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WVSPORTS.COM West Virginia head coach Bob Huggins Press Conference Summary

Keenan Cummings

Fact Based and Wonderful
Staff
Sep 16, 2007
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—Bob Huggins we didn’t run offense. We have been above average defensively. Their offense hasn’t been good for quite a while so you try to fix it. He went through and watched a whole bunch of years of their former guys and how they got open and why they got open and what they ran. So they tried to put some of that in. Reality is they didn’t run that either.

—Huggins said it’s his fault and he’s in charge of fixing it and he didn’t do that.

—Huggins said his dad always talked to him about his attitude. When your attitude goes, your game goes. You can see that from the NBA down. They have guys who aren’t the same people. He isn’t sure he is.

—They have to run offense. They told them that Oklahoma runs great offense. They did a great job bringing in guys that had basketball skills. They said they had to get some athletes to compete with the Baylor and Kansas of the league who obviously lack skill.

—Oklahoma has skilled basketball players that pass it and catch it. He started last week a tips, taps and wraps and they missed 11 one-footers and it helped. But they still aren’t where they need to be. Passing is the one skill that’s really hard to master. And when you can’t do it and now you’re playing at a very high level it’s next to impossible.

—At the start of the year. You cut it out to fix attitude issues but if that’s what it takes that’s what it takes. They’ve done it before and cut very talented guys with bad attitudes. They destroyed the core of the team and you can’t do that.

—Huggins just apologized to two freshmen that had a great week that they didn’t play them. He said he isn’t sure they wouldn’t be better if they were in the game and they’re probably going to find out. They beat the guys who played. He’s not trying to blame or pick on anybody. It’s his job and he’s trying to fix it.

—Seth Wilson played terrific in practice. James Okonkwo was hurt when he fell down.

—Huggins had to get rid of some guys at Cincinnati and they were so much better. He said he’s going to do his best and he knows how important West Virginia basketball is to the people here. They’ve averaged over 11,000 people in here and that’s never happened before. He understands how important it is and how much they plan their schedules around it and he apologizes to them.

—Jamel King was one of those two freshmen and he looked good although he is not where he needs to he defensively.

—West Virginia has to fix them. Their first 8 points are layups tonight. They did everything they were told that Oklahoma would do.

—Huggins said he does to practice everyday trying to do the best job he can. They end up in a ball all the time with guys running into each other and standing in the lane. You have to have some guys that can handle it and pass it.
 
Yep. I was right. One player is on his way out. Been pretty obvious the last week who the problem is.
 
Phew. No need to worry now. A problem has been detected. A scapegoat is in the crosshairs. And it's gonna be fixed.
 
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Its fairly obvious after 12 years that Huggins has been unable to reproduce the same level if success he did with players that still had Belien's influence on them. Almost like the 2 coaches covered the other's weaknesses.
This statement will twist the panties of some on this board, but only the willfully blind and ignorant could outright reject it....

Coaches in every sport, at every level, after so many years, remain stuck in the coaching philosophy in which they won most of his games, and/or they begin to rest on their laurels. Not all coaches do this, but it's more common than not.

To say that the WVU basketball program doesn't have a slight disconnect with the new generation of players isn't seeing clearly. To say that staff being too comfortable in their positions, from the very top on down, isn't affecting performance, isn't thinking clearly. Retirements or dismissals aren't necessarily required, but reassessing how to move forward with the program is.
 
This statement will twist the panties of some on this board, but only the willfully blind and ignorant could outright reject it....

Coaches in every sport, at every level, after so many years, remain stuck in the coaching philosophy in which they won most of his games, and/or they begin to rest on their laurels. Not all coaches do this, but it's more common than not.

To say that the WVU basketball program doesn't have a slight disconnect with the new generation of players isn't seeing clearly. To say that staff being too comfortable in their positions, from the very top on down, isn't affecting performance, isn't thinking clearly. Retirements or dismissals aren't necessarily required, but reassessing how to move forward with the program is.
If it’s so easy to do and see, why don’t you go coach dummy.


