NCAA Basketball: UNC, Kansas among top head coaching hires from 2003
By Joey Loose
4. Ben Howland (UCLA)
Fans of college basketball know well that UCLA was the king of the sport several decades ago, winning ten of their titles in the 60’s and 70’s before adding an 11th in 1995. Living up to that run of success is a lot of pressure for a program that’s yet to find the second-coming of John Wooden. The 2003 season was a disaster, leading to the first missed NCAA Tournament in 15 years and the dismissal of Steve Lavin.
The man hired to turn things around again was Ben Howland. Having grown up on the West Coast, Howland gained early experience on the staffs of Gonzaga and UC Santa Barbara before beginning his own head coaching career. As head coach, he took Northern Arizona to their first-ever NCAA Tournament and led Pittsburgh to a pair of Sweet Sixteen runs.
Howland got right to work with the Bruins and before long had a fantastic program again. After two slow seasons of a rebuild, Howland led UCLA to three straight Final Four runs, with the 2006 team playing in the national championship game. Despite not sustaining that success, leading to his ouster in 2013, he still delivered the program’s best run of success in decades and continues to build his coaching legacy in the SEC at Mississippi State.