Saturday, March 23, 2013

DEVELOPING: Howland Fired By UCLA...or Was He??? (UPDATED)

FOSG Gil Tyree is reporting that UCLA has wasted no time(one year later than expected) in firing head men's coach Ben Howland...

The season, that started with so much promise- and a lot of incoming, highly-touted freshmen- ended with a thud when Minnesota took care of the Bruins in one of those 6-11 games in the first round of the In-Cee-Aay-Aay tournament...

The LA Times Bill Plaschke, when he asked Howland after the 83-63 loss as to whether or not he asked his last game as Bruins coach, got the standard "no comment" yesterday.

Howland will have missed the third round of the tourney for the fifth straight year. But not having Jordan Adams for the post-season tourney was huge and forced conventional wisdom to turn to Tubby Smith as the favorite in the first round match-up.

More when we know more...

2200 UPDATE: Yahoo!Sports is corroborating with some background...

Marc Spears and Jeff Eisenberg say that an announcement could come in the next 48 hours and that Howland has been told that he's been fired. Assistant Korey McCray, the AAU-connected coach that was mostly responsible for bringing in Tony Parker, Kyle Anderson, and Jordan Allen, could be staying for the interim.

Overnight Update---USA Today quotes UCLA Athletic Department spokesperson Nick Ammazzalorso who says: "Contrary to multiple media reports this evening, UCLA has not fired men's basketball coach Ben Howland."

The USA Today story is: RIGHT HERE

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