The Associated Press

LOS ANGELES - Ben Howland spent countless evenings holed up in the back room of his family's Santa Barbara home watching replay after replay of UCLA basketball.

He idolized John Wooden and carefully studied the nuances of the coach's strategies.

All the late-night viewing paid off.

Howland realized a longtime ambition Thursday when he became UCLA's coach, the only job that could have pried him away from the University of Pittsburgh.

"I'm emotional," he said. "To be able to chase a dream that at one time you think unimaginable and to be close to your family as I am now, it's special."

The 45-year-old Howland is the eighth coach at UCLA since Wooden retired in 1975 after leading the Bruins to 10 NCAA championships in 12 years.

UCLA has won only one title since Wooden left, under Jim Harrick in 1995.

"This program will again be one of the elite teams nationally, year in and year out," Howland said. "We're going to have a lot of fun along the way."

Howland plans to meet with the 92-year-old Wooden this weekend at the Final Four in New Orleans.

"I look forward to spending time with him. He's a living legend," he said. "He's a role model for me. Basketball players want to be like Mike (Jordan). Coaches want to be like Wooden."

Howland met briefly with UCLA's players before being introduced on campus.

"We need some guys to get in the weight room," he said. "The bigger and stronger you are, the better you'll be. The guys that are big and strong are the guys that dominate."

Besides hiring a staff, Howland plans to busy himself with recruiting, which officially begins next Tuesday. He'll recruit with an eye to the future, however, because all 13 of UCLA's scholarships are committed for next season.

"Recruiting is the key," he said. "To have success you've got to have players, that's what coach Wooden understood. He had a great system but he also had great talent to work with."

Howland spent 12 years as an assistant at UC Santa Barbara.

"That's one thing that really helps me. We know a lot of people already in California and yet the experience of being in Pittsburgh has helped me nationally in terms of recruiting," he said.

"It's a matter of evaluating talent, toughness, athleticism, skill level. When you look at the really successful coaches and programs, the ability to evaluate talent is so critical."

Howland signed a seven-year contract with a base guarantee of $900,000-plus per year. It includes bonuses for graduation rate, being selected national coach of the year, reaching the Final Four and winning national and Pac-10 titles that could push his salary over $1 million.

UCLA athletic director Dan Guerrero said Howland and the university will jointly pay a $750,000 buyout of his Pitt contract.

"The intent of this hire is to turn UCLA basketball back into a national power, and he has every expectation that he can do that," Guerrero said.

Howland will try to rebuild the battered Bruins, just as he led Pitt from Big East doormat to national championship contender in four years.

"We have a lot of work to do," he said. "This is not an overnight project."

He'll run a UCLA program coming off its first losing season in 55 years. Steve Lavin was fired March 17 after the Bruins went 10-19, ending their string of 14 consecutive NCAA tournament appearances.

"It's a clean slate for everyone in the program," Howland said.

He wants to have such former UCLA greats as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Marques Johnson, Bill Walton and Jamaal Wilkes speak to the current players.

"It's important for them to talk to our players and give them a sense of the history in terms of how much they enjoyed their opportunity to play here," Howland said.

NORTH CAROLINA: Notre Dame coach Mike Brey criticized the support Tar Heels coach Matt Doherty - Brey's predecessor with the Irish - received before his resignation.

"The Carolina basketball family should be ashamed of themselves," Brey said in a written statement given Wednesday to the South Bend Tribune. "I do not believe he got the total support he should have received to run a high-level basketball program there."

Doherty, 53-43 at North Carolina, resigned Tuesday after the Tar Heels failed to make the NCAA Tournament for the second time in his three years as coach.

Athletic director Dick Baddour and chancellor James Moeser said Doherty failed to communicate and connect with his players.

Doherty was hired over Brey at Notre Dame four years ago. Notre Dame went 22-15 in Doherty's sole season as coach, the school's first 20-win season in 11 years. The Irish also advanced to the finals of the postseason National Invitation Tournament before losing to Wake Forest.

Doherty abruptly resigned as Notre Dame coach in July 2000 when Bill Guthridge retired in midsummer.

"Matt Doherty had a good job here at Notre Dame and was doing a good job with this program," Brey said. "When his alma mater called with a crisis, he sprinted back to help them."

VIRGINIA TECH: Seth Greenberg was hired to coach the Hokies, who have had three straight losing seasons. He is 213-170 in 13 seasons - six at Long Beach State and seven at South Florida, where he was 108-100 overall and 15-14 this season.

GEORGIA STATE: Georgia State signed interim coach Michael Perry to a three-year contract to replace the retired Lefty Driesell. Financial terms were not released.

Perry was an assistant at Georgia State for six years before taking over as head coach Jan. 3. He went 10-9 and led the Panthers to the semifinals of the Atlantic Sun Conference Tournament.

"We know that Michael Perry is the right person to continue to grow the basketball program at Georgia State," athletic director Greg Manning said.

The 44-year-old Perry was an assistant at Richmond for 10 years.

GEORGIA: The Bulldogs will interview Mark Slonaker and Dennis Felton for its coaching position.

The Bulldogs received permission to speak with Slonaker, a Georgia alumnus who led Mercer to the greatest one-season turnaround in NCAA history. Slonaker led the Bears to a 23-6 record this season, setting a school record for victories. Last season, they were 6-23.

Felton led Western Kentucky to three straight NCAA Tournaments. He is 100-54 over five seasons.