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One reason is you're Mississippi State
Today Mississippi St. signed former UCLA Head Coach Ben Howland to a four year contract. I'm hearing from people that this is a great hire...but I'll be honest...I don't really know much about the guy. I keep hearing that he made 3 straight Final Fours and has 5 Sweet Sixteen appearances. This hire is a definite upgrade over that piece of Rick Ray. Just tired of seeing Miss. St. not in the NCAA Tournament every year. The SEC is a weak basketball conference and there is no reason why we can't compete and at least get an at-large bid.
spurraider21 baseline bum
Curious to see what you guys think about the hire....or any other UCLA fan on this site. What is he known for? What kind of offense/defense does he run? I heard his interview today and he said that he loves to "push the ball". He also said he likes to play strictly man-to-man defense but he also plays the amoeba defense like Tark the Shark ran at UNLV.
One reason is you're Mississippi State
Touche....
It's a great get and he's already filled his staff with coaches with southern/Addidas connections.
If he avoids the knuckleheads, and gets back to developing talent, he will absolutely succeed.
Howland is not an up-tempo coach. Not even close.
He's a great tactician and plays an efficient, deliberate, beat em up style. But it works with the right talent. Great defense, great rebounding, and slightly slowed offense, but lots of motion, high/low and tremendous guard play.
Again, I don't know much about Howland or his time at UCLA. But I heard today that he lead the PAC-12 in pace and in his last year he lead the conference in scoring. And he said he contributed that to pushing the ball.
But again.....I'm just going off what I heard today.
Seriously, it looks like a steal for MissSt to get this guy. I'm not sure really why UCLA fired him.
His last year, maybe, but every other year, his ideal score was 60-50.
That's a solid hire. It doesn't mean he will be successful but that's still a good hire.
He is known for a monster trapping defense, kind of lousy offense. He was a tremendous recruiter, but had to get axed for the whole Reeves Nelson situation. Nevertheless, he completely turned around an underperforming program after taking over for Lavin.Today Mississippi St. signed former UCLA Head Coach Ben Howland to a four year contract. I'm hearing from people that this is a great hire...but I'll be honest...I don't really know much about the guy. I keep hearing that he made 3 straight Final Fours and has 5 Sweet Sixteen appearances. This hire is a definite upgrade over that piece of Rick Ray. Just tired of seeing Miss. St. not in the NCAA Tournament every year. The SEC is a weak basketball conference and there is no reason why we can't compete and at least get an at-large bid.
spurraider21 baseline bum
Curious to see what you guys think about the hire....or any other UCLA fan on this site. What is he known for? What kind of offense/defense does he run? I heard his interview today and he said that he loves to "push the ball". He also said he likes to play strictly man-to-man defense but he also plays the amoeba defense like Tark the Shark ran at UNLV.
What happened with the "whole Reeves Nelson situation"?
A Sports Illustrated story alleges UCLA coach Ben Howland, seen in 2010, failed to discipline Reeves Nelson for abusive behavior and intentionally causing injuries to teammates in practice.
Nelson was an asshole who poisoned the team chemistry and Howland didn't do to stop it. Even leaving the way he did I still think he's a solid hire for you guys.
Thanks for the input
Yeah I'm hoping he can turn our program around. When we had Rick Stansbury as our coach we would consistently make the tournament...now we can't even sniff a NIT berth. Not expecting miracles...but I like what I'm hearing about the guy. Most (if not all) of the people I've heard say this is a great hire....but that doesn't mean . Got to start hitting the recruiting trail now....
One big thing I can say for Howland is players improved a lot under him. Westbrook was a nobody who became an insanely good defender under Howland. Darrin Collison developed so much under him. Meanwhile under the previous coach, Steve Lavin, everyone went to the NBA the exact same player they were when they came in even though he'd get really highly regarded freshmen. Guys like Cedric Bozeman and JaRon Rush who were supposed to be stars. The only player I can remember who improved steadily under Lavin was Matt Barnes.
Last edited by baseline bum; 03-24-2015 at 03:06 PM.
I heard him talking about Westbrook and how he matured while he was coaching him.
Goes without saying that he surely helped the kid out...now he is one of if not the best PG in the world.
BTW good luck to you guys....most people said you guys didn't belong in the Tournament...now you're in the Sweet 16.
dirk4mvp
And how does Andy Kennedy keep pulling off these miracles to keep his job?
18 players from the Howland UCLA era were drafted into the NBA, most in the 1st round.
If he establishes the Georgia/Carolina/Florida/Bayou/Texas connection, there's no reason he can't have success at Mississippi State. Maybe not that level, but close. Lots of good players in that region. With Addidas connections, he should do quite well.
Man even got a Northern Arizona University player drafted when he was coach there in late 90s.
Gonna be a little harder to recruit at Miss. St. than at UCLA....as if you didn't know that already. But the Northern Arizona University draft pick certainly has me intrigued.
Just finally excited for College Basketball....been too long.
There's. Lot of talent in the south. He is now centralized. If he can steal a few recruits from the Big12 and ACC, with the assistant coaches connections and Addidas connection, I think he can pull recruits from all over the region. Two of his guys, Parker and Adams, were from South.
Good interview on Jim Rome radio show.
Sucks I missed it....I'll try to catch the podcast when I get a chance.
What was said?
A lot of coach speak tbh.... He likes the people of Missy, loves the gym, Hump Arena? Proud of Westbrook....etc
But dude is full of energy, very well spoken, appreciates everything.
We call it "The Hump".
Thanks for the heads up....
To anybody who wants to hear the Jim Rome interview....
http://jimrome.com/2015/03/27/ben-ho...druple-double/
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