/s
 
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Phew. No need to worry now. A problem has been detected. A scapegoat is in the crosshairs. And it's gonna be fixed.
Scapegoat? Is that what you call it? You would prefer lazy, worthless, poison players stay on the team.
 
Its fairly obvious after 12 years that Huggins has been unable to reproduce the same level if success he did with players that still had Belien's influence on them. Almost like the 2 coaches covered the other's weaknesses.
Majority of that team were Huggins recruits. Even if it was JB recruits Huggins perfected them as JB ran away like he wanted to from the start.

Huggins just needs to realize it's a semi pro league now and not college anymore. Graduation is no longer on the minds of players, just the NBA which only about 35 ever make a team.
 
This statement will twist the panties of some on this board, but only the willfully blind and ignorant could outright reject it....

Coaches in every sport, at every level, after so many years, remain stuck in the coaching philosophy in which they won most of his games, and/or they begin to rest on their laurels. Not all coaches do this, but it's more common than not.

To say that the WVU basketball program doesn't have a slight disconnect with the new generation of players isn't seeing clearly. To say that staff being too comfortable in their positions, from the very top on down, isn't affecting performance, isn't thinking clearly. Retirements or dismissals aren't necessarily required, but reassessing how to move forward with the program is.
See AD for not taking a vested interest in basketball. He has no control in that area. That's his fault for allowing so much power for the head coach.
 
Majority of that team were Huggins recruits. Even if it was JB recruits Huggins perfected them as JB ran away like he wanted to from the start.

Huggins just needs to realize it's a semi pro league now and not college anymore. Graduation is no longer on the minds of players, just the NBA which only about 35 ever make a team.
Majority of the pinnacle team under Huggins may have been his recruits, but the heart of the team was Butler which was a JB recruit. Also regarding primary contributors, it was evenly split between JB and Huggins guys. Butler, Flowers, Mazzulla, and Smith were JB guys while Ebanks, Jones, and Bryant were Huggins guys.

No matter how you slice it, Huggins has never eclipsed what he achieved with having at least some players taking big roles who played JB ball before Huggins ball. Since then, all the recruits who play only Huggins ball have fallen short of that water mark. Maybe it was just a cosmic alignment in 2010, but let's be honest that Huggins hasn't been able to recreate a team close to that one in 12 years and offensive inefficiency is practically always the primary reason as to why.
 
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Leave it to wvuff to derail a thread of a Huggins post-game conference into another bitch session about his pussy-ass china virus hysteria.
 
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Majority of the pinnacle team under Huggins may have been his recruits, but the heart of the team was Butler which was a JB recruit. Also regarding primary contributors, it was evenly split between JB and Huggins guys. Butler, Flowers, Mazzulla, and Smith were JB guys while Ebanks, Jones, and Bryant were Huggins guys.

No matter how you slice it, Huggins has never eclipsed what he achieved with having at least some players taking big roles who played JB ball before Huggins ball. Since then, all the recruits who play only Huggins ball have fallen short of that water mark. Maybe it was just a cosmic alignment in 2010, but let's be honest that Huggins hasn't been able to recreate a team close to that one in 12 years and offensive inefficiency is practically always the primary reason as to why.
As far as Flowers was not on the team in 2007 as he was a recruit coming to WVU who nearly changed his mind because JB left. Huggins talked him into staying. There were only 2 seniors on that team. Butler went from averaging 10 points a game under JB to averaging 17 a game.

Huggins brought in
Dalton Pepper
Deniz Killilci (only played 100 minutes but contributed when foul trouble)
Flowers (in my opinion)
Devin Ebanks
Casey Mitchell
Bryant
Kevin Jones
Joni West
Cam Thoroughman

You can claim it was JB guys all along but you would be wrong. JB went to elite 8 once and sweet 16 once. that was in between two Nit seasons. He blew a 21 point lead against Louisville.

That last team of JB couldn't even make the NCAA tourney with those 2 recruits that Huggins groomed not JB.

Huggins has been to sweet 16 3 times in the past 12 years. Tournament was canceled in 2020. You don't like him I get it. You like video type game of 113-112. I'll take a little defense with it myself.

