NBA Draft: Ben Howland confirms Shabazz Muhammad will enter the draft
Howland is posturing for his next class, thats all. Plus saying Shabazz should go because he is a lottery pick could be a little self serving also, I would pick Kyle Anderson in any pick after twenty in this years draft. I'm not saying he should leave because I think he will be even better next year because he will have more distribution responsibilities without LD2. Anderson could be looking at 14, 9, and 8 next year.
Probably was said because the fans were chanting one more year since it's the last game at pauley pavilion this season and the local media was throwing a lot of questions after the game about this being shabazz's last home game at ucla. I don't think Ben has to try anything to pull recruits.
Ben built an NCAA tourney bound team at northern Arizona. He then went to Pitt and won two big east championships with Aaron gray as his star. He then came to ucla and went to 3 straight final 4's almost immediately. He's been named not only the PAC 12 coach of the year but the national coach of the year as well. Ucla is currently 22-7 and can potentially win the PAC 12 title. while there have been some unsuccessful seasons recently, I have a hard time suggesting he should be fired or can be easily replaced.
It's a shame Muhammad's time in college is almost up, and that the college season itself is almost over, I was really enjoying seeing Bazz play every time I got the chance and as much as I love the NBA there is definitely a certain appeal to college games that make them a nice change of pace when I get bored with the pro game in the regular season.
http://espn.go.com/los-angeles/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/900936...
I know its not shocking but it still seems strange that howland would announce that before the season is even over