SEC Basketball: Ben Howland Off to a Quick Start in Starkville

Getting head basketball coach Ben Howland to Starkville, Miss. was a major coup for Mississippi State, and AD Scott Stricklin and Howland, himself,served notice on Friday with the signing of 5-star shooting guard Malik Newman out of Callaway, Miss.

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Newman chose the Bulldogs over Kentucky, Kansas, and Miami as well as several SEC schools in what proves to be the first major dint in the SEC landscape in getting the Howland Era rolling.

According to Hailstate.com, Howland noted that “Malik Newman is one of the top players in the country in the senior class of 2015,” , “It’s a very special day and a huge day for our program to have him come to Starkville and help lead our program next year. He is a very talented player who has great ability to score the basketball and make plays for others.

Newman’s statistics were amassed in enormity in four years at Callaway High School where he scored 3,108 points, grabbed 651 rebounds and dished 301 assists while leading his team to four consecutive state championships and winning Mr. Basketball in the state of Mississippi for two years in a row.

Newman joins a veteran Mississippi State group for the 2015-16 campaign as Howland and the Bulldogs could see a major in ascension in the SEC standings. Trivante Bloodman and Roquez Johnson are the only two contributors that graduated, so in returning key players in I.J. Ready, Fred Thomas, Gavin Ware, and Craig Sword, and three other role players that averaged double figures in minutes, the chemistry in Starkville should push the Bulldogs back into the hunt for an NCAA berth.

Howland will implement a sturdy defense at Mississippi State which will was his signature at UCLA. The only drawback was that the Bruins faithful thought he was too defensive-oriented and that stymied the offense of a program that saw 18 players go into the NBA Draft during his nine years. Howland immediately noted that he plans to up-tempo things more at MSU.

“Defense wins on the road and you have to win on the road to be a champion,” explained Howland to AL.com. “Offensively, we will start every possession pushing the ball. Something I did at my last year at UCLA, was making a huge emphasis on pushing the ball on all makes and misses. Especially on makes now. Most teams do not expect you to run after they scored.”

The SEC landscape is starting to be a “Who’s Who?” in composition. The league has always been underrated nationally as a basketball league as in the last 20 years, five teams, Kentucky, twice, Florida, twice, and Arkansas have won national championships. Howland’s Bruins lost to Florida twice in the Gators back-to-back national championship run in the Final Four in both 2006 and 2007.

“There’s no question that when you look at the league, it’s on the rise,” noted Howland, “This basketball league is going to get much better. We’re going to try to beat each other like crazy, but we’re going to support each other. We’re going to support every team in this league to great outside of the conference.”

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