UCLA head coach Ben Howland on wanting to find one primary venue:
“It was very important to me. For the fans and especially for our players that you sort of get used to over course of a year is definitely better than playing in four or five venues. That’s my personal opinion again; UCLA has history with this building. If I’m not mistaken there’s a national championship won in there, at least one.”
On the Wooden Classic being moved to January:
“Obviously that’s a marquee game with Arizona returning the bulk of their team from a team that won our league, finished one game ahead of us. I’m excited about that. This is a unique year not having our games on campus, so we’ve got to make some adjustments in terms of scheduling. But yeah I’m excited about that and excited about the Wooden Classic staying in Anaheim.”
On the coaching search:
“Our last day we can be out during this period is on the 20th of April. Starting Monday is a dead period for four days. Not a lot of time left for us to be out. I’m actually in no rush, no hurry. I’m happy for Scott but I’m also happy to do a national search to bring in the best candidate possible to fit our needs at UCLA.”
On two coaches leaving in two years:
“Donnie Daniels was with me right from the very beginning and did a great job. Really appreciate his hard work and efforts. … He was instrumental during run of three final fours and I’m really happy for Scott. Has an opportunity to work for his best friend, they both went to same college, Larry’s wife and Scott were in school in same exact class. Larry’s got his son, Scott’s associate head coach. This is a nice opportunity for him, so we wish him nothing but the best.”
On Malcolm Lee’s recovery:
“Malcolm had some measurements done today and he improved his range of motion by a couple inches. It’s going well for Malcolm. It’s something that I don’t think will take a lot of time before he’s back and ready to go at full-strength.”
On Lee scheduling workouts:
“No, his focus right now has been since his surgery, which was 17 days ago, pretty much on that. Nobody in the NBA is scheduling workouts yet. They won’t start doing that until the 24th of April.”