Published: August 16, 2008 09:38 pm         

Coach finding success, memories in return home

MORGANTOWN — The sign sits on a shelf filled with books and other memorabilia from a life on the basketball bench.

As inconspicuous as it might seem to a visitor to West Virginia coach Bob Huggins’ office, the 54-year-old is well aware of the sign’s connotations. You can go home again.

“This,” he said, showing the sign to a visitor, “was over the coach’s office for as long as I can remember. I remember seeing it when I would walk into this office as a player. When we had all the renovations done, they were going to cover it up. Just bury it. I just felt like that wasn’t the right thing to do. So I asked them if I could have it.”

Huggins played at WVU from 1975 to 1977 — he started his collegiate career at Ohio University in 1974 — and was a tri-captain his senior year when he was named team MVP for the 18-11 Mountaineers.

“Just the friendships made and the fact that this was home,” Huggins said of his memories as a Mountaineer player. “Everywhere I go, I see guys I played with. Warren Baker, Maurice Robinson, Dana Perno ... guys who played in my era. Bake and I pretty much make it a point to get together once a year.”

Nobody was responsible for the Mountaineers’ run to the Sweet 16 this past March more than Huggins. West Virginia fashioned a somewhat surprising — at least in many basketball circles — 26-11 mark. Not that West Virginia was devoid of talent, returning several key ingredients from an NIT national championship the year before under former coach John Beilein.

But basketball pundits incorrectly predicted a 10th-place finish in the hoops-heavy Big East.

Huggins was adamant that would not be the case.

“We’re not finishing 10th in the Big East,” Huggins boldly predicted prior to the start of the season.

Huggins was right on the money. WVU finished fifth in the conference and made it to the Big East semifinals, falling to Georgetown.

It was only a precursor of things to come as the Mountaineers, a No. 7 seed in the NCAA Tournament, beat No. 10 seed Arizona (75-65), and then Huggins masterfully led an upset of No. 2 seed Duke, led by Hall of Fame and Olympic basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski, 73-67.

WVU fell in the Sweet 16 to third-seeded Xavier in overtime, 79-75.

WVU finished the season ranked No. 17 and the seeds of a new era at WVU were firmly planted.

Huggins, though, credited his players.

“Surprised (by the finish)? No,” Huggins said. “The guys bought into what we were doing from Day 1. They believed in what we were doing. The credit goes to them and the assistant coaches. We worked hard. I knew this team was better than (a 10th-place finish in the Big East).”

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The seeds of Huggins’ ascent up the coaching ladder actually began as he watched his father Charlie, a brilliant high school coach in Ohio, ring up win after win.

His earliest memories were growing up in Morgantown with a close-knit family.

“My dad was arguably the best athlete to come out of Morgantown,” Huggins said of his father, who moved the family across the border prior to Huggins starting junior high school. “A lot of the basic things we do, drills and basketball fundamentals, are things I learned from him. At its basic, basketball is still the same. You have to play defense and you have to be able to dribble, pass and shoot.”

Huggins’ father remains a source of pride for the coach who owns more than 600 career victories on the collegiate level.

“He wasn’t just my dad; he was my coach,” Huggins said. “He started the first overnight basketball camp in Ohio and we worked that thing for eight weeks in the summer.

“His record is absolutely incredible. Besides that, he did a lot of other things for the people back in St. Clairsville and Canton for years and years. Was he tough on me? Absolutely. But he was tough on everybody. That’s the way it was.”

He said his brothers Harry and Larry and sisters Linda, Debbie, Judy and Karen still follow him.

“I usually have one at every home game and my dad comes to as many games as he can,” Huggins said.

Huggins wasn’t even sure he wanted to coach out of college. He had a stint in the Philadelphia 76ers’ pre-training camp.

“And I probably stayed around longer than I should have, as far as talent goes,” Huggins said. “I ended up hurting a knee and that was basically the end of that. I applied to the Penn Physical Therapy School and thought about that. I even thought about going to law school.”

