Ben Howland helped lift the Mississippi State men’s basketball program back out of the cellar.
But he could never quite get the Bulldogs to the top.
The latter ended Howland’s tenure as MSU’s head coach after seven seasons.
Mississippi State parted ways with Howland, 64, on Thursday, a day after his team lost to Virginia, 60-57, in the first round of the NIT.
“We are appreciative of the time and effort Coach Howland devoted in leading our men’s basketball program,” athletic director John Cohen said in a news release from Mississippi State. “We thank him for his investment in the lives of our student-athletes and pouring his heart and soul into our program from the day he arrived in Starkville. There’s no question he left our program better than he found it.”
Howland ended his time at Mississippi State with a 134-98 record. He helped the Bulldogs snap a 10-year NCAA tournament drought, earning a No. 5 seed in 2019’s edition of March Madness.
But even then, MSU was upset by 12th-seeded Liberty in the first round, an example of Howland’s struggles when the stakes were highest.
Just take this season, when Mississippi State added four transfers ready to make an impact to a roster returning guard Iverson Molinar and forward Tolu Smith. Projected to return to the NCAA tournament, the Bulldogs instead plodded their way to a 17-14 regular season.
Howland said before Wednesday’s NIT game he would be “disappointed” not to return to coach a roster featuring Smith, a strong recruiting class and possibly Molinar — if the star guard returns for his senior season.
“If that does happen, I would be disappointed to not have a chance to coach this team that returned,” Howland said.
The veteran coach admitted health was a factor in this season’s struggles. Smith was in and out of the lineup all season, and guard Rocket Watts was ineffective while battling injuries. But time and time again, Howland and the Bulldogs could only come up close in the biggest games on their schedule.
Mississippi State came back to take Kentucky to overtime at Rupp Arena before losing there. Close losses at Arkansas, at LSU and at Alabama followed; at home, MSU erased a large deficit against Auburn only to get blown out in overtime in a key late-season game.
With wins in just a few of those tightly contested games, the Bulldogs would have surely earned an at-large NCAA tournament bid. Instead, Howland admitted after MSU’s loss at South Carolina on Feb. 23, his team had to win the SEC tournament to get into the field.
That didn’t happen. Mississippi State was bounced in its second SEC tournament game, coming three wins short of a return trip to the Big Dance. Missing the tournament with a team skilled enough to make it ultimately fell on Howland, and the Bulldogs bowing out in the NIT’s first round could not have helped.
Still, the Oregon native wasn’t short on overall success during his time in Starkville. Hired in March 2015 to replace Rick Ray, Howland led the Bulldogs to mediocre records in his first two seasons.
Then he won 25 games in the 2017-18 season, taking Mississippi State to the NIT semifinals. Howland achieved NIT success again last season, leading the Bulldogs all the way to the event’s championship game.
After his breakout year, Howland returned MSU to the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2009 under Rick Stansbury. The Bulldogs finished the regular season 22-9, won a game in the conference tournament and were sent to San Jose, California, as the No. 5 seed in the East Region.
Mississippi State led by 10 points with less than seven minutes to go, but Liberty came roaring back. The Flames ousted the Bulldogs 80-76, extending MSU’s ignominious streak of seasons without a tournament win.
Howland, of course, is no stranger to winning in the NCAA tournament. He took UCLA to its third straight Final Four in 2008, the same year Mississippi State beat Oregon its last win in the Big Dance.
Howland reached the tournament seven times in 10 seasons at UCLA, winning the Pac-10/Pac-12 regular-season title four times.
Previously, in four seasons at Pittsburgh, Howland won the Big East title twice, including a championship in the conference tournament in 2003.
He led Northern Arizona to two regular-season Big Sky titles, including a conference championship and NCAA tournament appearance in 1998. The Lumberjacks were 8-18 in Howland’s first season in 1995 and just 6-20 in his second; the next year, they won 21 games.
“Ben Howland has proven that he’s as good a winner as there is in this business with the way he won at Northern Arizona, the way he won the Big East at Pittsburgh, obviously what he did at UCLA — going to three consecutive Final Fours if I’m not mistaken — and what he’s done at Mississippi State, the rebuilding job he’s done there,” South Carolina coach Frank Martin said March 7.
MSU never won 15 games in any of its three seasons under Ray, who was fired after the 2015 season. Howland surpassed that mark by his second season, a 16-16 campaign.
But his consistent success never translated into the big wins the Bulldogs craved. Now, Mississippi State will be tasked with finding a coach who can do both.
“Throughout Mississippi State’s men’s basketball history, we have shown that we can compete for championships at the highest level,” Cohen said. “Serving as the head men’s basketball coach at Mississippi State is an outstanding opportunity, and the position will be highly sought after. That is a testament to our great university, our passionate and loyal fan base, and our hard-working young men who proudly represent our program. We are confident we will find a new head coach who will elevate our program and position our student-athletes to compete for championships while playing an exciting brand of basketball.”
Theo DeRosa reports on Mississippi State sports for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter at @Theo_DeRosa.
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