Howland is hired by Mississippi State
Mississippi State has hired former UCLA coach Ben Howland to lead its basketball program. The university announced the hiring Monday night, and Howland will be introduced in a news conference on campus Tuesday.
Howland, 57, coached at UCLA for 10 years, leading the Bruins to three straight Final Fours from 2006-2008. But they never made it past the second round of the NCAA tournament during the next five seasons and he was fired in 2013.
Howland replace Rick Ray , who was fired Saturday after three losing seasons and a 37-60 overall record. Bennett honored
Virginia Coach Tony Bennett was named coach of the year by the U.S. Basketball Writers Assn. The award is based on the regular season, during which Virginia went 28-2. The Cavaliers finished 30-4 but lost as a No. 1 seed to Michigan State in the third round of the NCAA tournament.
Bennett also won the award at Washington State in 2007 and is the ninth coach to win it twice. He and Roy Williams (Kansas in 1990, North Carolina in 2006) are the only coaches to win it at two schools. TV ratings soar
The opening weekend of the NCAA tournament drew the highest ratings in 22 years for CBS Sports and Turner Sports. The networks said the weekend’s third-round coverage across TBS, CBS, TNT and truTV delivered a 7.3/16 overnight rating/share. That’s a 7% increase from last year.
The four days of the men’s tournament through Sunday also had the highest overnight ratings for CBS Sports and Turner Sports, averaging a 6.7/14. Those numbers are the best since the tournament expanded to its current television format in 1991. NIT results
Jonathan Arledge’s layup with 19 seconds left gave top-seeded Old Dominion a 50-49 victory over Illinois State in the second round of the NIT, the 23rd straight home win for the Monarchs (26-7). . . . Cameron Payne scored 20 points as Murray State (29-5) rolled to an 83-62 victory at Tulsa. . . . Alex Hamilton scored 25 points and Louisiana Tech (27-8) made 11 three-pointers in an 84-72 victory at Texas A&M. Etc.
Indiana assistant Steve McClain was hired as head coach at Illinois-Chicago. . . . B.J. Johnson , a 6-foot-7 sophomore who left Syracuse last week in the wake of NCAA penalties levied against the program, reportedly will transfer to La Salle.