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DEL.ICIO.USPitt, UCLA coaches insist friendship won’t get in way
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
San Jose, Calif. — No question, UCLA’s Ben Howland and Pittsburgh’s Jamie Dixon are terrific college basketball coaches, but they also are terrible liars.
Forgive them, though. They are doing the right thing. If they really told the truth on Wednesday at the HP Pavilion about how difficult it will be for best friends during much of the past 25 years to spend tonight attempting to reach the Elite Eight by slaying the other, they wouldn’t be able to function properly.
Neither would their players.
Come to think of it, Ben Howland and Jamie Dixon were named Tony Dungy and Lovie Smith before, during and after the Super Bowl last month. Just as Dungy of the Indianapolis Colts and Smith of the Chicago Bears evolved into Dr. Phil by fibbing that their close relationship wouldn’t bring extra tension to their lives while battling each other during a huge game, Howland and Dixon have taken the same approach.
Surely Dungy and Smith provided the blueprint forever on how you should handle these situations. Right? Dixon squinted after hearing my question outside of Pitt’s locker room, then said, “You know, the Super Bowl falls during basketball season, so I don’t have time to watch things too much and get a feel on stories.”
See what I mean about the whoppers from these guys? Dixon and Dungy even share the same attorney. Still, Dixon said he wasn’t familiar with the biggest story line of this year’s Super Bowl not involving that historical thing involving African-American coaches. “I know [Dungy and Smith] worked together in the past, but I didn’t know their relationship was that deep, and it’s because I’m so single-minded in December, January and February,” said Dixon, 41, chuckling, trying to sound convincing but failing.
The same went for the suddenly forgetful Howland, and he is a long ways from senility at 48. Even though he spent four splendid years through 2003 resurrecting Pitt basketball from the dead before leaving for UCLA, he kept giving the impression that his savior days in hoops around western Pennsylvania were light years ago. That is, if those days ever occurred. “Really only one player on the team I coached, and that was Levon Kendall, who was a redshirt freshman my last year,” said Howland, who didn’t tell the rest of the story.
For one, Pitt hadn’t managed a winning season during the three years prior to Howland’s arrival, and his Panthers eventually reached the Sweet 16 twice. For another, Pitt is where Howland and Dixon strengthened their already-thick bond. As was the case at Northern Arizona, where Howland had a five-year run of goodness before leaving for Pitt, Dixon was Howland’s top assistant. They also were assistants together before that at University of California at Santa Barbara.
It gets deeper. When Howland took the UCLA job, his daughter, Meredith, was so attached to the Dixon family that she left Los Angeles to stay with the Dixons while attending Pitt. She later became a cheerleader for the Panthers. Now, at 22, and continuing at Pitt these days as a graduate student in nursing, Meredith is the Dixons’ primary babysitter.
If that isn’t enough, Howland was a pallbearer last year after Dixon’s 28-year-old sister died suddenly. Howland and Dixon also talk every day.
“Well, I wouldn’t say every day, but we talk to each other a few times a week during the course of a year,” said Howland, shrugging in the UCLA locker room. He kept hoping that this line of questioning would end in a hurry.
When it didn’t, Howland forced a nervous smile, before adding, “You know, college athletics are different. These kids have four years to play college basketball. The point is, it’s about the players. It’s not about Jamie and I, because we’ve been doing this for a long time, and we’ll be doing it a long time more. We hope to be in some more NCAA tournaments, and the main thing is, we’re now in a 16-team tournament. Two very good teams are meeting in a very important game. Nothing more, nothing less.”
Uh, nice try.
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By Me
March 21, 2007 10:55 PM | Link to this
You just had to put in the stuff about the black super bowl coaches. You suck.
By Connie Lingous
March 22, 2007 7:29 AM | Link to this
Nice insights T-Mo.
By Kieran36
March 22, 2007 9:26 AM | Link to this
Good Article. Sometimes we forget that coaches are just normal people who are friends with colleagues like the rest of us.
*I think Terence was simply pointing out how Dungy and Smith were friends too. Sounds like its someone else besides T-Mo being oversensitive…
By Me is an Idiot.
March 22, 2007 2:07 PM | Link to this
Sounds and acts a LOT like Matthew Cafaro, AKA broken Marine with no life.
By Terence Moore
March 22, 2007 3:01 PM | Link to this
I thought I was a dumb black bastard. Vick told the media with a straight face that he used his water bottle to carry jewelry.
By Roger
March 22, 2007 5:15 PM | Link to this
You steal oxygen everytime you take a breathe Terence, and who spells Terance that way anyway?
By Roger
March 22, 2007 5:17 PM | Link to this
“dese stinky buds be like diamonds, mon…”