The Bob Huggins File
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CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The going is tough right now for West Virginia coach Bob Huggins. Truth be told, time is starting to run short. But from Walsh College to Akron to Cincinnati to Kansas State and now with the Mountaineers, Huggins' objective remains the same.
"Coach wants to win a national championship," said former Mountaineer and current Akron Zip Pat Forsythe.
That looks like a long shot this season for Huggins, 59, who is Mountaineer-born in Morgantown, Buckeye-raised in Gnadenhutten, and educated at West Virginia. On the court, his Mountaineers are 9-10 heading into Monday's home game against the 18-1 and No. 3 Kansas Jayhawks.
It will take a big surge for Huggins and his Mountaineers to make March Madness. But it's not out of the question -- especially for the coach who has taken 19 of his last 20 teams at three different universities to the big dance, with two (Cincinnati, WVU) reaching the Final Four.
The immediate challenge is that West Virginia has been caught up in the plethora of teams changing leagues in recent seasons. In 2012 the Mountaineers were in the Big East, now they are in the Big 12.
On the basketball court, that means the Mountaineers are playing a different game.
"We already had our team set," Huggins said, the day after last week's win over Texas Christian. "In the Big East, we played with two bigs on the block, and that's what we recruited this team to do. Now we're in a league that mostly has four perimeter guys and one post player. That leaves me with a post player running all over the floor chasing guys that shoot 3s and play off the bounce. We have to catch up a little [recruiting]."
He will get up to speed, because there is not much Huggins has not seen, coaching in six Division I conferences, winning championships in four. "When I first started, we didn't have the 3-pointer," he said. "We didn't have the shot clock." Since his first season as a Division I head coach at Akron, Huggins has not suffered through a losing season.
"I do believe that's what they pay us for," Huggins deadpanned.
Driven and motivated, Huggins' courtside tirades with players are not as prevalent as in the past. But the stories about his volatility are legendary.
"Before modern technology, teams used to send the managers to make film exchanges," former Huggins assistant Dan Peters said. "Bob told the manager to get back around 3 p.m., so he could watch the film before practice. But 3 p.m. came, then 4 p.m. Nothing. Just before practice, the manager got there, and Bob lit into him.
"The kid stood in Bob's office, then started crying, 'You guys don't love me anymore. I quit.' Bob said fine, take everything off that belongs to this university and leave it right here. The kid took off his shoes, then his sweat suit, then under that he had some practice gear. Now Bob's holding his head, and I'm thinking, 'I hope this guy is not wearing our jock.' The kid gets down to his shorts, then storms out, walking across campus in the snow.
"Bob looks at me and said, 'I think you better go get him. I'm not doing any laundry.'"
Bob Huggins makes a point on the sideline while coaching Walsh, in North Canton, in the early 1980s. Walsh was his first head coaching job.
It is well-known that Huggins does not bear losses well. Huggins would often take his team off the bus following a road loss and practice immediately upon returning home.
"Can't do that anymore, the NCAA legislated that out," Huggins said.
Now Huggins' players have to wait for what they know is sure to follow. "I didn't even want to go to practice the day after we lost a game," said Kevin Jones, a former Mountaineer now playing with the Cavaliers. "It was a rough thing in college."
Huggins said he still detests losing.
"I don't think we should ever say it is OK to lose," Huggins said. "That is not what this country was founded on. That is not what our ancestors intended. That's not America, man. America is the greatest country in the world because people didn't accept losing."
Huggins' name resonates beside today's coaching icons, including Tom Izzo at Michigan State, John Calipari at Kentucky, Roy Williams at North Carolina, Billy Donovan at Florida, Bill Self at Kansas, Jim Boeheim at Syracuse and Mike Krzyzewski at Duke. He entered this season third in total victories (638) among active Division I coaches behind Krzyzewski and Boeheim and 11th in winning percentage.
But unlike the others, Huggins has yet to win a national championship, and that drives him.
"Bob can coach," said Peters, now director of basketball operations for the Akron Zips. "I don't care what sport you put him in, the man can win you a national championship. What people don't understand about Bob is that he adapts. He recruited one way at Akron, completely different at Cincinnati, different at Kansas State, and different again now at West Virginia."
At Cincinnati, Huggins' teams were known to have some of the lowest graduation rates in the country. At West Virginia, Huggins' 2010 team ranked among the top 10 percent in the country and received the Big East Excellence Award for highest grade-point average among all basketball teams in the conference.
Huggins is a larger-than-life personality, with a much different reputation than many of his peers. Where others have a coat-and-tie image, Huggins' courtside histrionics often come in a pullover sweater or team sweatsuit more suitable to his current physique.
Off the court, he lives large and has paid for it with a heart attack in 2002, and a highly publicized DUI arrest in 2004. That led indirectly to his forced resignation as Cincinnati's head coach in 2005. One year later, he was the head coach at Kansas State. A year after that, he was called to coach his alma mater.
A call that never came was one from Ohio State. Speculation was, even if OSU's administrative ego could swallow the hiring of a coach from Cincinnati, it's blue-blood fan base probably couldn't stomach Huggins' sideline persona.
But that doesn't mean the Buckeyes didn't consider the possibility.
"Andy Geiger [then Ohio State athletic director] called me one day about a month or so after I got to Ohio State," said Peters, who has had coaching stops at Walsh, Cincinnati, Youngstown State, Ohio State and Akron. "He said, 'Let's go to lunch.' I'm like, 'Sure, you're the boss.'
"He wanted to talk about Hugs.
"I told him, [OSU] is a job Bob really wanted. I told him whatever you want him to do, he'd do it without question. If you want Hugs to wear a coat and tie every game, he'd wear a coat and tie every game. I told him Bob would have won a national championship at Ohio State, coaching basketball or football, he's that good. I told him before it's all said and done, that Bob Huggins would be going into the Hall of Fame."
The Hall of Fame appears certain. That national championship is still out there to be won.