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Where does the Pack stand on Howland these days?

C

ColoradoDawg

Redshirt
Sep 3, 2016
511
0
0
Making the tourney last last year proved that we have been trending in the right direction during his tenure.

Let's face it... after Rick Ray, Howland basically had to start from scratch. There are a lot of new faces this year and this team feels like completely different team than last years. No Q, Nick so far, and no Lamar Peters.

At the beginning of the season I was thinking that this was going to be a solid defensive team that was going to run the offense through Perry, but through the first few games I have realized that this is Tyson Carter's team. The comeback to SFA showed some real grit, but the amount of turnovers was definitely a concern. I think we are still a bubble team this year. I wish Lamar Peters had stayed, but after Nick gets back I think we will be okay at the guard position.

All in all I think Howland is a good coach and I'd like him to stay as long as he would like. He provides consistency and now that the program is built I think we are at the very least a bubble team every year. He cleans up in MS recruiting. He also recruits well nationally and internationally
 
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T

The Situation

Redshirt
Oct 6, 2019
1,098
0
0
I think everything is great but I bet Howland wishes he could redo those first couple of recruiting classes and gotten rid of some of the attitudes. I'm thinking he just didn't have time to really get to know the prospects. Now that he's got his guys in there I think it's only going to get better and the crowds will likely return this year.
 
B

BulldogBillyCrash

Redshirt
Oct 31, 2019
361
0
16
ColoradoDawg said:
Making the tourney last last year proved that we have been trending in the right direction during his tenure.

Let's face it after Rick Ray, Howland basically had to start from scratch. There are a lot of new faces this year and this team feels like completely different team than last years. No Q, Nick so far, and no Lamar Peters.

At the beginning of the season I was thinking that this was going to be a solid defensive team that was going to run the offense through Perry, but through the first few games I have realized that this is Tyson Carter's team. The comeback to SFA showed some real grit, but the amount of turnovers was definitely a concern. I think we are still a bubble team this year. I wish Lamar Peters had stayed, but after Nick gets back I think we will be okay at the guard position.

All in all I think Howland is a good coach and I'd like him to stay as long as he would like. He provides consistency and now that the program is built I think we are at the very least a bubble team every year. He cleans up in MS recruiting. He also recruits well nationally and internationally
Click to expand...

******** can we please just hate on once coach at a time
 
M

MSUDC11

Redshirt
Aug 23, 2012
7,316
0
0
It’s hard to complain much considering where we were just 3-4 years ago. I frankly expected more from the 2016 signing class, but a lot of that isn’t Howland’s fault. Herard and Kegler were flat out busts, Peters was very up and down and a bit of a head case, Wright left without doing much, Ado is what he is (no scoring threat but quality defender). Carter has been a pleasant surprise, he was probably the least heralded guy from that class.

When we hired him I thought we would’ve played in more than one NCAA tourney game by now, but maybe that was premature thinking on my part. The Liberty game left a bad taste in my mouth though. It really stunk for THAT to be our long awaited return to the Big Dance. I like the makeup of this team though and think we have the chance to give good teams fits in February and March.

At this point, Howland probably has job security until he’s ready to retire as long as we stay in the NIT range at a minimum and then are in the NCAA Tourney 50% of the time or a little better the rest of his tenure.
 
E

engie

Sophomore
May 29, 2011
10,763
106
63
What do you mean by “still” a bubble team? Last year’s team was tied for the 3rd best seed in our history.

I like this team better. Not predicting the results to be better, but I just like how the group plays
 
missouridawg

missouridawg

Junior
Oct 6, 2009
9,407
309
83
engie said:
What do you mean by “still” a bubble team? Last year’s team was tied for the 3rd best seed in our history.

I like this team better. Not predicting the results to be better, but I just like how the group plays
Click to expand...

Yea - I'm surprised by how many folks who forget we were a 5 seed. The loss to Liberty sucked ***... but if we had Nick Weatherspoon guarding the perimeter the last 5 minutes of that game, then we probably would've won.

We are also scheduling strategically, as well as paying attention to the NET rankings metrics. The fact that Howland has coached his team to try and win by 10 in garbage time really excites me. He's paying attention to the details. For those that don't know, the NET ranking has a bonus if you win by double digits.

