STARKVILLE — The Ben Howland era at Mississippi State is over.

After seven seasons with the Bulldogs, Howland and Mississippi State have parted ways effective immediately on Thursday, athletic director John Cohen announced. It ends a tenure in which Howland's teams reached the NCAA Tournament once, losing in the first round as a No. 5 seed at the end of the 2018-19 season.

"We are appreciative of the time and effort Coach Howland devoted in leading our men's basketball program," Cohen said in a school release. "We thank him for his investment in the lives of our student-athletes and pouring his heart and soul into our program from the day he arrived in Starkville. There's no question he left our program better than he found it. MSU owes a debt of gratitude to Coach Howland, and we have the utmost respect for him as a coach and person."

Howland finishes with an overall record of 134-98 and 59-67 in the SEC.

The expectations were high this season — Howland outlined the goal of reaching March Madness — but Mississippi State never reached a consistent enough level to warrant a bid to the tournament.

Guard Iverson Molinar was a constant, but forward Tolu Smith battled injury issues. An influx of transfers didn’t pay dividends. Rocket Watts (Michigan State) missed considerable time through injury. Shakeel Moore (N.C. State) had an up-and-down season. D.J. Jeffries (Memphis) and Garrison Brooks (North Carolina) didn’t consistently impress.

And Howland struggled to right a ship that began listing with early road losses. His team finished 0-9 in true road games, a record ill-suited for postseason play. A loss to South Carolina in late February all but ended Mississippi State’s hopes of making the NCAA Tournament, and Howland admitted as much, stating his team’s last hope was likely winning the SEC Tournament.

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In that competition, though, the Bulldogs (18-16, 8-10 SEC) won their opener against South Carolina but couldn't upend No. 2 seed Tennessee in the quarterfinals.

The 64-year-old Howland joined Mississippi State in 2015, a splash of a hire for former AD Scott Stricklin. Howland’s reputation preceded him: He had led UCLA to three consecutive Final Fours, but the Bruins couldn’t win the whole thing. He had also helped turn around Pittsburgh and Northern Arizona earlier in his career.

But his time at UCLA came to a disappointing end. After the last Final Four appearance in 2008, the Bruins made the NCAA Tournament three more times over the next five seasons — a rate below that of an ultra-expectant basketball program.

Still, in his final year, Howland led UCLA to a Pac-12 regular-season championship. He was fired anyway after his team’s first-round exit, becoming the first coach in modern college basketball history to be fired after winning a power conference regular-season title.

Howland took two seasons off. He worked as a commentator for Atlantic 10 games for NBC Sports and featured in the studio for Fox Sports. But that distinction — the first coach fired after a conference championship — gave him reason to pursue another coaching venture.

Joining Mississippi State, a team in a major conference looking for a reset, was enticing. He had a similar role at Pittsburgh between 1999-2003, leading a team from a sub-.500 record to a Sweet 16 appearance during his final season.

But the rapid rise didn’t materialize. The Bulldogs improved from three games under to .500 in Howland’s second season. His third, a 25-12 season, ended with an NIT semifinal appearance. Mississippi State earned an NCAA Tournament berth in 2018-19 but were upset by No. 12-seed Liberty in the first round, and the Bulldogs didn’t have a chance to return to the big dance the next season because the coronavirus pandemic canceled the tournament.

And while Howland hoped to build on an NIT runner-up distinction last season, Mississippi State stumbled to the finish line this season, kicking off a coaching search for athletics director John Cohen. Last month, when Cohen spoke to the Clarion Ledger, he emphasized how the Bulldogs still had several Quad 1 opportunities ahead — the kind of games that can turn a season around rapidly.

“We all know that it’s a series of streaks, of waves, and it doesn’t take long to get on a hot streak,” Cohen said. “I really believe this basketball team is capable of doing that.”

It didn’t happen, however. Mississippi State lost six of seven games between late January and mid-February, including contests against ranked teams Kentucky, Texas Tech, Tennessee and Alabama. The Bulldogs rebounded slightly down the stretch, beating a hapless Missouri squad and Vanderbilt at home, before three losses in four games entering the postseason.

A lot rides on Cohen’s upcoming decision. Mississippi State hasn’t made it past the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament since 1996. Attracting talent to a program without established basketball tradition will be a challenge. And the fanbase has grown increasingly apathetic with each season that ends without meaningful basketball in March.

This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: Ben Howland out as Mississippi State men's basketball coach