MORGANTOWN — Billy Hahn admittedly is very happy serving as a vastly experienced assistant coach in the West Virginia University men’s basketball program headed by longtime friend Bob Huggins.

He’s perfectly content, despite the fact that his 31-year coaching resume includes two three-year stretches as a head coach at Ohio University (1986-89) and LaSalle (2001-04).

While he enjoyed those stints, he said last week that it would have to be “something really good or really special” were he to consider a head coaching position again.

Hahn, who’s 54, said he came to WVU a year ago because “I like Huggs, whom I have known for a long time, and I want to see him win a national championship. I helped Gary Williams win the national championship at Maryland.”

He leaves no doubt that he firmly believes Huggins is capable of leading West Virginia to the NCAA title.

“Huggs has been to the Final Four and twice to the Elite Eight,” Hahn reminded. “He’s been to postseason 23 of his 26 years as a head coach. But he hasn’t been able to win the national championship.

“When they play that song, ‘One Shining Moment,’ on national championship night, I want to see Huggs on the ladder cutting down that last strand of net. He’s a basketball guy that has done so much for the game of basketball and so much for coaches of basketball and so much for all players he’s coached.

“Huggs has put in all the time and effort, and because of the love and passion he has for the game, I believe he deserves a national championship before he goes out. And that’s what the heck I’m working for. That’s all I’m thinking about right now.”

Hahn insists it’s all that he wants.

“And you know what?” he added. “If that happens, I might say, ‘See you later!’”

He coached the point and shooting guards this past season in helping WVU to a 26-11 record, fifth place in the Big East, an advance to the NCAA tournament’s Sweet 16, and No. 17 ranking in the final Top 25 poll.

Hahn said there’s hardly any difference between being a head coach and an assistant as far as time and work. But the accountability and responsibility of a head coach are the biggest differences.

“As a head coach, everything that happens you are responsible for the year around,” he knows from experience. “Obviously, the job description is different. The head coach’s plate also is a lot fuller than an assistant coach’s plate.”

Hahn recalled that he loved being the head man at both Ohio U. and LaSalle.

“But in both situations, I left with not a good taste in my mouth,” he said. “There were things that happened and none was something I did, but as head coach you’re held responsible.

“I’m not making excuses. But you know there’s got to be the scapegoat.”

He said just being in the gym, teaching and hearing the ball bounce give him great satisfaction regardless of his role. That’s why he really enjoyed getting back into coaching this year after having been out three years.

“Being an Indiana farm boy, playing in high school and then college at the University of Maryland, and then coaching, I need to see the ball bounce,” Hahn reiterated. “I’ve been a head coach twice. I know what it’s about.

“I think the era that we live in with the Internet, the cell phones, the talk shows — all that stuff now — sort of (compounds problems for head coaches).”

Hahn was a point guard at Maryland in the early 1970s when Lefty Driesell was the head coach. He got homesick when playing on the freshman team, but his parents wouldn’t permit him to leave.

“They taught me to finish something that I started, and that’s one of the best things I ever learned,” he said. Hahn eventually spent 12 years at his alma mater as an assistant coach. He’s only one of two U-M graduates who played and also coached on NCAA tournament teams at College Park.

As an undergraduate there, he helped his teams to the best three-year varsity record in the school’s history.

Ironically, Hahn started his coaching career as an assistant coach at Morris Harvey (now University of Charleston) in 1976-77. Besides OU, LaSalle and Maryland, he also was an assistant to Jack Kraft at Rhode Island.

Hahn and wife Kathi have two grown children, Matthew and Ashley.