West Liberty University Athletics

    As he prepares to tip off his eighth season as head coach at his alma mater, West Liberty head man Ben Howlett has firmly established himself as one of the top coaches in NCAA basketball.
    Howlett followed up his Hilltoppers' run to the 2023 NCAA Division II national championship game with another stellar season last winter. West Liberty shared the Mountain East Conference championship with Charleston - the seventh time in as many years that Howlett's squad has finished on top of the MEC heap - and earned its 15th consecutive NCAA D2
Tournament bid. Those 15 straight NCAA Tournament berths rank as the longest such run in NCAA D2 history.
    There's no secret to the Hilltoppers' formula for success - share the basketball with your teammates, steal the basketball from your opponents and shoot the lights out of whatever facility you're playing in. Howlett's 2023-24 West Liberty squad led the nation in assists and assist/turnover ratio while ranking No. 2 nationally with more than 12 3-point field goals a night. The Hilltoppers also ranked among the Top 5 nationally in scoring, scoring margin, and turnover margin while checking in at No. 6 in steals/game and turnover margin. The Black and Gold also extended their consecutive-game 3-point field goal streak to a staggering 825 games – a run that dates back to Nov. 14, 1999!
    West Liberty blasted Millersville, 100-78, in its NCAA Division II Tournament opener before coming out on the short end of a 103-88 shootout against No. 3-ranked Gannon (Pa.) on the Golden Knights' home floor. That brought another impressive season to an end on the hilltop with a 26-7 record going into the WLU record books. The 26-7 record pushed
Howlett's career totals to 187-32 (.854) - the second-highest winning percentage in the nation among all active coaches.
    Howlett's success has been recognized by his peers. He's a 3-time winner of the MEC Men's Basketball Coach of the Year Award and was also voted the 2023 MEC Men's All-Sports Coach of the Year. In addition, he received the 2023 Mickey Furfari Award as the West Virginia College Coach of the Year from the West Virginia Sportswriters Association.
    High win totals and high point totals have become a tradition at West Liberty and Howlett has been a big part of it. Zach Rasile and Christian Montague became the 56th and 57th 1,000-point scorers in Hilltopper history last winter. Howlett, now tied for No. 18 on that list with 1,663 points, has played with or coached 28 of those 57 players. West Liberty has the highest home winning percentage of any NCAA men’s basketball program over the past 15 seasons at an eye-popping 233-11 (.955) and Howlett has kept that ball rolling on multiple fronts. His Hilltoppers have gone 129-17 (.884) in MEC play, 93-7 (.930) at home and 69-13 (.841) in road games during his first six years.
    West Liberty players have racked up multiple individual honors at the conference, regional and national levels during Howlett’s tenure. A pair of WLU All-Americans – Dan Monteroso and Dalton Bolon – were honored as the NCAA Division II Men’s Basketball Academic All-Americans of the Year. Bolon, in fact, is the only player in conference history to sweep the
MEC Male Athlete of the Year and the MEC Male Scholar-Athlete of the Year awards. West Liberty has produced at least one NCAA Division II All-American in 11 of the past 12 seasons.
    The 37-year-old Howlett brought an incredible track record to the position when he became the 16th head basketball coach at WLU prior to the 2017-18 season. He had served as lead assistant coach under former head man Jim Crutchfield for the previous six years, helping guide the Hilltoppers to six NCAA Division II Tournaments, five Sweet 16s, four Elite Eights, two Final Fours and the 2014 national championship game.
    Howlett has been an All-Region guard on four consecutive 20-win teams under Crutchfield from 2005-09 and was the nation’s fourth-leading scorer (23.0 ppg.) as a senior while shooting nearly 60 percent from the floor. He stayed on campus as a student assistant for the 2009-10 season, helping lead the Black and Gold to a Top 10 national ranking and their first WVIAC title in 50 years. He spent 2010-11 as an assistant coach at Ohio Valley University before accepting Crutchfield’s offer to return to his alma mater as an assistant coach.
The Hilltopper head coach resides in Wheeling with his wife, Jessica, and their daughter, Maddy.