Warlord of Westwood's working Bruins wizardry

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Ben Howland was an a--hole Friday. There's no other way to say it. He treated the media -- we can only guess -- like his players.

Too much noise in the back of the interview room.

Too much noise coming from the curtains behind him.

Howland: 'All together now, folks: U-C-L-A, fight, fight, fight!' (AP)

He commanded a volunteer -- a kid, really -- to go see who was making all the racket.

One hack then dared point out that Kansas, going into the West Regional final, had no go-to guy.

"That's your opinion, right?" UCLA's coach said, dripping sarcasm.

Not exactly. The writer later validated his question by quoting from Kansas' media guide. Bill Self had actually said it in a clipping dated March 14.

Ben bordered on bully.

Then he kicked the dog -- or rather the Bruins that he treats like dogs half the time.

"I don't know if he can get any more intense to be honest," sophomore swingman Michael Roll said after his team's 13-point win over Kansas that sent them to a second consecutive Final Four. "(But) we paid a little bit more attention to detail than we did. That's saying something."

You don't have to like the mostly ugly basketball that UCLA plays these days. At this point it's just history reworked. Howland became the first Bruins coach since John Wooden to lead the Bruins to consecutive Final Fours. In La-La Land, anything works as long as it wins.

Attach the Wooden name to it and, well, let's catch up to Bill Walton as he makes his way out of HP Pavilion.

"We always learned from our master teacher, John Wooden, competitive greatness is to be at your best when your best is needed," Walton said. "The Bruins needed their best game against Kansas. They played their best game of the year."