Howland Out As UCLA Head Coach After 10 Seasons Following 20-Point NCAA Tournament Loss.
Friday night with UCLA’s 83-63 blowout loss against Minnesota completed the 10-year run of head coach Ben Howland as the Los Angeles Times acquired news that he would not be returning to the program next year. Howard achieved four conference titles with most recently winning the Pac-12 conference regular-season title and even took the Bruins to the final four three consecutive seasons in 2006-08.
Prior to this year, NCAA missed the tournament 3 straight years not advancing to the sweet 16 since their last final four appearances in 2008, as Friday’s loss was the last game Howland would coach. He leaves the school with a 233-107 record as some are citing his contract as the main contributing factor to why he was relinquished of his duties.
Howland’s contract ran through the next four years until 2017 as he received extensions in 2009 and 2010 after the schools final four appearances. Howland receives a $3.2M buyout with the team making the April 2nd deadline that would’ve cost them an additional $2M if bough out after the date.
[Source]