Very interesting article.
The gap between the perception of the end of Ben Howland's time at UCLA and the reality of the end of Ben Howland's time at UCLA has forever been wide and confusing
What folks say is he played slow, stopped winning and suffered in recruiting.
But none of that is true.
The truth is that Howland's Bruins, in his final year, competed at the fastest tempo in the Pac-12 and won the Pac-12's regular-season title, and they did both of those things thanks to a recruiting class that 247 Sports ranked No. 1 in the country. So if UCLA wanted to make a change just for the sake of change, fine; I totally get that. But the idea that UCLA needed to make a change because Howland had run UCLA into the ground, or anywhere near the ground, is something that's never actually been true.
["I will be attending the University of Mississippi State," five-star recruit Malik Newman said Friday afternoon, and let's forgive the kid for mixing up the order of those words.
University of Mississippi State.
Mississippi State University.
Whatever.
247 Sports ranks Newman No. 5 in the Class of 2015.
The 6-foot-4 point guard is considered the nation's top prospect at his position.