Men’s basketball head coach Ben Howland helped every team he coached become a success. Now, in his third year at Mississippi State University, he hopes to have the Bulldogs headed in the right direction.
In his first two seasons he coached the Bulldogs to a 30-33 record, a tad bit under .500, which does not sound impressive, but is an improvement over the previous three year record of 37-60.
On Monday, Howland talked about the challenges of the first few years at a new program.
“Typically when you take over a program, that program is not currently having a lot of success, or else they would not be making a change,” Howland said. “That first year is usually the toughest year because it is a transition year where you’re trying to bring in your own recruits. The second year is typically when you’re super young.”
MSU had the second youngest team in all of college basketball last season. Despite that, Howland was able to give MSU its first non-losing season since 2011.
After four straight losing seasons, MSU men’s basketball finished last year with a record of 16-16 and are showing signs of turning the program around.
Howland has always managed to make the jump and find success in his third season at a school, a trend that started at his first coaching job at Northern Arizona University. At Northern Arizona he won 16 games in his first two seasons. Then in year three, his team went 21-7 and finished first in their conference.
At his next stop with the University of Pittsburgh, Howland’s team had a losing record in his first season and a mediocre 19-14 record in year two before turning things around. In his third season, Pitt finished with a 29-6 record and made an appearance in the Sweet Sixteen of the NCAA Tournament.
Finally, at UCLA, Howland started off with a combined 29-28 record in his first two seasons. Then, in his third season, he coached the Bruins to a 32-7 record which ended with a trip to the National Championship game.
Howland said program stability was the key to his successes during his third years at all of his previous schools. He hopes program stability will do the same for the Bulldogs.
“Year three has been good for us at all three of my previous stops,” Howland said. “Typically by your third season you now have guys who have been in the program one or two years, and you’re building, and I’m hoping for similar results for us this year.”
The best player on the team last season was Quinndary “Q” Weatherspoon, a junior from Canton, who averaged 16.5 points per game last season.
This year, many Bulldog fans are excited about the addition of his younger brother Nick Weatherspoon, who was the Bulldogs top recruit this year and the sixth ranked point guard in the nation according to 247sports.com’s composite scoring.
Many fans and experts think Nick Weatherspoon is more naturally gifted than his older brother was when he came out of high school and could be the future of the program.
The younger Weatherspoon has already made a positive impression on Howland.
“I’m very excited about Nick. He is very competitive and really tough,” Howland said. “He is very multi-dimensional. He does a lot of things well. He can shoot it, finish, and he’s a good passer.”
Howland is pairing the Weatherspoon brothers with a top 10 recruiting class from 2016, which has now had a year to grow. Combine that with Howland’s track record of third year success in all of his previous coaching jobs and fans can have some legitimate expectations for this basketball team as the 2017-18 season quickly approaches.
