Ben Howland is likely on his way out at UCLA.
Ben Howland fired as UCLA head coach, according to reports
After spending the past decade in Westwood, Howland is out of a job. He led UCLA to three Final Fours.
USA TODAY Sports
According to multiple reports, including this tweet from Jeff Eisenberg of Yahoo! Sports, Howland will officially be out by as early as Sunday. The Bruins saw their once-promising season end on Friday night with an upset loss to 11-seed Minnesota in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
Howland, 55, has been the head coach at UCLA since 2003. He took the Bruins to the Final Four in three straight years from 2006 to 2008, including a national runner-up performance in 2006. The program hasn’t advanced to a Sweet 16 since then.
Armed with arguably the top recruiting class in the nation this past season, Howland was unable to get everything to gel. Now, star freshman Shabazz Muhammad is likely departing for the draft, point guard Larry Drew is graduating and a handful of other key players could head for the NBA.
Prior taking over in Westwood, Howland experienced successful tenures with Pittsburgh and Northern Arizona.
Edit: UCLA is denying that Howland has been fired.
UCLA releases a statement that it has NOT fired Ben Howland. Stay tuned.
— Pete Thamel(@SIPeteThamel) March 24, 2013
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