Howland an intriguing hire

As happens each spring, there will be a lot of turnover in the college basketball coaching ranks over the next month. But, it is going to be tough for any program to top the switcheroo pulled off by Mississippi State when they dumped Rick Ray over the weekend so they could hire Ben Howland on Monday.

To be clear, Ray wasn't exactly setting the world on fire during his three seasons in Starkville. The Bulldogs were a sub-.500 team in year three and only won six games in the SEC. But, Ray had changed things in other ways.

Considered a bit of a renegade program a few short years ago, Ray was brought in from his assistant post at Clemson to help clean up the program and change the culture. In those regards, Ray was on his way and well known throughout the college community for being one of the most ethical men in the business of basketball. With the talent on hand, the Bulldogs appeared primed for at least an NIT run in year four but instead it will be Howland who can show what he can do.

To be sure, Howland -- who has been working hard to find a new relatively high profile gig since his dismissal from UCLA in 2013 -- arrives in Starkville with some beefy credentials.

While leading Northern Arizona, Pittsburgh and UCLA to the NCAA Tournament Howland amassed an impressive 399-208 record. His teams have won eight conference titles, four conference tournament titles and of the 10 times he's taken his teams to the NCAA Tournament, three of them -- all at UCLA -- resulted in Final Four appearances.

Anything even close to that type of success at Mississippi State would be considered a major win and there's no reason to think that Howland can't build the program to a very respectable one.

The question, though, will be what kind of talent can he recruit to MSU?

The expectation will be that he can recruit good players. Howland has already proven that. Between his first (2004) and last full (2012) years on the job in Westwood, Howland landed eight five-star and 18 four-star prospects while helping to turn three-stars like Russell Westbrook and Richard Luc M'Bah a Moute into NBA players.

It's perhaps too late in the game to get involved with the nation's No. 3 player, Malik Newman. But, the shooting guard is an in-state prospect and it should be noted that his father, Horatio Webster, was a star for the Bulldogs. At the very least, Howland can get a raise in interest from Newman and a more legitimate look from the scoring machine.

At UCLA, one of Howland's biggest assets was assistant coach Korey McCray. McCray's ties to the powerful Atlanta Celtics and the grassroots basketball circuit -- particularly the Adidas circuit, and MSU is an Adidas school -- enabled the Bruins to have some success in the Southeast. McCray is a pretty safe bet to join Howland on the Bulldogs' staff and he can help to build on the success and momentum that Ray had already begun to build in talent rich Atlanta and the rest of the Southeast.

Bottom line, the powers at be at Mississippi State have sent a loud and clear message. They are done playing Mr. Nice Guy with a coach like Ray and they are ready to try and jump back into the shark-infested waters of high level recruiting and winning by hiring Howland.

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