This years' team is super long. And they'll be great, defensively. Which will travel on the road just fine. UK, after a big win, has looked paltry. Florida is highly overrated. Auburn will be solid, as will LSU. But the SEC is pretty wide open this year. I think we have a pretty clear path to get back into a 5 seed with this squad, assuming our young guys don't hit that freshman wall too hard. It's going to be very fun to watch a 5 star kid getting added to this squad in late December.
 
M

MadDawg.sixpack

Redshirt
May 22, 2006
3,358
0
0
missouridawg said:
Yea - I'm surprised by how many folks who forget we were a 5 seed. The loss to Liberty sucked ***...
Click to expand...

Yeah, it's probably the shitting the bed, first-round loss to Liberty that makes most people forget we were a 5-seed. Actually, I wish I still had forgot.
 
M

maroonmania

All-Conference
Feb 23, 2008
11,367
1,149
113
I personally think we are lucky to have a coach with the pedigree Howland has given our general lack of fan support for men's basketball. Seems at MSU its football and baseball and the MBB team is an afterthought. Yes, the WBB team do great, but any sport at MSU that can become a NC contending caliber program will do great.
 
Lettucexxxx

Lettucexxxx

All-Conference
Oct 16, 2012
4,562
1,047
113
The team has better body language and hustle. The cohesion, ball movement and communication have improved drastically. We turn it over less than we have at any point in Bens tenure. We need Spoon to come in and be a humble beast. Don’t mess with the flow we have.

Woodard and Perry are a joy to watch.

btw, we havnt shot the ball super well from deep, yet. When that changes and we couple that with adding the best on ball defender in the SEC back to our starting 5....look out. Might have something brewing up in Starkvegs
 
C

campshelbydog842003

Redshirt
Sep 25, 2013
1,627
0
0
The team actually looks like they enjoy playing together this year. We may **** the bed and suck, but this team appears a little bit different to me. A lot less me me me me me pout pout pout social media ***** social media ***** going on so far now that he's gone. I feel like the Hump is close to being ready to return to form. I went Sunday when we played UNO for the first time in years and enjoyed it.
 
D

dickiedawg

All-Conference
Feb 22, 2008
4,597
1,545
113
Ben Howland is a good coach and he's doing a good job. He hasn't recruited at the level I thought he might when he was hired, but that may have been unreasonable.
I think this year's team will exceed expectations.
I think fan support is terrible and I don't necessarily see that changing any time soon. Last year set us back a ways in that regard.
 
Seinfeld

Seinfeld

All-American
Nov 30, 2006
11,697
8,002
113
First off, with all due respect to Rick Ray as a person, I think we all have to remember that Howland followed a guy that was frankly a giant error of a hire. Howland had a handful of Stansbury seniors left when he got here, but aside from that, he was starting from ground zero.

Looking at his four years here, it’s hard to really say that he’s exceeded expectations in any given season, but he’s shown consistent progress every year, and I think we’ll finally start seeing that elusive continuity that we’ve all been wanting this year.

If that happens, and I think it will, fans will eventually return, higher profile recruits will take notice, and the ball will really start to roll.

I say all that to say that Howland probably hasn’t achieved what a lot of us hoped he’d achieve by this point, but it’s hard to look at the positive trend and label it as anything other than a success thus far
 
F

fishwater99

Freshman
Jun 4, 2007
14,073
54
48
dickiedawg said:
Ben Howland is a good coach and he's doing a good job. He hasn't recruited at the level I thought he might when he was hired, but that may have been unreasonable.
I think this year's team will exceed expectations.
I think fan support is terrible and I don't necessarily see that changing any time soon. Last year set us back a ways in that regard.
Click to expand...

It's much easier to recruit to UCLA in LA than to MSU in S-Vegas. I think he's doing pretty good recruiting so far, he has had a few misses too.
 
D

Dawgzilla

Redshirt
Mar 3, 2008
5,406
0
0
I was always a little skeptical of Howland. He was a huge upgrade from Ray, of course, but I was worried that maybe he was past his prime. Also worried that he would get wrapped up in AAU nonsense and get the program in trouble. Unlike many on this board, I never expected him to get us to the Tournament in his first couple of years. I've also been disappointed by his teams' lack of defense and rebounding and overall lack of discipline.

But its not like I was ever opposed to Howland. I just wasn't that excited about him. If I lived closer to Starkville I would undoubtedly have owned season tickets throughout his time here.

And this team has me getting excited.
 
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