Howland became the first men's coach in modern college basketball history to be fired shortly after winning an outright power-conference title.

[3] After a year at Gonzaga, Howland got his first paid coaching job at the University of California, Santa Barbara (1982–1994) as an assistant to Ed DeLacy.

Starting in 1992, Howland applied for head coaching jobs at UC Irvine and Loyola Marymount University but was turned down both times.

While at Pittsburgh, Howland rebuilt the Panthers basketball program and earned an NIT bid his second season, followed by back-to-back Big East regular-season conference titles and NCAA Sweet Sixteen appearances.

Despite some success under the watch of Steve Lavin, the program wanted to regain its position in the college basketball upper echelon.

Howland produced a top tier recruiting class from athletes in southern California that fit his Big East style.

Behind Lavin hold-over Dijon Thompson and Howland recruits Jordan Farmar and Arron Afflalo, UCLA produced a winning season for the first time in three years and returned to the tournament.

Starting the 2005–06 season with the majority of the roster made over in Howland's image and with the Lavin hold-overs buying into the system (e.g., Ryan Hollins and Cedric Bozeman) the Bruins produced an excellent campaign.

The momentum continued into the NCAA tournament as the second-seeded Bruins staged a memorable late-game comeback to defeat Gonzaga in the Sweet Sixteen.

UCLA turned a tight opening into a blowout over Howland's alma mater Weber State in the first round.

The Bruins then again upset the top seed in the West Region, Kansas, in a classic matchup of two storied basketball programs and reached the second of UCLA's first consecutive Final Fours since the John Wooden era, only to lose again to Florida in the national semifinal.

At the start of the 2007–08 season, expectations for UCLA were highest with the arrival of Kevin Love, one of the best low-post prospects in the high school class of 2007.

The Memphis victory was later vacated after Derrick Rose was retroactively declared ineligible, but such did not change UCLA's 2008 Final Four standing.

With a 77–73 victory over Penn on December 10, 2011; Howland passed Jim Harrick for second on UCLA's all-time wins list behind John Wooden.

In February 2012, a Sports Illustrated article portrayed UCLA player Reeves Nelson as a bully on and off the court, who at times intentionally tried to injure his teammates.

[7][8] From 2008—the Bruins last Final Four appearance—through 2012, at least 11 players left the UCLA program,[9] including Nelson who was suspended twice and dismissed in December 2011.

On March 24, 2015, Howland was hired as the 20th head coach at Mississippi State University, replacing Rick Ray.