UCLA Week’s Burning Question: Will The Real Ben Howland Please Stand Up?
Posted by AMurawa on August 16th, 2012Each week this summer, we’re trying to ask the single biggest question about the program we’re profiling. And, as has become routine, we’ve got Adam Butler of Pachoops.com along to help us answer those questions. Without further ado, here’s the burning question facing the UCLA program this summer.
After rebuilding UCLA from the depths of the final season of the Steve Lavin era, head coach Ben Howland went 123-26 over the course of four seasons with three straight Final Four appearances mixed in there. But, over the last three years, UCLA has compiled a 56-43 record and twice missed the NCAA Tournament, results that are simply unacceptable to UCLA alumni. Which set of results are more indicative of Howland’s ability as a head coach and what does he need to do not only this season, but over the next few seasons, to regain the trust of Bruin fans?
Ben Howland’s Teams Have Been Both Sky High and Down In The Dumps At UCLA; 2012-13 Will Be An Important Tipping Point (Jamie Squire, Getty Images)
Adam Butler: With something to prove, Howland rolled into three straight Final Fours and was absolutely on fire. Then he hit cruise control, misevaluating talent and neglecting to build to his program. So which of these two samples indicates Howland’s abilities as a coach? I fortunately think it’s the former during which he built the program back into a national force. But the latter is still on his record and so I think it begs another question: Is Howland a torch bearer? When he was rebuilding the Bruins he was still chasing Arizona (among others) as the conference elite. But as things fell apart in Tucson and the conference was up for grabs – ripe for the blueblood Bruins to regain West Coast supremacy – things again turned sour. I think it’s easy to play catch-up. Waiting in the wake of the more powerful runners before bolting ahead, using conserved energy to take what appears to be a hard earned lead. But as the race drags on, true colors will show. Sean Miller has come in and made a quick splash, Tad Boyle and Dana Altman won’t soon let you tell them their programs are walkovers, LoRo’s going to have draft picks, Johnny Dawkins has stockpiled some talent in Palo Alto, and KO’s ragtag and nursed-back-to-health group certainly doesn’t like UCLA. I believe Howland now sees the tide changing and is shifting back into gear, hiring Korey McCray and quickly acquiring the nation’s top recruiting class. So is he catching up again or will he lead the Pac? Either way, he’s proven he can win and that earns him some significant clout. But this is UCLA and UCLA doesn’t chase. They lead. He’s got them poised to do that once again, but he may very well be on a short leash getting shorter as the NCAA investigates Shabazz Muhammad – a burning question for another time.
Andrew Murawa: Ben Howland’s history as a head coach is that of a winner. He took a moribund Northern Arizona team and turned it into a program that went 63-23 over the course of three seasons with two conference championships mixed in there. At Pittsburgh he took a team that had produced two seasons with winning records in conference play over the previous decade and helped build a program that would go a decade without a losing conference tally. And, as noted, he brought the UCLA program off of the scrap heap and up to three consecutive Final Four appearances. However, the last three seasons at UCLA have been rough, culminating in last year’s Sports Illustrated article that questioned Howland’s leadership and control over his program. But, despite Howland’s culpability in the problems described in that article, even the writer George Dohrmann seems to tie many of the problems back to a couple recruiting classes where Howland flat out whiffed, including the fateful 2008 recruiting class, a collection of five players who were regarded as the best bunch of freshmen in the nation but who drastically underachieved in Westwood. For now, given Howland’s history of success, he’s built up enough capital to earn the benefit of the doubt. And five years after UCLA’s last #1 recruiting class, he’s got another one to work with. The results with Shabazz Muhammad, Kyle Anderson and company will need to be significantly better than they were with Jrue Holiday and Drew Gordon – and immediately – or else Howland’s seat will begin to smolder. And even one more deep NCAA Tournament run behind potential a couple of potential one-and-doners will not keep the hounds at bay. At UCLA, that type of success needs to be repeatable, year in and year out.
Connor Pelton: The Bruin program has been an interesting study the past few years as Howland has endured some of the same problems that plagued Lavin in his final season. Some questionable decisions in the signings of Anthony Stover and De’End Parker haven’t worked out, and some of the signings that looked great at the time have bombed as Reeves Nelson got kicked off the team, Joshua Smith become a disappointment, and Mike Moser, Matt Carlino, and J’Mison Morgan transferred out. And some recruits that have panned out (Tyler Honeycutt, Malcolm Lee, and Jrue Holiday) still left Los Angeles early. This has led to the Bruins falling behind Arizona, California, and Washington in play on the court. I’ll give Howland the benefit of the doubt, because I’m a nice guy and I like to see the glass half full and say that those first five seasons are more indicative of his coaching ability, that maybe he just took his foot off the gas and was the victim of some recruiting decisions that went wrong. It happens. But we all know that UCLA fans demand excellence (at least on the basketball court), so time is quickly running out. He was able to hang on through Nelson-gate, SportsIllustrated-gate, and the awful “Bruin Road Show” in 2011-12, so now it’s time to deliver. The list of playmakers on this year’s roster, from Kyle Anderson to Shabazz Muhammad to Travis Wear, is never ending, and he’s got a brand new Pauley Pavilion to show them off. I’d say that for this season an NCAA bid is a must, and barring any mass exodus of this year’s recruiting class going one-and-done, Sweet Sixteens and Elite Eights should be the norm in the years to come.
Andrew Murawa Likes Basketball.
