I don’t hold great animosity any longer to Ben Howland. I used to, but I don’t have the energy. I don’t hold great affection for him either. I’ll try to explain in my usual, concise way.

The Ralph Willard era was pathetic. Willard took too many chances on players with some talent but a lot more issues. Willard was horrible as a coach at Pitt. I don’t care what kind of job he has done or continues to do at Holy Cross, I won’t forget just how bad he was at Pitt. Pathetic in-game coach and even worse in reaching the players. I had the misfortune of attending the two biggest collapses by Pitt under Willard. A loss to Rutgers in February, 1996, 71-70. Pitt had been up by well over 20 points in that game and took the entire entire 2nd half to give the game away — 1000 paper cuts. The other, of course, was that epic collapse in December 1998. A 70-69 loss to UConn that Willard claimed caused the team to suffer a sustained hangover effect as they lost 5 of their next 7. I always have believed that Willard sealed his own fate then. Not by losing to UConn, but by saying the effects of the loss stayed with the team for over a month — essentially conceding he couldn’t get the team past blowing the game.

Howland came in as several of the bad seeds either failed out, left or were kicked out for criminal issues. There’s no getting around it or pretending Pitt may have had some of the seedier collections of players this side of a Jim Harrick team.

The resulting teams for the first couple of years were undermanned; but the team embraced a defense first style, the effort was obvious and the game plans sound. The turnaround wasn’t nearly as sudden as sometimes portrayed — except in attitude. Even the second year, the turnaround wasn’t huge. Pitt finished 7-9 in the Big East, a two game improvement. Then came a tremendous run in the Big East Tournament that got everyone’s attention — mainly because Pitt had never done it before. A team that went no more than 6 deep won 3 straight games (including an OT) to get to the Big East Championship. By that point the team was gassed and toasted by BC by the second half.

I remember that run vividly because I had to go to a nearby dive bar to watch. I had just moved in with my girlfriend and she didn’t have cable (and I still married her). So I spent 4 straight days in a little bar filled with cheap beer and smoke. Intently watching the game on a smeared TV screen in Euclid, Ohio I was able to get them to switch to. Drinking probably a little too quickly and much because of the nerves. It was great.

But now there was real hope, belief and some actual expectations. The next two years were very special.

In the 2002-03 season, it quickly became clear that Steve Lavin was not long for staying in charge of the Bruins. All talk centered on Ben Howland considering all that was happening at Pitt. Locally and nationally, few doubted that Howland would be pursued by UCLA. His Southern California roots, his father still back there, Jim Rome pushing him for the job any chance he could get. As my friends and I debated and discussed whether Howland would leave Pitt for UCLA, I posted (way back on my original blog) some of what worked pro/con in Howland leaving; and what goes into being an elite basketball program. By elite, I don’t mean a top team right now, I mean a team that has sustained success, storied tradition, history and fans with a sense of entitlement. UCLA fit that mold.

As you would expect from most coaches, Howland did the usual coachspeak, denial/non-denial cliches: I haven’t been contacted; I have a job; I don’t want to discuss it… Nothing unusual or unexpected. UCLA didn’t even make the NCAA Tournament and Lavin was gone quickly. That meant heavy speculation on Howland was underway early. There was wishful thinking that perhaps the Bruins would cast their eye on Mark Few at Gonzaga.

It didn’t happen. A few days after Pitt lost to Marquette and Wade in the Sweet 16, Ben Howland was introduced as the new head coach of UCLA. I was not surprised, and really was more concerned about who would take over the job at Pitt. There were plenty of compelling reasons for him to take the UCLA job — from prestige to family and all the stuff in between. Disappointing to lose a very good coach, to be sure.

Then some things came out to sour the feelings. (The stories about why Donatas Zavakas was pulled from the game and appeared to quit on the team — for what he said to Howland about the UCLA job, allegedly — I did not hear for a while. For some this is a reason to hate Howland — being distracted by the UCLA job and a player calling him out on it. For me, since I didn’t hear the story at the time it never really entered into my issues with him.)

It turned out Howland didn’t even want to tell his old players he was leaving. That fell to the Jamie Dixon. After that came out, Howland, belatedly, returned to meet with them. That left a bad taste. Then came reading the story of his introductory press conference.

The day after Pitt lost to Marquette in the third round of the NCAA tournament, Howland had a friend contact Guerrero.

“I knew right away what I wanted to do, which was to pursue this opportunity,” the coach said.

That was the killer for me. All the coachspeak about not looking, and happy where he was just went out the window. He had just stated that as soon as Pitt had lost. The pain hadn’t even receded for the fans, the team, and he was having intermediaries tell UCLA he wanted the job. Howland couldn’t even wait for UCLA to contact him like everyone knew they would. The corpse was still warm. It was open and admitted pursuit and made me along with most fans wonder how much he really cared or tried as a coach in the Marquette loss.

As a Pitt fan, how does that not come off as incredibly cold, callous and just wrong by Howland? How does that not create some very hard feelings in what otherwise may have been an amicable departure?

Yes, Howland did a lot of good at Pitt. He helped — along with the new building and an aggressive AD — change the culture around Pitt basketball. That doesn’t change that he created some hard feelings with the way he left.

There’s was also — and while this is not at all Howland’s fault, it contributed to fan frustration and animosity to Howland’s departure — the piss poor way that Pitt handled trying to decide on a new coach. Pitt was acting at the time with only an interim AD — no excuse for that since it had been 4 months since the former had left (and he gave notice). So you had the school chancellor and an interim AD doing the search. They only interviewed two candidates: Wake Forest’s Skip Prosser and Jamie Dixon.

Prosser was the guy they wanted. It was to the point where they were down in New Orleans for the Final Four and didn’t even contact any other possibilities to at least informally talk about the job. Prosser ultimately turned down the job and chose to stay at Wake Forest. A good deal of which had to do with still not finding a full time AD. After very publicly flubbing the pursuit of Prosser, the school hired Dixon. Now, obviously this has turned out to be a good hire, but the issue wasn’t the hiring. It was the process — or rather the complete lack of planning and thoroughness in searching for candidates. It just has seemed much more luck then skill.

It was one thing to pursue one particular coach hard and strong, but to not get him, and then fall back on an assistant, who at the time was an unknown and the interview seemed like a courtesy to him and the players that wanted him. It wasn’t like Dixon was the “hot assistant” at the time. The highest profile job he had been considered was at Wright State. This was and is no knock on Coach Dixon. It was the reality of the situation.

Well it came off as minor league and a decision that if they couldn’t get the guy they really wanted, the school would take a clear 2nd choice on the cheap. That contributed to fan frustration and more annoyance at Howland leaving.

Is it all logical? Is it fair? No. It also doesn’t matter. Being a fan has very little to do with logic. There’s just too much emotion involved. A coach leaving a team is like a divorce. It doesn’t matter how many good times were had. It doesn’t matter if on side professes to still care after they were the one to leave. The fact is they left and it is the last memory. There’s going to be bitterness.