Why not? UCLA was Howland's "dream job", but even he is being crushed by the unrealistic expectations of UCLA fans. Why not go somewhere where your hard work will be appreciated? That's what Steve Alford found out when he moved to Albuquerque.
Granted, he hasn't won a national championship, but you would think that three straight Final Fours would earn you some slack with the fans, but no. They are going to run Howland out of town.
Dear UCLA fan: John Wooden, Lew Alcindor & Bill Walton aren't walking through that door.
Howland vehemently denies it and the entire story started with a Chicago paper who said he heard there was truth to the rumors Howland had contacted DePaul. Those rumors started on BRO, I read the original post the guy claimed to have a friend who was a reporter who told him it happened. Who knows but wouldn't it be funny if his reporter friend was the same guy who wrote in his Chicago paper about it?
I've now read 3 reporters and one BRO employee say Howland personally called them furious about the story, said it was complete nonsense, he is in the process of refinancing his house, has kids attending UCLA, and wants to stay as long as UCLA will let him.
I do agree with Renz the fan nonsense is bad, and some of it is all the fans right now screaming bloody murder over this with no idea if it's true or not. the same guy said Howland contacted UCONN and told them if their coach decides to retire, Ben is interested, I haven't seen that story anywhere else but BRO I have to assume if there were any truth to that it would be bigger news than DePaul since UCONN is a power and Calhoun has been in the news denying he's going to retire? the same fans who are saying Howland has lost his touch are mad because they think he's trying to find another job, which makes no sense, if you think he's lost it why would you not want him to look for another job?
Anyhow Ben insists he's staying so until that changes I won't worry about DePaul rumors.
Lavin to St. Johns is apparently very likely now.
howland has one loss at UCLA to a lower seeded team in the NCAA's, and that was the finals loss to Florida who was pretty clearly the best team in the country the way they ran through the tourney that year and the next. He hasn't gotten over the hump and this past season sucked, but he's not made a history of losing to lower seeds with far less talent than he has. There are clearly some concerns given the last 2 years but IMHO that's largely on the 08 class, when you have 5 players in one class all highly touted it makes it tough to recruit in the next class, that's why UCLA is so thin at guard they signed 3 in 08 so 09 and 10 guards figured no sense looking at UCLA. I doubt they get McCallum or Ziegler either. There's some talk they're considering Dwayne Polee now, great leaper very raw but they are apparently considering offering him nobody seems sure.
Carlino reopened, supposedly UCLA and other Pac 10 schools will look at him but he's apparently not nearly as touted as he was as a freshman.
The 2011 class will go a long ways to determining Ben's future, assuming he has the grades for UCLA if they don't get Josiah Turner or Dinwiddie then we can start to worry. For 2012 right now the 3 top targets seem to be Xavier Johnson, Shabazz Muhammad and Brandon Ashley. UCLA is in good with all 3 although Muhammad's dad having played at USC still makes me skeptical he'll actually pick UCLA. I've seen Ashley on tv, he's very good, WAY ahead of Gordon at the same age. Has size 19 feet and a 7 foot wingspan at about 6'7" or 6'8", looks like he could grow a couple more inches and hasn't really filled out yet. He's a really skilled kid, great hands, can shoot, moves well, handles the ball well, great passer, I haven't seen Johnson or Muhammad but if they're considered better than Ashley they must be VERY good.
