Tidbits from Howland press conference Pt. 3

On Joshua Smith learning the nuances of defense:
"He's understanding it. He was making some mistakes where he was over-aggressive, reaching, reaching from behind. It's hard for a 300-pound guy not to stand out. Our schemes have changed, he's not hedging. He had a turning point in his year at ASU, when he turned around and dunked the ball on (No. 13). I thought that was really a turning point for him. He became more aggressive. Then he came back and had a couple big-time dunks in the next game. I think he's really taken off from that point."

On the Smith dunk:
"It was exciting, it was powerful, it was authoritative. That's how he should be playing. I thought he was great for us on Saturday in the low-post. Just a force in there."

On becoming emotional after the Arizona win:
"Not so much bottled up. It just means so much to me. I grew up a UCLA bruin fan. I grew up watching coach wooden's team. To have the '71 team here... I was a kid at the boys club pretending I was Sidney Wicks. To have Tyler Trapani make that last basket it was so meaningful to me. I know how much it means to his family, to everyone who gets the tradition of UCLA. What it means to people who've been at Pauley for 46 years. It was just really special. There have been instances in my coaching career where unbelievable emotional things have happened, and that's definitely one of them."