Published: May 14, 2008 11:51 pm         

Lester, Huggins star in theater country

NEW RICHMOND — Sorry Jesse Lester, but three state championships in seven seasons just doesn’t cut it in Wyoming County.

Not that the Wyoming East coach needs any more pressure than he already receives in hoops-rabid Wyoming County, the hotbed of basketball that gave us the likes of Mike D’Antoni, Herbie Brooks, Shawn Finney, Greg White and Jerome Anderson, to name just five.

Back-to-back was impressive, coach, but hey, the school theater group has won seven straight state titles. Man, that’s getting to be Northfork country.

Both great groups were honored Wednesday night at the annual Mullens Area Chamber of Commerce banquet.

Did I mention hoops hotbed?

That’s why having West Virginia University basketball coach Bob Huggins as the keynote speaker seemed like a perfect fit.

Huggins agreed.

“It’s an honor to be here,” he said.

He said he tried to tell assistant coach Eric Martin, who came with him, about the greats who have come out of the area, like “the New York Knicks coach (Mike D’Antoni), Shawn Finney, (Pineville native) Curt Warner, who I would have as a point guard on my team any day, and, of course, Herbie Brooks, who went to the university (WVU).”

Whether or not townsfolk know it, Mullens is getting a lot of national play for its outstanding pool of talent. On Wednesday, a writer from the New York Daily News was in Mullens doing a piece about D’Antoni, officially hired by the Knicks Tuesday.

As I said, Huggins was a perfect fit. After being introduced by Fred Persinger Wednesday night, Huggins stoically approached the mic.

Before he could speak, a fan in back of the Wyoming East gym, started, “Let’s Go ...” and the other side of the gym responded, “Mountaineers.”

Huggins comes off as being a lot drier than football coach Bill Stewart, yet he is refreshing at the same time.

He said he is often asked how he got his players to respond to his style of play, and said it’s really quite simple. “It’s a dictatorship ... fear.”

He talked about the now infamous treadmill, in which players have to run at a pace of 18 miles per hour for 20 to 40 seconds when they screw up in practice.

“So we’re out in New York, at the Big East tournament, and the New York Times asks Joe Alexander about the treadmill,” Huggins said. “And Joe says, ‘Imagine being chained to the back of a car going 18 miles an hour. You keep up or you fall down and you get dragged.’ I saw that and I thought, ‘That sounds awful.’ I told Joe, ‘You’re getting on that treadmill as soon as we get back.’”

By the way, the coach said Jamie Smalligan was the leader in visits to said treadmill.

No wonder the guy lost his hair at such a young age.

Huggins has no trouble staying humble.

“We were getting ready to play Canisius,” the veteran mentor said. “(WVU athletic director) Eddie Pastilong called and said he was going of town, but he wanted to congratulate me on 600 wins. I said, ‘Eddie, we haven’t won yet.’ Then (WVU) president (Mike) Garrison called and said, ‘Congratulations on winning 600.’ Then, right before the game, my good friend Steve Farmer called and said, ‘599 wins is good, but did you realize that you’ve lost 218 games?’ I have no trouble staying humble.”

Thing is, Huggins has done so much in his career for which an ego would be understandable.

He has 616 wins, is fifth among active coaches and eighth in winning percentage, has been to the postseason in 23 of his 26 years, including 16 NCAA tournaments, and was a two-time Academic All-American as a player at WVU.

And now, like Stewart, he has been kind enough to visit our area. That’s a far cry from the previous coaching regimes and should be duly noted.

Huggins also mentioned that Darris Nichols should go down as one of the all-time great Mountaineers and that he is looking forward to new recruits Roscoe Davis (6-foot-10), Kevin Jones (6-8) and Truck Bryant (point guard) donning blue and gold.

With Huggins’ track record, it should be quite a ride.

And back to Wyoming East: Jesse Lester ... no pressure coach, all you have to do is three-peat. I think the theater troupe’s record may be untouchable at this point.

— E-mail:

demorrison@register-herald.com