Huggy Bear Is At It Again

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Make no mistake about it that current West Virginia Mountaineers head basketball coach Bob Huggins is one of the best at his profession. In 34 years as a head coach on the college basketball scene, Huggins has compiled a record of 780-315. Huggins’ resume includes leading the Cincinnati Bearcats to the Final Four in 1992 along with the West Virginia Mountaineers in 2010 while also sending a ton of talent to the NBA. Huggins’ run at Cincinnati didn’t end on a good note as he was exiled by the school due to off-the-court incidents which included his DUI arrest in 2004. After leaving Cincinnati in 2005, Huggins would surface in Manhattan, Kansas in 2006 as the head basketball coach of the Kansas State Wildcats. Huggins would lead the Wildcats to their first 20-win season since 1999 and they would also win a postseason game in the National Invitational Tournament. Kansas State would finish the season with a record of 23-12 and things appeared to be looking good for them with Huggins on board.

But Huggins got an offer that he could not refuse when West Virginia had an opening for their head basketball coaching position in 2007. Huggins is a native of Morgantown, West Virginia along with the school being his alma mater as he played there from 1975-1977.

Huggins took over a West Virginia program that was beginning to garner some national respect as they made the Elite Eight of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament in 2005. Huggins would build off of that success as along with his name, and the fact that West Virginia called the Big East Conference home, he began to take the program to new heights.

By 2010, West Virgnia won the Big East Tournament for the first time on school history which was the launching pad for them a few weeks later when they made their first trip to the Final Four since 1959. Huggins would keep West Virginia in the national spotlight until 2012 when he had the rug pulled from under him when the school decided to join the Big 12 Conference for football reasons.

Huggins had to recruit a new region as he could no longer count on scouting the New York/New Jersey area which is a basketball hotbed. But Huggins hasn’t had the success that he has enjoyed by accident and by his third year in the Big 12, he had the Mountaineers back in the NCAA Tournament.

This college basketball season, the Big 12 is stacked as they are arguably the best basketball conference in the nation. And although that the Kansas Jayhawks, Oklahoma Sooners, and Iowa State Cyclones all have legitimate shots to make the Final Four in April, West Virginia is right there with them.

For the sixth consecutive year, West Virginia began the college basketball season unranked. However it didn’t take the Mountaineers that long to get noticed as they came out of the chute with a record of 15-1. And the strong start by West Virginia was capped off by them knocking off Kansas who was the top ranked team in the nation at the time. As previously mentioned the Big 12 is arguably the best conference this college basketball season with six of the ten teams currently ranked in the top 25 of the Associated Press Poll. And of those six schools, West Virginia, Kansas, and the Oklahoma Sooners are all currently ranked in the top 10. Within the conference West Virginia has a record of 8-3 which is tied for the top spot with Oklahoma and Kansas as the Mountaineers are seeking their first outright regular season conference championship since 1989 when they called the Atlantic-10 Conference home.

But throughout every journey in Huggins’ basketball career, his teams have always shown grit with a certain level of toughness, and this year’s Mountaineers team is no different.

Led by senior guard Jaysean Paige, junior forward Devin Williams, and a pair of sophomores in guards Daxter Miles Jr., and Jevon Carter, the Mountaineers could be one of the most confident basketball teams in the nation as they simply expect to win every single night when they take the floor. And even on the five occasions when West Virginia has tasted defeat this year, they haven’t exactly rolled over and died as they fought to the very end.

As of right now the Mountaineers would be a No. 4 seed at worst in the NCAA Tournament. And due to the strength of the Big 12 this season, West Virginia could enter the NCAA Tournament with eight or nine losses which wouldn’t prevent them from getting quality seeding. With games remaining on the docket with Oklahoma, the Texas Longhorns, Iowa State Cyclones, and Baylor Bears, along with the Big 12 Tournament next month in Kansas City, Missouri, the Mountaineers slate of games won’t be an easy one, but this squad has been up for the challenge all season long while Huggins has made a career out of getting teams to the Big Dance which we’ll once again see next month.

Source: Sports-reference.com

 

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By | 2016-02-12T10:49:09+00:00 February 12th, 2016|Categories: College Basketball|Tags: , , |0 Comments

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