UCLA’s Ben Howland in Scandal After Sports Illustrated Article

UCLA hasn’t been to the Final Four in seemingly forever due to UCLA standards, and Ben Howland is suddenly in hot water not only for the team’s downward slide, but a Sports Illustrated story by George Dohrmann, that’s suddenly covered the Bruins basketball program with dark clouds during the Howland era.

The story notes how UCLA has fallen on tough times. How they’ve lost several players to the NBA, some going at the right time like Kevin Love and others leaving too early, like Tyler Honeycutt. But unlike a typical article blaming basketball reasons on UCLA’s performance, Dohrmann digs deeper, getting to the crux of the Bruin’s “fall” as he calls it. Let’s break this thing down why don’t we.

"Over the last two months SI spoke with more than a dozen players and staff members from the past four Bruins teams. They portrayed the program as having drifted from the UCLA way as Howland allowed an influx of talented but immature recruits to undermine team discipline and morale. Fistfights broke out among teammates. Several players routinely used alcohol and drugs, sometimes before practice. One player intentionally injured teammates but received no punishment."

Immature players? Not a surprise, especially with the Reeves Nelson fiasco that we saw earlier this season. Fist fights happen between teammates, and these often get overblown by reporters digging for a story, but in this case, when you tie fights with bouts of drugs and alcohol, you have problems. And of course, this is exacerbated by UCLA’s rallying cry that the basketball team has been well mannered and straight as an arrow, which typically has been the case, sans the marijuana adventures of Bill Walton. But alas, let’s carry on.

"The players were puzzled by some of their coach’s idiosyncrasies. Howland seemed obsessed with the temperature in the film room. If it was not exactly 76º a student manager was certain to feel Howland’s wrath. The water bottles handed to him had to be just cold enough and not too large."

So Ben Howland has a few quirks, who doesn’t? We all have little issues and bouts of OCD. That’s what makes us who we are.

"He occasionally kicked players out of pregame walk-throughs held in hotel ballrooms if the players weren’t executing properly. Two players recall being tossed, on different occasions, for failing to get low enough on defense even though they were wearing jeans that constricted their movements."

Alright, that’s a little different. If a player isn’t doing something correctly, you’d think that the coaches would instruct the player to perform better and execute correctly. But, consider the source of these quotes. I’ve never heard a bitter quote from a gym rat.

"In a game during the 2007-08 season, several players on the bench noted Howland’s frustration with the shot selection of Westbrook, whose freelancing had resulted in several baskets. But rather than substituting for him, Howland informed one of the officials that Westbrook was wearing socks bearing an NBA logo, which violated NCAA uniform guidelines. Howland told the official he had an obligation to remove Westbrook from the game because of his socks. The official claimed to be unaware of the rule and let play continue."

Um, what?

"As focused on detail as Howland was, his players had the freedom to enjoy the perks of being a Bruin during UCLA’s run to the three consecutive Final Fours. There were nights out with current and former NBA players, television stars and models. One evening the partying started at the Beverly Hills mansion of a wealthy UCLA fan. The Bruins were then chauffeured in a Rolls-Royce to a West Hollywood club, where several players were ushered past a long line of people and given VIP treatment at a table in the back. Says one player, “We’d go back to the campus bars and students would say, ‘Where have you been?’ We’d be like, ‘If you only knew.’ “"

Partying at the mansion of a UCLA fan sounds exactly like what Nevin Shapiro did with players at Miami, doesn’t it? Well, without the strippers and abortions.

"The recruits were famous before they played a game. They would walk into a party on campus and, as one player put it, “the place would just stop.”"

That’s recruiting 101 for most schools, not just UCLA.

Skipping ahead through the 2008 season in the article, we get to the arrival of Reeves Nelson. Nelson was kicked off the team earlier this season and has subsequently signed and been released from a team in Europe. But nonetheless, his UCLA career was eventful, as evident with the Howland article:

"After each of the incidents, Howland looked the other way. One team member says he asked Howland after a practice why he wasn’t punishing Nelson, to which he said Howland responded, “He’s producing.”But at what cost? Nelson was hardly the player around whom to build a team. He was a classic bully, targeting teammates who weren’t as athletically gifted as he and tormenting the support staff. At the end of practice, he would punt balls high up into the stands at Pauley Pavilion, turn to the student managers and say, “Fetch.” Nelson frequently talked back to the assistant coaches. When they told him to stop, he would remark, “That’s how Coach Howland talks to you.”"

We’ve all dealt with bullies and most of us have been bullied or at least seen it first hand. The thing is, that at some point, usually in college, people start to curb their abrasive behavior. Nelson clearly never fit that bill, but what’s appalling is the enabling that Howland gave into. It really plays into the same actions from Howland regarding Russell Westbrook, which is that he seemingly only cares about on-court performance.

But for as shocking as this is, let’s take a step back. Take a deep breath and wait for some more details to come out, because the quotes given to Dohermann are surely from players who didn’t get affection from Howland, and therefore are weary in themselves.

We’ll have more as it comes out.