Despite all the Internet fantasies of Ben Howland pulling a Larry Brown and hiring Malik Newman’s father as an assistant coach at Mississippi State, it’s not going to happen.
“Absolutely not, I’m not a coach at all,” Horatio Webster, Newman’s father and a former Mississippi State star, told the Clarion-Ledger after Howland got the job Monday. “I don’t want the headache. I’m already getting grey hairs on both sides of my head.”
The 6-foot-4 Newman remains the top uncommitted guard in the Class of 2015 and is considering Kentucky, Kansas, LSU, N.C. State, Ole Miss and Mississippi State among others. He is expected to announce sometime in April, perhaps after the NBA early entry deadline on April 26.
At that point, he will know which players are leaving Kentucky — and the other schools — for the NBA.
As SNY.tv and other outlets have reported, Howland is expected to hire former UCLA and LSU assistant Korey McCray to his staff, and Webster said that couldn’t hurt.
“He’s recruited Malik since ninth grade,” Webster said. “He has a good relationship with him. They talk from time to time and I have a pretty good relationship with him, too. When he left LSU, the recruitment [of Malik] stopped.”
As for the hiring of Howland, who replaces Rick Ray, Webster seems to approve.
“From what I heard [Howland] has just as many players in the NBA as [Kentucky coach John Calipari] Cal does,” Webster said. “The fact that he went to three straight Final Fours, that in itself speaks volumes. Mississippi State wasn’t far off. I think if Coach Ray would have been there another year they might have made it with the juniors and seniors they have.”
