UCLA's Arron Afflalo sat behind a table at a news conference on Friday, delivering an eloquent answer when asked to compare and contrast the styles of point guard Darren Collison and former Bruin Jordan Farmar. Less than a minute had passed since the start of the session with reporters.
But already, UCLA Coach Ben Howland knew something was wrong.
"Excuse me, one second," Howland said, interrupting Afflalo mid-answer. "Could you ask those people in the back to be quiet? We're having a press conference here."
Later in the session, Howland suggested the organizers change the formats of the news conferences, sent an NCAA representative to quiet the source of more background noise behind the podium and challenged the premise of a question.
As an awkward pall filled the room, the five UCLA starters seated to Howland's left couldn't hold their laughter. They smiled, hardly surprised at their coach's stickler streak.
"You guys were probably surprised because you don't know him," Bruins forward Luc Richard Mbah a Moute said later. "But we know. . . . That's why it's funny."
Whether intentional or not, Howland, 49, threw open a window into the mentality that has the second-seeded Bruins facing top-seeded Kansas today in the West Region final of the NCAA tournament.
Howland likes his news conferences the way he likes his defenses: executed properly.
"I don't know if you can tell this, but I am a detail-oriented guy," Howland said, answering a question about his multiple interruptions during the 30-minute session. "I like to have the smallest details, and that's the difference between winning and losing. That's the difference between being good and great, successful and not successful."
The Bruins' success during the tournament has hinged on the execution of a suffocating man-to-man defense because the coach, in a way, has learned to control fate. The Bruins have thrived on defense by being in the right place at the right time.
Players say the style requires a level of precision that comes only by paying attention to the smallest things. And when that standard isn't met, Howland makes sure his team knows it.
"It's funny," Collison said. "I laugh all the time at how he is. Ben is going to continue to be Ben. He's real detailed. When he feels like something's not going right, he'll be the first one to tell you."
At Bruins practices, players say it's not uncommon to run plays over and over again, until it is completed with precision.
"Just when we're doing walk-throughs, he wants everybody to be in the precise spots," Bruins sophomore Josh Shipp said. "I mean, we try to shortcut things just to save time. He stops us and points it out and says we need get in the right spots. That's how precise it is."
Earlier this season, when Mbah a Moute showed up at a practice wearing a sleeve that covered a forearm, Howland demanded he remove it.
"If you're not going to wear it during the game, there's no point in wearing it in practice," Howland said.
Last week, after his Bruins had beaten Indiana to advance to the region semifinals, Howland ranted over what amounted to a clerical error made by the game's official scorers. The mistake had no bearing on the outcome, but it drew Howland's attention nonetheless.
"I think it's important in your pursuit of perfection," Afflalo said. "You have to pay attention to detail. A lot of people get caught up in the bigger picture.
"As you grow and mature a little bit, you understand it's the small things that makes the bigger picture work."
Howland's commitment to detail stretches beyond the basketball court. During the offseason, Howland enjoys fly-fishing, another sport in which he says success is determined by minding the small details.
"You have to be detailed in fly fishing in terms of all the little things that go into throwing a fly, how you mend the line, how you let it float," said Howland, who is in his fourth season at UCLA. "You're doing it hundreds and hundreds of times a day. So there's a lot of detail and attention to detail."
Howland's obsessions with details have caused clashes between the coach and his players in the past. But while UCLA players admit that they had to learn to adjust to the hands-on approach, they understand the purpose.
"We're getting better as a team and individually we're getting better," Collison said.
Howland has made it difficult to argue with the result. The Bruins stand one victory from their second straight Final Four trip.
"One other thing," Howland said at the news conference. "It's quieter now."