Mississippi State: How Long For Ben Howland To Create A Powerhouse?

By DJoumbarey A. Moreau | Jul 22, 2015

Jan 17, 2015; Starkville, MS, USA; Mississippi State Bulldogs guard Craig Sword (32) and guard Fred Thomas (1) celebrate after a basket during the game against the Vanderbilt Commodores at Humphrey Coliseum. Mississippi State Bulldogs defeat the Vanderbilt Commodores 57-54. Mandatory Credit: Spruce Derden-USA TODAY Sports /

Times are sure changing. Mississippi State is looking like the new place in the Southeastern Conference for collegiate athletes to attend.

Because Mississippi State was able to ink Ben Howland to a four-year contract to coach in Starkville, they’re basketball program might soon become as successful as their football program. The numbers don’t lie. Even without a championship title under his resume Howland’s one of the premier coaches in college basketball.

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Due to the fact that we live in the era of instant gratification the question for Howland automatically becomes how soon will it take for him to become successful at Mississippi State?

Thankfully for Howland building up championship caliber programs isn’t something that he’s been a stranger to. Howland’s been a winner his entire career ant he’s never had an overall losing record with any of the program’s that he’s coached at. When he coached at Northern Arizona he finished with a 79-59 record and also made an NCAA Tournament appearance in 1998.

At Pittsburgh, Howland started to blossom as a coach and finished with an 89-40 record. Howland also made more noise in the NCAA tournament as he reached the Sweet 16 two consecutive times. Howland then decided to make the best coaching decision of his life as he left he Steel City to coach at UCLA.

At UCLA, Howland fixed one of the most traditional programs in the country and brought it back to prominence. Howland finished with a record of 233-107. In addition, he also finished with seven NCAA tournament appearances, including two trips to the Final Four and one national championship game appearance.

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That’s why Mississippi State’s athletic director Scott Stricklin had to swing for the fences by signing him. Stricklin took an educated gamble by signing Howland, a man with a track record and coaching pedigree that can stand with most coaches in college basketball.

In addition, the way that Howland’s been able to recruit during his career is also one of the reasons why he’s had much success as a collegiate basketball coach. The list of NBA players that Howland’s coached could probably defeat most NBA teams in the 2014 NBA Draft lottery.

In his heyday, someone could’ve thought of Howland as the West Coast version of John Calipari.

Some of the notable players that have played for Howland include Jrue Holiday, Darren Collison, Shabazz Muhammad, Kyle Anderson, Trevor Ariza, Jordan Farmar, Arron Afflalo, Russell Westbrook and Kevin Love.

That list of NBA talent that Howland’s already produced is only going to increase.

The prized possession of Howland’s first recruiting class at Mississippi State is none other the Malik Newman. After being hired as the basketball coach at Mississippi State, Howland had one goal to accomplish, sign Newman.

The 6’3″ shooting guard is from Jackson, Miss. and won four state championships while at Callaway High School. In addition, he was also the leading scorer on the USA Basketball U17 team in the summer of 2014. To make things even easier, Newman’s father also has ties to the school as he played at Mississippi State back in 1997-98.

Newman weighing his options of going to play for John Calipari and once again giving Kentucky another slam dunk recruiting class, or attempting to revive Mississippi State and become a hometown hero in the process. Howland got Newman to think the latter and now the hometown blue chip prospect who’s often compared to Stephen Curry is going to suit up for the Bulldogs.

Newman’s deep range on his jump shot mixed in with his scoring ability is what gives him the Curry comparisons. Although Newman may not be the next Curry (no one is) but as long as Howland’s coaching him you can best believe that he will squeeze out every ounce of his potential.

Additionally throw in Craig Sword and Gavin Ware, who each in their own right are NBA prospects and it shouldn’t be a surprise that Mississippi State will win more than 13 games. On another note if you look into the future a little bit and you can see that Howland’s already gotten off to a fresh start bringing in talent.

It’s been less than a year and he’s already got a hard commitment from Lamar Peters, a four-star recruit whose game easily compares to Brandon Jennings.

A lot of people might’ve not been paying attention to Mississippi State, but next season that’s going to change.

Next: SEC: Why You Need To Stop Hating On the Conference

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