Published: July 01, 2009 11:21 pm      

One of Huggins' own in Beckley

Rodney Crawford, hired Wednesday as the new basketball coach at Mountain State Academy, remembers it like it was yesterday, though it’s now going on a decade ago.

Likely, he’ll never forget it.

He was playing for Cincinnati, under legendary Bearcats — and now West Virginia — coach Bob Huggins.

“Well, one day we came in to practice a little lethargic,” Crawford remembered. “Keep in mind, practices in those days were three hours long. So we’re going through this practice and we’re not into it. We’re lethargic.

“Coach stopped the practice right there, 10 minutes in. And we ran for the next two hours and 50 minutes. And we didn’t stop. We ran and kept on running.”

And the coach?

“Oh, he kicked back and watched,” Crawford said, laughing.

A lot of players would have been more than a little ticked.

“Shoot, we were too tired to be (mad),” Crawford said. “I mean, guys were so tired, they couldn’t talk.”

Noteworthy things you can do in 2:50?

Run a half-marathon at a less than average pace.

Play a basketball game-and-a-half.

Fly from Chicago to Kansas City.

Get the point from your head coach about coming to practice not prepared to work.

“Oh, we got the point, and that was the last time we were lethargic in practice,” Crawford said.

Once again, Huggins’ genius was at work. Cincinnati finished the season No. 3 in the nation.

These days, Crawford still refers to Huggs as “coach” but he is more glad to call him friend.

It was Huggs who told him about the MSA job.

Crawford said he does have several Huggins stories.

“Some of them you’d have to edit. You probably couldn’t put in an adult magazine, much less a newspaper,” Crawford said, his laughter making it obvious that he got his own joke.

“Here’s the thing about coach Huggins. He really cares about his players. It’s not just about basketball. People say they care, but he really does. He follows his guys when they’re gone. He still cares. And I am living proof of that ... literally.”

He said one metaphor has resonated with him since his Cincinnati days.

“There’s a small box that your average people dwell in and you have to push yourself to get out of that box,” Crawford said. “And the way you do that is with hard work. With coach Huggins, I worked harder than I thought that I could work. But that’s the way you have to do it. And it paid off in the end. I am where I am today because of coach Huggins.”

And again, that’s literally.

During Crawford’s Cincinnati career, the Bearcats were 56-14 and went to the Sweet 16.

“All those times, they were all special,” Crawford said. “Growing up in Cincinnati, it was my dream to play for coach Huggins at Cincinnati (he went to a JUCO in Bakersfield, Calif.) and I was able to do that. To earn a scholarship made it even better.”

The real question is, does he do a Huggins impression?

As a matter of fact, he does.

But you have to see that to appreciate it.

— E-mail: demorrison@

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