Elie Seckbach, the Embedded Correspondent, brings his exclusive video reporting to FanHouse. Check back regularly for more videos.
For the past nine years the Harold Pump Foundation, created by David and Dana Pump (known as the gurus of high school and college basketball) has raised over $3.5 million dollars to fight cancer. The foundation's efforts have not gone unnoticed. Major stars such as Magic Johnson, Paul Pierce, Sugar Ray Leonard, Pete Sampras and Denzel Washington have all joined the Pump brothers. In this report we also hear from young NBA stars like Kevin Love, Brandon Jennings, and Blake Griffin.
In an effort to talk about something college basketball-related other than scandals in the summer, let's talk best current coaches. We'll attempt to order the top 25 current coaches in the nation. This is about the present and the future, not the distant past. What a guy did in the mid-90s doesn't matter near as much as the direction his program is currently headed. Past pedigree also matters, to an extent. For the perfect mix of past accomplishments with present achievement and a paved road for future success, look no further than the man atop the list.
Each week, ESPN's Joe Lunardi predicts the NCAA tournament field if the season ended today. While he's good at this, Lunardi only focuses on past performance, and wins and losses. Bracketology Busters looks at which teams should be expected to perform significantly better or worse than their projected seeds.
This week we'll look at a team that's seen their perception drop after a great three-year stretch, but is primed to make yet another late season run.
Ben Howland has sent a lot of players into the NBA and he's going to do it this year too. Howland is going to send freshman Jrue Holiday to the Association, but not in the manner that he likely expected.
Howland had Kevin Love last season as a one-and-done freshman. Holiday could be looking for similar results, but he's taking an entirely different path. Love left school after leading the Bruins to a third consecutive Final Four appearance. Holiday might do it as a cheerleader.
Sometimes, old ball coaches do learn new tricks. Heck, even Giants coach Tom Coughlin loosened up enough last season to win a Super Bowl. So it came as no surprise when UCLA's coach Ben Howland met with team leaders and let the offense run-and-gun a little on their suggestion, leading to the high point of the Bruins' roller coaster season.
Life was good.
UCLA went on a winning streak, and crushed USC and Notre Dame. But then came the desert debacle, as the Arizona schools swept the Bruins. Suddenly, run-and-gun or not, a Pac-10 title that seemed inevitable is, well, wholly evitable. So will Howland rein in the Bruins after this two-game stumble?
College basketball coaches are a weird bunch. They are control freaks who are media savvy and live in an isolated world of hoopdom. But what if they weren't coaching? What would they do? Who would they be?
The blog CatsandBeer.com attempts to figure that out to hilarious results:
The Pac-10 announced its season awards today and, unsurprisingly, UCLA was the big winner. The Bruins picked up the hardware for Player of the Year (Kevin Love), Freshman of the Year (Love again), and Defensive Player of the Year (Russell Westbrook). The only trophy that failed to go to Westwood was Coach of the Year, which was won by Stanford's Trent Johnson. The Bruins also placed three people on the Pac-10's three All-Conference teams.
It's hard to argue with any of these choices. Love was pretty clearly the most consistent offensive player in the league this season, although his defense is not up to the level of likely runner-up Brook Lopez. Regardless, Love was a deserving winner of both his awards. Westbrook's win is a little easier to question, but he's certainly one of the two or three best wing defenders in the conference (although I prefer Washington State's Kyle Weaver), and Stanford center Robin Lopez's blocked shot totals probably weren't high enough to give him the trophy. As for Coach of the Year, that one's always emphasizes performance relative to expectations, so it's not surprising that the admittedly deserving Johnson beat out Ben Howland.
The Pac-10 recently changed their All-Conference team from one 10-person group to three five-man teams, and that was probably a good decision given the conference's strength this season. The first team included Love, Brook Lopez, Ryan Anderson, OJ Mayo, and James Harden. I'm a little surprised that Jerryd Bayless didn't beat out Harden, but it's possible that the coaches wanted to honor Arizona State for their surprisingly solid season. Other than that, though, the rest of the All-Conference teams played to form.
A lot of good things have been happening for Ben Howland recently, and a lot of people are saying nice things about him. I don't know that it's possible, however, for anyone to say anything to Ben Howland that would be a bigger compliment than this:
"I don't think my teams played as good a defense as Ben's teams," John Wooden said.
Two things you should know about that, both of which you're probably already aware: John Wooden won 11 national championships, and John Wooden wouldn't say something just to say it. If he said it, he believes it ... and if it's something that about basketball that John Wooden believes, there are very few people on the planet in a position to question him.
Take a few minutes to enjoy that one, Ben Howland. Earning that compliment is an achievement.
For the past nine years the Harold Pump Foundation, created by David and Dana Pump (known as the gurus of high school and college basketball) has raised over $3.5 million dollars to fight cancer. The foundation's efforts have not gone unnoticed. Major stars such as Magic Johnson, Paul Pierce, Sugar Ray Leonard, Pete Sampras and Denzel Washington have all joined the Pump brothers. In this report we also hear from young NBA stars like Kevin Love, Brandon Jennings, and Blake Griffin. 
Sometimes, old ball coaches do learn new tricks. Heck, even Giants coach Tom Coughlin loosened up enough last season to win a Super Bowl. So it came as no surprise when UCLA's coach Ben Howland met with team leaders and let the offense run-and-gun a little on their suggestion, leading to the high point of the Bruins' roller coaster season.
College basketball coaches are a weird bunch. They are control freaks who are media savvy and live in an isolated world of hoopdom. But what if they weren't coaching? What would they do? Who would they be?
The Pac-10 
A lot of good things have been happening for Ben Howland recently, and a lot of people are saying nice things about him. I don't know that it's possible, however, for anyone to say anything to Ben Howland that would be a bigger compliment 
