Los Angeles ? Ben Howland flew to Southern California on a private plane late Tuesday night and is expected to be hired today as the 12th basketball coach in UCLA history.

Howland must meet this morning with Chancellor Albert Carnesale, who is scheduled to leave town today. Howland’s new agent, Jordan Bazant, will be here to finalize terms of the contract.

Since Howland and UCLA athletic director Dan Guerrero already have reached an agreement, the meeting with Carnesale and approval of the contract are considered formalities. UCLA officials expect a news conference introducing Howland on campus this afternoon.

Howland, 45, was spotted in his office at the University of Pittsburgh at 8 p.m. CST Tuesday and had not informed athletic director Marc Boehm that he would be resigning. He did say goodbye to some friends, and one of his players said, “I think he’s leaving.” Under Howland, the Panthers won the Big East championship and advanced to the Sweet 16 for the second year in a row.

Boehm offered Howland a raise Monday and met with him Tuesday morning, but Howland decided to pursue an offer from UCLA, which could be worth as much as $1.2 million a year, including incentives. Howland made $800,000 a year at Pittsburgh and Boehm was prepared to pay him more than $1 million annually through 2008-09.

UCLA will need to come up with a buyout around $700,000, but part of this deal is being brokered by boosters and adidas, the shoe company sponsoring UCLA and Pittsburgh. Howland was heavily endorsed by adidas representative Sonny Vaccaro.