Mississippi State Basketball: Will the Bulldogs be Ben Howland’s fourth rebuilding success?
Ben Howland has a habit of rebuilding a basketball into a success wherever he goes. It seems as though he’s doing it again at Mississippi State.
First, it was Northern Arizona, then it happened again at Pittsburgh and UCLA and now it seems to be happening at Mississippi State. Wherever Ben Howland has gone he has won and by the time of his departure, perhaps underappreciated by his fanbases and those in charge.
He won at his first stop at Northern Arizona. After five years in Flagstaff, he spent the next 13 years at Pittsburgh and UCLA where he won over 300 games, earned nine trips to the NCAA Tournament which included three straight trips to the Final Four at UCLA.
Even after all that success, Howland fell out of favor at UCLA and was let go after the 2013 season despite a PAC-12 regular season title, an appearance in the Pac-12 tournament title game and another NCAA tournament berth. After a year off from coaching, Howland landed in the SEC at Mississippi State in 2015.
After three years at the helm it looks as though he’s doing what he did in Flagstaff, Pittsburgh and Los Angeles, get the proverbial boat headed in the right direction. Howland’s MO has been to use the first year on the job as an evaluation, then in year two, signs of improvement begin to show.
The year before he arrived at Northern Arizona, the Lumberjacks were 13-13. Two years later Howland had them at 21-7 and in the NIT. Pittsburgh was under .500 prior to Howland taking the job, two years later, the Panthers were 19-14 and found themselves in the NIT as well.
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The UCLA Bruins won just 10 games in 2003, by 2005 they were in their first of seven NCAA tournaments under Howland. The Mississippi State Bulldogs finished 11th in the SEC before Howland was tabbed as the new head man. After finishing his 3rd year at the helm, the team was 25-12 and has an NIT semifinal appearance under their belts.
Now at four different stops, Howland has taken a struggling program and turned it around in relatively short order. How did it happen in Starkville? For starters, having a recruiting class ranked in the top-15 nationally two out of the last three years has been a big help.
The Mississippi State recruiting class in 2016 was ranked 10th nationally by 247 Sports with five players ranked in the top 100. Fast forward two years and the three highest rated players from that class, Schnider Herard, Mario Kegler and Eli Wright are no longer with the program. Three other recruits, however, Lamar Peters was the team’s leading assist man last year (4.3), Abdul Ado was 2nd in rebounding (6.7) and Tyson Carter averaged 8.9 points are important members of the Bulldogs’ rotation.
This season’s incoming class is big, not only in national rank, 15th but also in size where all four recruits are 6-6 or taller. Reggie Perry is a 6-9 power forward out of Georgia is the 30th best recruit in the country. Joining Perry are a pair of 6-6 Mississippi kids, Robert Woodward and DJ Stewart. Rounding out the class is 6-10 center Jethro Tshisumpa.
This class joins a roster that won 25 games, went to the NIT semifinals and returns its top six scorers, only two of which, leading scorer Quinndary Weatherspoon and leading rebounder Aric Holman will be seniors. In 2018-19 Howland’s rotation could be 10 or 11 men deep with nine of them having been four-star recruits out of high school.
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The Bulldogs haven’t been to the NCAA tournament since 2009. They haven’t reached the Sweet Sixteen since they made a run to the Final Four in 1996. Next year’s team has a chance to reach heights not seen in Starkville in over 20 years, but then again that is what Ben Howland has done everywhere he’s been, rebuild and win.