Being with Ben Howland in the off-season can be a walk in the park. In this case, it was a walk in Westwood.
It is a warm October Thursday. A couple of weeks later it will be time for Howland to lead yet another group of talented UCLA basketball players onto Pauley Pavilion's hallowed court to start playing games.
For now, it is time to split a Cobb salad, talk about old friends and new seasons and watch our money disappear before our eyes. It is one of those days in the stock market, and the big-screen TV facing Howland in Jerry's Deli is counting it down in red numbers: minus 400 points . . . minus 425 . . .
"I can't even look at it," Howland says.
Assured that he is better off than his luncheon companion -- he at least has something left to lose -- Howland laughs and returns to less painful topics, such as Bruins basketball.
When the center tip takes place at Pauley on Monday night for one of those just-work-up-a-sweat exhibitions, this one against Cal Baptist, it will mark the beginning of Howland's sixth season in the captain's chair.
When he took over, the expectation was that he would slowly return John Wooden-esque respectability to a program steeped in Wooden-esque history.
He has done that, and not all that slowly.
He filled in the potholes in his first season, and by his second, 2004-05, he had paved the way for the Bruins to return to the NCAA tournament, an event they once owned under Wooden.
We all know what happened next: three straight trips to the Final Four, one of them a spot in the final.
The discussion gets around to rapid success building unrealistic expectations. Howland doesn't buy it.
"I don't worry about those things," he says. "At UCLA there will always be high expectations. That's why you want to play here, or coach here.
"The success we have had here is good for our players, because they are driven by it. Instead of fighting it, I embrace it."
Last season, Howland had a freshman from Oregon, a rugged center, who many said would be great right away. Kevin Love wasn't just great, he was a first-team All-American.
Now, he's gone to the pros, the No. 5 pick in the NBA draft.
Howland also had a gangly and talented sophomore guard from Hawthorne, who many thought might be exceptional in another season or two. Russell Westbrook, who was more than willing to come off the bench when Howland asked him to, turned out to be so good that staying around for that next season was not financially logical.
