By Dave Morrison
Bob Huggins is, by any measurement, one of the top college coaches in America.
He has 640 career victories.
He has been the National Coach of the Year five times, has coached 14 NBA players and has won 13 conference championships.
Plus, the guy was on an ESPN commercial with the late Robert Goulet many years ago. You can’t go wrong there.
He is, by percentage, the 10th winningest active coach in America.
The leader is North Carolina’s Roy Williams, who amassed a number of those at Kansas.
The Top 10 is a Who’s Who of college coaches.
Tennessee’s Bruce Pearl, Kentucky’ John Calipari, Duke’s Mike Krzyewski, Wisconsin’s Bo Ryan, Pitt’s Jamie Dixon, Louisville’s Rick Pitino, Gonzaga’s Mark Few, Mountain State’s Bob Bolen.
Bolen?
With the likes of Huggins, Calipari and Krzyewski?
Actually, ahead of the trio.
Based on winning percentage, Bolen is No. 2 nationally among active coaches with over 500 total games and No. 3 overall among coaches overall (Few has less than 500 career games coached).
The MSU coach was 401-109 (.786) entering the season and hasn’t hurt that mark by winning the first seven games of this season.
He is easily No. 1 in the NAIA, ahead of Mike Lightfoot of Bethel and Bob Burchard of Columbia.
Lost among the national tournament last year and the start of the 2009-10 season was Bolen’s 400th win, which came against Allen in the Independent Region tournament last March.
In fact, it was lost on Bolen.
“I remember we lost the next game to Life (in the Independent Region tournament) and then all our focus was on the national tournament, which it should have been,” Bolen said. “And this year, the focus was on this year’s team. It’s not even something I thought about.”
Until reminded of it, of course.
“I think it does (have meaning),” Bolen said. “It’s a definite statement for our program. We’ve been successful and we’ve been able to sustain that.”
Factor in, too, that MSU, then The College of West Virginia, was 31-34 the first two years.
Coming into this season MSU was 370-75 over the last 13 seasons.
The Cougars have amassed a 187-22 mark since the start of the 2003-04 season, the year they won the national title. The Cougars have also been the national runners-up twice and are 19-10 all-time in the national tournament.
Pretty good numbers, considering Bolen started the program from scratch back in 1994.
And Bolen should get the credit. He hung in and continues to hang on, as the numbers clearly show.
“I thought when we started we had a chance to be successful,” he said. “But I never dreamed we’d be more successful than some of the top programs in the country. Of course, it never crossed my mind that I would be at the same place for 16 years. But things worked out the way they did. We’ve had a good run and it’s been very enjoyable.”
Bolen also credited his assistants over the years.
“I’ve had great assistants that I’ve known have always been in my corner and that makes my job much easier,” Bolen said. “I know coach (current assistants Dave) Barksdale and coach (Artis) Maddox take losing just as hard as I do and that definitely takes some of the stress off the head coach. And they’ve been very beneficial recruiting, in player development and game decisions. Every decision we make is a team effort.”
By any measurement, Bolen is among the top coaches in America.
If he had only done a commercial with Bob Goulet.
