A perspective on WVU’s hoops season, Huggins
Let’s face it, fans are myopic while their favorite teams are playing. Every play is big. (“Yes!”) Every setback is a catastrophe. (“We suck!”) Every loss is the end of the world. (“We’re toast.”) And four-game losing streaks? Yes, it’s “Fire the coach!”
Even if it’s a future Hall of Fame coach.
Even if he’s brought much joy over the years to, in this case, Mountaineer Nation.
Following WVU’s loss to Oklahoma at the Coliseum in Morgantown, someone on Twitter posted this: “Time to come to grips with making the change. With all due respect, it’s time.”
Robert Edward Huggins has 913 victories. He’s fourth all-time in that category.
Let me repeat that. He has 913 victories. He’s FOURTH ALL-TIME IN THAT CATEGORY. OF ALL COACHES.
It’s amazing stuff. He’s moving up the list at his alma mater. Yet amid that four-game losing streak, he’s catching grief.
Heck, he’s giving himself grief.
“You try to fix it,” he said. “I went through and watched a whole bunch of years of our former guys and how they got open, why they got open, and what we ran. We tried to put some of that in. Reality is, they didn’t run that either. I’m not blaming them. I want to make sure you understand it’s my fault. I’m in charge of fixing it, and I didn’t fix it… We have guys who aren’t the same people. For that matter, I’m not sure I am.”
And…
“I just apologized to two freshmen that had a great week, and we didn’t play them,” he said. “It’s like you play them, and you’ve given up. The reality is, I’m not sure we would have been any better with them in the game. We’re probably going to find out here real quick. They had really good weeks. Actually, they beat the guys who played. They were on the second team running the stuff that we guard, and they destroyed those guys. I’m not trying to blame anybody or pick on anybody, but it’s my job. I’m supposed to fix it.”
And especially…
“Maybe it’s that way with coaches sometimes. Maybe you get another one. All I know is I’m going to do my best. I know how important Mountaineer basketball is to the people in the state of West Virginia. We’ve averaged over 11,000 people here [in non-conference play], and that’s never happened here before. That’s never happened that early. I understand how important it is and how much they plan their schedules around it. I apologize to them.”
The man takes losing hard. Here’s the scoop though. WVU was projected to be in the NCAA tournament until that game. They can absolutely salvage the season. Does it look like the Mountaineers can? No. They look pretty average. There are holes. There are deficiencies.
Rather than get mad and scream “fire the coach,” though, maybe it’s time to come to grips with what this is: potentially a down year. He had one in 2018-19. And he fixed it. The next year WVU was 21-10. It was the year Covid hit and the NCAA tournament was shut down. The next year the Mountaineers were 19-10 and won a game in the NCAA tourney.
Allow me to offer some perspective.
Jim Calhoun is just above Huggins in victories. The man above him is Syracuse’s Jim Boeheim, who, like Huggins, is also coaching at his alma mater.
This season the Orange are 9-11. (WVU is 13-6.) Boeheim has 20 or more wins twice since 2013-14. Twice. In ACC play, Syracuse finished eighth, ninth (although it did make the Final Four), seventh, 10th, seventh, sixth and eighth.
Huggins and WVU over that span? Five 20-win seasons. And in the tougher Big 12, WVU finished third, second, second, second, 10th, third and third. There were three Sweet Sixteens in there. The outlier was the 2018-19 team that went 15-21 and went to the CBI tournament’s quarterfinals.
Look, I know most WVU fans aren’t calling for Huggins to be fired or to quit. I get emotion runs high during games. Beer doesn’t help.
But I ask for perspective. The run by Huggins and, before him, John Beilein has been great. There’s been a Final Four, an Elite Eight, five Sweet Sixteens and an NIT championship in there.
This might be a down year. But recent history suggests a good one is just around the corner.
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Mitch Vingle covered sports in West Virginia for 38 years. Follow Mitch on Twitter at @MitchVingle and be sure to check out the rest of Wheelhouse Creative’s website for your marketing and advertising needs. If interested, call us at 304-905-6005.