OT- Pac 10 hoops beware UCLA is back!

[Russ Smith]

Reports from Pittsburgh and LA have Pitt coach Ben Howland due in LA late tonight to be announced tomorrow as the new UCLA basketball coach. Just about every UCLA source I know of his reporting this so unless he pulls a Larry Brown and changes his mind at the press conference tomorrow, Ben Howland will be the coach next year.

He inherits a fairly talented team albeit with a PG problem but I think he showed at NAU and Pitt he can coach so I expect UCLA to push 20 wins next year with the inherited talent(and 2 recruits Ariza and Phaler assuming Ariza qualifies).

Arizona is still the team to beat I see UCLA fighting for 3rd behind ARizona and Stanford competing with ASU, Cal etc.

Jake and Lavin out in the same year!

 

[SeattleCard]

Howland is an amazing coach. Any coach who can make the Lumberjacks competitive must be talented

I agree, UCLA will be much better next year with Howland at the helm. Congrats on getting your guy...

 

[Mr. Boldin]

Hopefully they get Ben. That way it makes UAs RPI better when they beat the Bruins...

 

[Russ Smith]

Originally posted by Mr. Boston89
Hopefully they get Ben. That way it makes UAs RPI better when they beat the Bruins...

UA is going to be the team to beat for at least 2 more years they simply have too much talent not to be(unless a bunch of guys leave early). But Howland will close the gap and that's all I'm interested in he's inheriting Lavin's mess and it will take 2 years to get it all sorted out.

I've been a UCLA fan since '75 but I would have advised Hassan Adams to sign with UA over UCLA myself because frankly Lavin would have hurt his NBA chances. Not the case if Howland is official, I think UA will see an immediate impact in recruiting against UCLA with Lavin out of the picture now. It's good for the conference Cal is recruiting very well these days too I think the Pac 10 in 2 years will have 2-3 teams in the final 8 if most of these kids stick around in school.

 

[Mr. Boldin]

To be honest.... There is no reason UA shouldnt dominate the Pac-10 for years to come. Only the seniors are leaving this year.. Add that with the #1 recruiting class in the nation and you have perhaps a more talented team next year... The #1 PG (Mustafa Shakur) #1 PF (Ndudi Ebi) and the sleeper of the year (Kirk Walters) to an already loaded team . One of the guys to watch next year will be RS freshman Chris Dunn.. a 6-8 wing forward who was the best 3pt shooter in New Mexico for 2 years in a row. Shot something crazy like 50% from 3 range. Not to mention that he is the equal to Iguodala and Hassan.. or Hassandre as us cat fans call em.

UCLA lost big time when Evan Burns couldnt not qualify for school and did qualify at SDSU.. Makes yout think.. A basketball player actualy not qualifing for college? Never happenes anywhere to big time recruits like this. I am a fan of UCLA doing the right thing and not letting him "slide" into school, unlike the Dookies from Cameron. The avg GPA of incoming forsh at Duke is something like 3.8 and the basketball team is around 2.4... Now comon...

UCLA has the talent to compete next year, without a doubt... The more pac-10 schools in the NCAA tourney the more we prove those dirty east coast writers wrong..

 

[CT Card Fan]

good for you Russ

but having gone to grad school at Pitt, I am also obligated to say:

You suck! I'll have to give you a trout!

Good luck to Ben at UCLA. A fan of UNC (just like them) and Pitt (alum) and both lost their coaches in the same day. It's like the Boston/Jake Day for me all over again. Well, maybe the Boston day since I was OK with jake leaving.

 

[Dback Jon]

If this is true, then UCLA becomes my favorite PAC 10 team.
I am forever grateful to Howland for lifting NAU from the gutter of college basketball.
Seeing the Jacks in the Big Dance was awesome. Seeing the Jacks stomp the Scum Devils at Wells Fargo was priceless.

When Howland was hired at Pitt, the Pitt fans on the old CNNSI board (remember that place!) where complaining about the hire. I promised them that Howland would take them to the Big Dance in 3 years (took 2) and win the Big East within 5 (took 3). They scoffed, but I know they are glad to be wrong.
Howland will make UCLA the dominant PAC 10 team within 5 years.

 

[Russ Smith]

Originally posted by Mr. Boston89

UCLA lost big time when Evan Burns couldnt not qualify for school and did qualify at SDSU.. Makes yout think.. A basketball player actualy not qualifing for college? Never happenes anywhere to big time recruits like this. I am a fan of UCLA doing the right thing and not letting him "slide" into school, unlike the Dookies from Cameron. The avg GPA of incoming forsh at Duke is something like 3.8 and the basketball team is around 2.4... Now comon...

UCLA has the talent to compete next year, without a doubt... The more pac-10 schools in the NCAA tourney the more we prove those dirty east coast writers wrong..

The problem with Burns was pretty simple, UCLA can't take partial qualifiers and Burns' core classes in HS were in dispute so the admissions wouldn't let him in until it was cleared up. Ultimately they decided they didn't want to wait and dismissed him. San Diego State took him as a partial and when the core classes were cleared, he began to play. Agree that really hurt the team but the impact will be felt more NEXT year with Kapono gone than it was this year with Kapono around. Burns would have been playing out of position this year at PF.

Arizona is loaded I know all about Shakur and Ebi I watched the McDonald's game last week both were impressive. Adams and Iguodala, looks like Chris Rodgers is a likely transfer out of UA because of lack of PT. I figure it will take 2 years for UCLA to get the recruiting back in line.

Stanford could challenge UA this coming season, Chris Hernandez should be back healthy at the PG and I think people will be pleasantly surprised at the progress of guys like Grunfeld and Haryasz(an ARizona kid) in the near future both were highly recruited guys who showed flashes of being really good.

I'm thrilled for UCLA last year a SJ Mercury News writer, Tim Kawakami, wrote an article where he claimed all the talk about Pitino or Majerus to UCLA was scaring Pac10 coaches but the guy they ought to "fear" is Ben Howland who will wind up the next coach. Kawakami covered UCLA for years with the LA Times so I emailed him and asked if it was opinion or he had sources and he kind of hinted he had it on pretty good authority they'd already settled on Howland as their choice for the job. I emailed him yesterday congratulating him on his prediction and he joked about waiting for the official announcement in case Howland changes his mind(please no).

UCLA will be no better than 3rd next year and maybe not even that high since ASU and Cal could both be quite good, but at least I know they'll be well coached.

 

[Dback Jon]

Congrats, Russ

UCLA hires Howland:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/basketball/college/news/2003/04/02/howland_ucla_ap/

 

[Russ Smith]

Re: Congrats, Russ

Originally posted by Dback Jon
UCLA hires Howland:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/basketball/college/news/2003/04/02/howland_ucla_ap/

Yeah they reported it last night, 7 years deal sounds like a good one. He's trying to bring his assistants along but the top one is in line for the Pitt job to replace him so it may not work out. Great coach, the Pitt guys are pissed at him players say he told them nothing, AD says UCLA didn't formally ask for permission(both they and Howland say they did) but it's inevitable when a successful program loses their coach to another school people are going to get mad.

UA still is the favorite this coming year but look out UCLA is going to be back soon. Early rumor has NYC junior PG Sebastian Telfair adding UCLA to his short list because of this.

 

[WizardOfAz]

Isn't Howland the reason ASU and NAU don't play in Hoops any more?

 

[Dback Jon]

Originally posted by WizardOfAz
Isn't Howland the reason ASU and NAU don't play in Hoops any more?

Yup - The Jacks whooped up on some Devil a$$ last time the Jacks played them at Wells Fargo.