Hugh Kellenberger and Michael Bonner

USA TODAY Sports

Ben Howland and Mississippi State are expected to reach an agreement by the end of the day for Howland to become its next basketball coach, sources told the Clarion-Ledger.

Athletics director Scott Stricklin's coaching search took no time at all -- former coach Rick Ray was fired Saturday after three years at the school, and multiple reports popped up throughout the day Sunday suggesting Howland was the frontrunner.

ESPN.com's Jeff Goodman first reported Monday that Howland was on his way to Starkville and that a verbal agreement was in place.

Howland was 233-107 in 10 seasons at UCLA, taking the Bruins to three consecutive Final Fours and producing 18 NBA players (many of whom, including Oklahoma City Thunder star Russell Westbrook, were not highly-ranked out of high school). He was fired in 2013 despite winning the Pac-12.

Howland has been out of coaching the last two seasons, doing TV work for Fox Sports 1 this season.

Goodman also reported that Howland would hire Korey McCray as an assistant coach. McCray was an assistant at LSU (which is recruiting the best player in the state of Mississippi, Callaway's Malik Newman) until stepping down in 2014, and was previously on Howland's staff at UCLA. McCray entered the college ranks because of his connection to the Atlanta Celtics AAU program, and that's a pipeline of adidas-sponsored talent that could start to make its way to Starkville.

Hugh Kellenberger and Michael Bonner write for The Clarion-Ledger, a Gannett paper.

GALLERY: COLLEGE BASKETBALL COACHING CAROUSEL



