This Sports Illustrated story is the kind of stuff that helps recruiting ... or not. How much longer does Howland last in Westwood? And yes, I know they went to 3 straight Final Fours a handful of years ago.
Here's an excerpt:
At one point in late 2008, Howland lectured the team about drinking, saying that he didn't consume alcohol during the season and asking that the players show the same respect for the program. Reminders to curtail the partying came more frequently from assistant coaches.
On the final day of 2008, Howland met with the team and told players not to go out on New Year's Eve. The Bruins had an early-morning practice scheduled for New Year's Day and were departing for Oregon in the afternoon. Howland stressed that it was time to get serious.
Three members of the team, not all of them freshmen, ignored Howland's orders and attended a giant rave at the Los Angeles Sports Arena. "We did what you do at a rave: We took Ecstasy," says one of the players. The trio did not get back to Westwood until between 4 and 5 a.m. and barely slept before arriving at Pauley Pavilion for an 8 a.m. practice. The players bragged about their night to teammates and commented on how they were still feeling the effects of the Ecstasy.
A few days later an assistant coach phoned the players who attended the rave and asked if they had gone out on New Year's Eve. They denied it, but soon afterward each was ordered to submit to a drug test. "I took something that was supposed to get [the drugs] out of my system," says one player. "I never heard anything about the results [of the test], so it must have worked."
2 comments:
Yikes. I had certainly wondered why the Bruins had fallen off but considered it somewhat cyclical. Shocked that SI would write (Print in the magazine, especially) such a smear piece, but it sounds true and reasonably well sourced. Perhaps Howland can turn it around and learn from this, but he is no young dog so I would think probably not. More likely, he will not be given the opportunity as there has always been LA donors willing to cut checks to improve the basketball program. Let the buyout talks begin.....
UCLA hired a "crisis management" PR team when they were given the heads-up from SI about this article.
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