In Reply to: Howland won a P12 championship... posted by ClockBlocker on April 22, 2026 at 15:00:37
I was one of the people who didn’t want to see Howland let go, and I said so pretty strongly at the time. If you remember, he had just signed what was considered a top-one or top-two recruiting class, depending on the source—Kyle Anderson, Shabazz Muhammad, Jordan Adams, and Tony Parker—so I didn’t fully agree with the narrative around him.
That said, perception ultimately carried the day. Regardless of my view, enough people believed he wouldn’t be able to recruit Southern California effectively, and that led to his dismissal. You could argue that local recruiting isn’t as critical now in the NIL era, but that’s still playing out. Personally, I’d prefer a coach who can recruit well in Southern California. It feels like an advantage we should be maximizing, especially as the flagship program in California.
When I compare us to Gonzaga, it’s hard to see many built-in advantages on their end, yet they’ve been widely viewed as the dominant program on the West Coast. That said, Arizona looks like it may be positioning itself to take that mantle back. It's a shame that I have to say that.