Recent interview with Coach Howland

[bullygrowl]

After reading article, it seems we may have been at the right place at the right time. Coach seemed like he was ready to jump on the next offer that came up this year after being too choosy.

Next season, though, he intends to participate.

"It doesn't matter where," he says. "I'll go anywhere. I'll come back here to this house and Santa Barbara someday. This will always be here for me. But I'm fired up to get back to coaching. I think I'm ready to do my best job."



http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaab/2015/02/21/college-basketball-former-ucla-coach-ben-howland/23569565/

[smootness]

And you can be certain that Stricklin saw this article. It very well may be the case that Stricklin was fully prepared to give Ray a 4th year but got word to Howland that he would also consider a change just to gauge the interest knowing that Howland was itching to get back.

I think that scenario is very plausible.

[engie]

Of course we are "in the right place at the right time" -- but it didn't just fall into our laps. We "created" our own luck when we reached out to him and subsequently let Ray go...

The beauty of this is -- once we get our foot in the door -- someone is just going to have to "desire to be somewhere else" in order to leave. We won't be seeing a coach leave over money ever again IMO. I dunno how long we'll be able to hold Howland and it will probably depend on how much winning he does here -- but we can damn sure pay him like a big boy and make any decision to leave a very hard one...

[bullygrowl]

I would think if he is successful here, this will be his last stop. He was already fired from his dream job, money is not an issue for him, but, we can pay him what he is worth. He is not itching to get back to Cali until he retires. Also he has no big shoes to fill like UCLA's history, he can build something special just like Dan is thinking. Could end up being the greatest hire of all.

[RossDawg82]

No insider sources or anything like that, but I really think that SS was fully prepared to keep Ray. I bet some boosters with LA ties made the initial contact and when Howland said he was interested, they put the fire to SS feet to make the move. This happened way to fast in my opinion.

[Coach34]

I heard it was booster/former players that contacted the Howland camp first and then it was made known the Keenum that Howland was interested. Grew from there

[smootness]

Of course we are "in the right place at the right time" -- but it didn't just fall into our laps. We "created" our own luck when we reached out to him and subsequently let Ray go...

The beauty of this is -- once we get our foot in the door -- someone is just going to have to "desire to be somewhere else" in order to leave. We won't be seeing a coach leave over money ever again IMO. I dunno how long we'll be able to hold Howland and it will probably depend on how much winning he does here -- but we can damn sure pay him like a big boy and make any decision to leave a very hard one...

The thing is, I would assume he's already not going to be considered for most of the elite jobs simply because of what went down at UCLA. He would have to win at a ridiculous level here before getting a look at one of those jobs, a la Calipari at Memphis.

But let's just say he comes in and we go to the Tournament in year 2, then go to back-to-back Sweet 16s in years 3 and 4 and he leaves for another job. Even in that scenario, we're in unbelievably better shape than we are right now and could absolutely go get somebody like an Archie Miller-type (He wouldn't still be at Dayton, just saying someone with a similar profile).

[Original48]

No insider sources or anything like that, but I really think that SS was fully prepared to keep Ray. I bet some boosters with LA ties made the initial contact and when Howland said he was interested, they put the fire to SS feet to make the move. This happened way to fast in my opinion.
This is very plausible. Plus one bit of information I received was, believe it or not, the slow start and grumbling over the baseball team played a part in pulling the trigger on Ray as well. As he put it, if our baseball team comes out hot Ray probably gets another year. Needed to energize the fan base.

[maroonmania]

I heard it was booster/former players that contacted the Howland camp first and then it was made known the Keenum that Howland was interested. Grew from there

I doubt we would have gotten rid of Ray after only 3 years without something we knew was significantly better waiting in the wings. If we learned nothing else from the replacing Stansbury fiasco I hope we at least learned that. Without a "Howland type" available that we knew would take the job then Ray would have almost assuredly gotten his 4th year.

[RossDawg82]

SS had to get a high profile coach this time around. I don't think we could financially handle another season of such little support. The games are pathetic to go to, and hiring a big name will automatically generate ticket sales

[engie]

http://dailybruin.com/2009/12/12/mississippi-state-defeats-ucla-mens-basketball-woo/

Article from 5 years ago(thanks to oldfartdawg on SPS) showing that Howland likely realized a long time ago that you could win at Mississippi State...

[missouridawg]

http://dailybruin.com/2009/12/12/mississippi-state-defeats-ucla-mens-basketball-woo/

Article from 5 years ago(thanks to oldfartdawg on SPS) showing that Howland likely realized a long time ago that you could win at Mississippi State...

I was at that game. Ravern shot lights out and we completely made them look foolish offensively.

[NCDawg]

Sounds as if Reeves Nelson was Howland's Renaldo Sidney. Nelson brought down Howland's team as Sidney brought down Stansbury's team. You can't let guys like these stay on your team, or you will pay the consequences.