Big Ben Clocks In

It was pretty enough to be a painting.

The new UCLA basketball coach was choking up on the dais, his parents and family were smiling in the wings, stories about Wooden and Walton were flowing like Wilkes.

At first glance, Ben Howland’s homecoming news conference Thursday was a masterpiece.

But on closer inspection, there was a smudge.

Actually, a fingerprint.

His name is Sonny Vaccaro.

Officially, he is the boss of Adidas sports. Unofficially, he brokers the hiring of college basketball coaches.

Because Athletic Director Dan Guerrero didn’t interview many top candidates, and because UCLA is negotiating an extension of its $19-million deal with Adidas, there is a perception that Vaccaro hired Howland.

“I knew this would happen,” Vaccaro said with a laugh from his New Orleans penthouse suite, where he is holding court at the Final Four. “All these great people at that press conference, and I’m the one getting all the attention? I mean, that’s just silly.”

Is it?

In the spring of 1999, it was Vaccaro who sold Pittsburgh on an unknown Northern Arizona coach named Ben Howland.

“I’m more proud of that than anything,” he said. “Now that was a miracle.”

During the last several years, it was Vaccaro who served as the most official critic of Steve Lavin, hammering him frequently on local talk radio.

“With UCLA, we haven’t received a return on our investment lately,” Vaccaro said.

Finally, it was Vaccaro who admittedly pushed Howland toward Guerrero this winter when it was obvious that Lavin was going to be fired.

“But I gave him four names, all great coaches, any of them would have been fine,” Vaccaro said. “I never rated my choices.”

But considering Howland was coming from an Adidas school, Pittsburgh, wasn’t the choice clear?

“But it didn’t matter where he came from, the new UCLA coach would be an Adidas coach once he got there,” Vaccaro said. “I didn’t care about that. I only cared about what was best for the school.”

The school, the investment, it’s the same thing to shoe companies that supply college programs with money and athletic apparel in hopes of seeing their logo splashed around the media.

It’s not new, it’s not illegal, and in the case of a state school such as UCLA, it’s actually pretty smart, according to Chancellor Albert Carnesale.

“The money helps us run a quality athletic program that is not paid for by the taxpayer,” he said Thursday.

It is a particularly lucrative deal for the Bruins because the money comes to the general athletic fund and benefits all sports.

But sooner or later, that bill comes due.

On Thursday, it landed on UCLA’s doorstep in the form of a distracting notion that it rushed to judgment for the sake of a sneaker.

The more the Bruin bosses wanted to celebrate the hire, the more they were asked to defend the process.

Said Carnesale: “Until we were at the point of actually hiring Ben, nobody even mentioned Adidas to me.”

Added Guerrero: “Sonny Vaccaro’s influence on this was negligible.”

Guerrero has history on his side. He has known Howland since he nearly hired him several years ago for the coaching job at UC Irvine before deciding instead to hire Pat Douglass.

“It was clear then that this guy could coach,” Guerrero said. “But I made the call to hire a guy I knew.”

That could be the case here, as well. And, face it, the Bruins could do a lot worse.

Howland’s teams at Pittsburgh accumulated coal cars full of assists while defending with elbows and effort. His love for big men and hard hits could surprise Pacific 10 basketball teams the way Pete Carroll’s love for the same thing surprised the conference’s football teams.

After meeting with the Bruins for the first time, Howland said, “We need some of those guys to get into the weight room,” and longtime observers wanted to applaud.

This could work.

If only UCLA could somehow rid itself of that infernal sneaker squeak.

“Our involvement only gives me the right to say, ‘I pray to God they pick the right guy,’ ” Vaccaro said.

But how come Guerrero didn’t interview more guys? While he says that Howland wasn’t his only interview, he never talked to top candidates Mark Few, Rick Majerus, Roy Williams or Tom Crean.

All four have coached better games than Howland in this year’s NCAA tournament.

In fact, Howland, who has lost to underdogs in consecutive tournaments, appeared to be hurt by his legendary intensity in Pitt’s loss to Marquette last weekend. Late in the game he called a timeout, but by the time he had finished conferring with his coaches, the timeout was finished, so he had to call another one to talk to the players.

Observers of recent seasons will say, hey, at least this guy calls timeouts.

Others will say, hey, at least this guy talks to his coaches.

It’s all about perception.

In this matter, it seems Dan Guerrero is learning on the job.

It would have been nice, after all, if Ben Howland could have started his UCLA career without everyone waiting for the other Adidas to drop.

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Bill Plaschke can be reached at bill.plaschke@latimes.com.