Try putting together a scouting report on a chameleon.

For all his accomplishments -- the national coach-of-the-year honors last season, the consecutive Sweet 16s -- there is nothing more extraordinary about Howland than his ability to adapt to his surroundings.

Put a tape of Pittsburgh in the VCR, and fast-forward.

The Bruins are not going to become Big East bruisers overnight under Howland, but you can bet they will play grinding defense and rebound.

Now pop in a tape of Northern Arizona when Howland coached there in the 1990s, and watch the three-pointers fly.

Could UCLA be about to lead the nation in three-point shooting three seasons in a row the way the Lumberjacks did then?

The answer is probably not, but be prepared: Howland is poised to reinvent himself yet again.

“Remarkable, isn’t it?” said Northern Arizona Coach Mike Adras, an assistant under Howland when Howland coached at the school from 1994-99. “The way I knew Ben from here, he’s completely redefined himself as a coach.

“Most coaches say, ‘This is how I do it and this is how I’m going to do it.’ What he does is assess the situation of the league he’s competing in and goes and figures out what he needs to do to win that league. He’s got a great gift for it, without a doubt.”

Here’s the twist: At UCLA, for the first time in Howland’s coaching career, the surroundings would adapt to him.

“At UCSB and Northern Arizona, he couldn’t recruit McDonald’s All-Americans,” said retired UC Santa Barbara coach Jerry Pimm, Howland’s boss for 11 seasons. “He could get better players at Pitt.

“I think what you have at UCLA is the opportunity to recruit the very best players in the country. I think he’d try to mix in the McDonald’s All-Americans with the guys who are hard-workers.... Guys who want to be in the weight room, want to go to study hall, go to class, be on time and will do the things you have to do to have an opportunity to be successful.

“He recruits players who want to do it his way and will play 100% at the defensive end and will go rebound. And if they don’t want to do that, they won’t play for him.

“That’s the way he has always been. He hasn’t changed in that respect, from the 10 years he recruited for me until now.”

In other respects, Howland has morphed into a new coach at every stop.

As an assistant at UC Santa Barbara, he helped Pimm put together the teams of Santa Barbara’s heyday, when UCSB and Nevada Las Vegas used to clash on ESPN’s Big Monday and Santa Barbara upset the No. 2-ranked Rebels during their national championship season in 1989-90.

Among the players who credit Howland with recruiting them to Santa Barbara: Brian Shaw of the Lakers.

Howland moved on to Northern Arizona in 1994, taking over a moribund program to begin his career as a head coach.

His first Northern Arizona team was 9-17. His second was

7-19.

That’s when Adras said Howland rethought his strategy, leaning on close friend Rick Majerus to help find a new style that would work in Flagstaff.

“We changed our approach in recruiting,” Adras said. “We decided we needed kids from, at that point, smaller towns, who just wanted to play basketball. Guys who were under the radar, so to speak. Guys who wanted to come in here and prove people wrong.

“Before, it was more athletic guys, guys with reputations as good players. For lack of a better word, guys with sketchy backgrounds. We spent more time trying to baby-sit guys than coaching players. Then we changed and got kids with great backgrounds who just wanted to prove themselves. And we took off.”

In 1997, Northern Arizona led the nation in three-point shooting at 41.9% and the Lumberjacks’ record soared to 21-7. In 1998, they led the three-point statistics again, at 43%, and reached the NCAA tournament for the first time in school history, almost pulling off a huge upset before losing to second-seeded Cincinnati on a three-pointer in the final seconds.

In 1999, they not only led the nation in three-point shooting, at 44.5%, but also became the first team in NCAA history to simultaneously lead the country in field-goal percentage, at 52.3%.

From there it was on to Pittsburgh, where Howland started with point guard Brandin Knight, then sought the brawn he needed to compete in the Big East.

The Panthers went from 13-15 his first season to 19-14 his second to 29-6 last season, when they reached the Sweet 16 and he was named national coach of the year by the Associated Press, among others.

This season, with Knight complemented by tough defenders Julius Page and Jaron Brown on the wings and Chevon Troutman and Donatas Zavackas inside, Howland’s team reached the Sweet 16 again before losing to Marquette.

The blue-collar Panthers were fifth in the nation in scoring defense at 59.2 points a game, sixth in the nation in defensive field-goal percentage at 39%, and ranked in the top 10 in rebounding margin.

Surprisingly, they also ranked near the top of the offensive field-goal percentage list, an indication not of a stable of great shooters in this case, but great shot selection.

What could all this mean for UCLA?

“I wouldn’t see him going in saying, ‘OK, we’re not going to score points,’ ” Adras said. “He’s going to know what type of players he’d be able to get. He’d convince those players to play defense, become one of the best defenses in the league. And they’d score more than at Pitt, that’s for sure.”

Pimm envisions Howland’s teams running when they have the players to do it.

“Eventually, he’d like to play fast and play as much of the court as he can defensively,” Pimm said.

“The bottom line is getting good shots and making good shots, and limiting the opponent’s good shots, not letting them get second shots.

“He’ll do whatever his personnel dictates.

“That’s why he’s a winner.”