It’s easy to see Huggins as a lawyer. But ...

“By the time I got back to Morgantown in July, Joedy (Gardner, then the basketball coach at WVU) said he had a GA (graduate assistant) job for me if I was interested,” Huggins said.

And a coaching star was born.

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After one year on the Mountaineer bench, Huggins, through a family friend, landed a job as an assistant coach at Ohio State.

That lasted two seasons before he landed his first head coaching job at Walsh College, an NAIA school in Ohio.

His 14-16 record his first season was an aberration. The following year he went 23-9 before going 34-1 and playing in the NAIA national championship game in 1983.

Huggins has respect for the guys on the lower rung of the collegiate ladder, having been one himself. It’s one of the reasons he scheduled Mountain State and successful coach Bob Bolen, a perennial NAIA power, to play an exhibition game at the Coliseum last year and again this November.

“Those guys down there work as hard as anybody in the business; they have to,” Huggins said.

An assistant coaching job at Central Florida was followed by his first Division I head coaching job at Akron.

A 97-46 record with the Zips included NCAA and NIT tournament berths and led him to where he gained his fame, fortune and, at times, infamous reputation: Cincinnati.

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Ironically, Huggins took over a Cincinnati program that was on probation.

It was hard to get players to the campus, being a city school.

Slowly but surely, Huggins’ persistence and motivation netted him star recruits like Nick Van Exel and Cory Blount.

In three seasons, he had the Bearcats in the Final Four.

His teams played with style, and with a bit of an attitude.

Soon, Cincinnati was pegged as a “thug” school led by its “thug” coach.

But nothing could be further from the truth.

Van Exel was a perfect example.

“We used to have the players go over to the children’s hospital and talk to the kids, maybe sign some autographs and visit the kids,” Huggins said. “They’d do this on their own time, and they weren’t looking for notoriety for doing it.

“Nick came by the office one day and said he was going to go over to the hospital and visit some of the kids. A while later he called and said, ‘Coach, I’m ticked off. There are all these TV people over here.’

“He was mad. He said, ‘Huggs, this isn’t the reason I’m doing this.’ So he left. I was so proud of those guys because that’s the way they were. But nobody knew about it and they didn’t want people knowing that.”

Huggins is obviously proud of those players, those days. He went to a record 14 straight NCAA tournaments. But he also left an indelible impression on his players.

Twelve of his players were drafted by NBA teams. Many went on to become successful in other walks of life, and he is equally as proud of those guys as he is his NBA players.

“My job is to do what’s right by my players,” he said. “

But there was also the infamous DUI, captured on film.

The veteran bench boss doesn’t run from the past and his mistakes.

“I’d be lying if I said I didn’t make mistakes,” Huggins said. “I did make mistakes. And I was pounded pretty good for it.”

Indeed, as he was forced to leave the place that he firmly put on the basketball map.

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The next year, Huggins landed at Kansas State.

He led that program to an NIT appearance, the same tournament WVU won.

He thought he had found his last stop.

“I thought that would be the last coaching job I’d have,” he said.

Indeed, he had been in line for the WVU job after Gale Catlett resigned, but didn’t take the offer, saying it wasn’t the right time.

But when Beilein left for Michigan, Huggins saw a chance to go home.

“I felt bad for the people at K-State, who stood beside me and gave me the opportunity to coach,” Huggins said. “I wouldn’t have left there for any other job. But this was home.”

And Mountaineer fans are glad for that.

His 616 career wins are sixth among active coaches and 29th all-time as he is obviously headed for the Hall of Fame, like Krzyzewski, the iconic mentor he outcoached in the NCAA tournament.

“I’m happy to be home,” said Huggins, who has two daughters, Jenna Leigh and Jacqueline, with wife June.

The “Coaches Office” sign may be gone, but it’s clear that a true winner now inhabits the new digs.

— E-mail: demorrison@register-herald.com