NCAA draw pits buddies

PITTSBURGH – Ben Howland and Jamie Dixon promised to never schedule this game, even though they always secretly hoped it would happen.

UCLA vs. Pitt, in the NCAA tournament. Head coach vs. former assistant. Best friend vs. best friend. Howland’s old team taking on his current team, and possibly the only school he would have left Pitt to coach.

The matchup divides even the two households – Howland’s daughter, Meredith, missed Pittsburgh and her friends so much after moving to the West Coast in 2003 that she returned six months later, re-enrolled in Pitt’s nursing program, moved in with the Dixons and became a cheerleader.

Because of their friendship, Howland and Dixon always insisted this game would occur only in the NCAA tournament, and now it takes place Thursday night in San Jose, Calif., as part of the West Regional semifinals. In Pittsburgh, it’s the game many have waited four years to see.

“Julius (Page), Jaron (Brown) all those guys that are playing overseas or elsewhere, they’ve been dying for this matchup,” said Pitt assistant Brandin Knight, referring to his former Pitt teammates who played for Howland. “I don’t know how much coach Howland and Dixon were looking forward to playing, but I know all of us were.”

Howland was hired by Pitt in 1999 and, in four years, rebuilt a long-declining program into a national power. But his hasty departure for the one job he always coveted, UCLA, stunned and disappointed many at Pitt – including forward Levon Kendall, the only remaining Pitt player who played for Howland.

That unhappiness among the players was eased when Dixon, formerly Howland’s top assistant, was hired following an unsuccessful courtship of Wake Forest coach Skip Prosser. Dixon has been even more successful at Pitt than Howland was, going 105-29 in four seasons – but, like Howland, never has gotten Pitt past the NCAA round of 16.

Now, Howland’s team is all that prevents Dixon and Pitt from doing that.

Howland, in turn, has done even better at UCLA than he did at Pitt, leading the Bruins to the national championship game last season.

“This was inevitable,” Dixon said Monday, before the Panthers left for San Jose a day early to get accustomed to being on West Coast time. “We both said we weren’t going to play against each other in the regular season, but we hoped it happened in the NCAA because you hope they win and you hope we win.”

Howland and Dixon are so close they talk almost daily, and they did so Sunday and Monday even after knowing their teams would play. One game, no matter who wins, won’t divide a friendship that dates back to the 41-year-old Dixon’s high school days in Los Angeles.

“If you’re working until midnight every day with someone, you’d better be friends,” said Dixon, a former TCU player who also coached with Howland at Northern Arizona and Cal-Santa Barbara. “You’ve got to realize the whole situation – this didn’t start at Pitt. He recruited me when I was 17, but he didn’t think I was good enough. But I saw his team play at UC-Santa Barbara, so I’m not so sure about that.”

Both coaches dismiss the idea the NCAA selection committee intentionally set up this matchup – even though it possibly could have occurred last season, too, if Pitt hadn’t been upset in the second round by Bradley.

“This is how it all worked out,” Howland said Monday on a conference call. “Everyone thinks the idea was to match Pitt and UCLA up because of my connection to Pitt, but it wasn’t.”

Even Pitt’s players aren’t so sure about that.

“We know coach Dixon coached under coach Howland and we wanted to get this win for him,” forward Mike Cook said. “He might try to downplay it, but we know it’s important to him and to the university.”

Kendall also was eager for the game because it matches both of his college coaches. Last summer, Kendall dropped by UCLA’s basketball office during an unplanned visit to talk to Howland, but the coach was out of town.

“He was a good coach to have and I learned a lot even though I was redshirting (in 2002-03),” Kendall said. “But it worked out well, because it’s been a good situation with Jamie. It’s hard to hold it against him (Howland) for not passing up a job like that. It was a little surprising from what he told us, a little shocking, thinking he was going to stay here at Pitt, but he probably wasn’t lying at the time.”

To Kendall, the two coaches are similar in that they emphasize defense, rebounding and taking away the other team’s strength. The difference, to Kendall, is Howland is “a little more aggressive and vocal” in practice.

Knight, who also has an emotional attachment to both, isn’t certain which coach he would root for if he were coaching at another school.

“It should be a fun game, a test to see who can outwit the other,” Knight said. “Here’s what I would say – I would root for the team that wins.”