Hate him all you want Huggins will be in hall of fame upon retirement. 912 wins and counting. Huggins has a problem with be loyal to assistants that have lost touch the younger generation. The entire staff has gotten comfortable and more than likely feel overly confident about never losing their jobs. That is a major problem. If you don't feel threatened then you're not going to perform up to PAR. The AD needs to grow a pair of balls and face Huggins man to man and reevaluate the team and staff telling him this is what is expected for WVU basketball and what needs done.

JB no doubt a great coach and saved WVU from Dackich but he's not the be all end all of WVU. JB couldn't get out of Morgantown fast enough as he tried leaving after his elite 8 run but was shot down first by Indiana and then NC State due to a high buyout. Two years later he run off to Michigan after renegotiating his buyout. His wife didn't even like being here.
 
As far as Flowers was not on the team in 2007 as he was a recruit coming to WVU who nearly changed his mind because JB left. Huggins talked him into staying. There were only 2 seniors on that team. Butler went from averaging 10 points a game under JB to averaging 17 a game.

Huggins brought in
Dalton Pepper
Deniz Killilci (only played 100 minutes but contributed when foul trouble)
Flowers (in my opinion)
Devin Ebanks
Casey Mitchell
Bryant
Kevin Jones
Joni West
Cam Thoroughman

You can claim it was JB guys all along but you would be wrong. JB went to elite 8 once and sweet 16 once. that was in between two Nit seasons. He blew a 21 point lead against Louisville.

That last team of JB couldn't even make the NCAA tourney with those 2 recruits that Huggins groomed not JB.

Huggins has been to sweet 16 3 times in the past 12 years. Tournament was canceled in 2020. You don't like him I get it. You like video type game of 113-112. I'll take a little defense with it myself.

Hate him all you want Huggins will be in hall of fame upon retirement. 912 wins and counting. Huggins has a problem with be loyal to assistants that have lost touch the younger generation. The entire staff has gotten comfortable and more than likely feel overly confident about never losing their jobs. That is a major problem. If you don't feel threatened then you're not going to perform up to PAR. The AD needs to grow a pair of balls and face Huggins man to man and reevaluate the team and staff telling him this is what is expected for WVU basketball and what needs done.

JB no doubt a great coach and saved WVU from Dackich but he's not the be all end all of WVU. JB couldn't get out of Morgantown fast enough as he tried leaving after his elite 8 run but was shot down first by Indiana and then NC State due to a high buyout. Two years later he run off to Michigan after renegotiating his buyout. His wife didn't even like being here.
Everything you said comes off as though you are reading into my statement that Huggins is worse than JB. That is not at all what I said. What I said was that JB (at least the WVU version of JB) and Huggins have opposite strengths and weaknesses. Each covering the other's weaknesses may have led to the 2010 team that WVU has yet to come close to replicating. I'm not even saying it is an even split and maybe it was a majority Huggins' influence.

Since the recruits have been nothing but Huggins, they've fallen short of that mark and poor offensive efficiency is usually the reason. No one can deny JB's teams cut, motioned and passed well, unlike most of the WVU teams from the last decade. JB's teams couldn't play defense, rebound, or transition well in a sped up game pace as seen in that Louisville collapse you mentioned.

Ultimately, I think Huggins dirty, grind it out play is more likely to result in success than JB's finesse game when the roster is not full of higher quality athletes like the blue bloods have. It is reflected in WVU making the NCAA more often under Huggins than JB even when having a roster less talented across the board than say Gansey, Pittsnogle, Sally, and Herber.

While it does offer more consistent success to pick Huggins if it was strictly a binary choice between 100% Huggins or 100% JB's philosophy, that route still seems to have a ceiling at WVU which is the Sweet 16. That's not bad at all and better than most teams in college basketball. However, there is something missing over the last 12 years that is keeping WVU from maybe being a scrappy outside shot at making the Final Four kind of team. And the only evidence we have for a Huggins coached team that was able to do what the last 12 couldn't was a team that had some players who spent some time in a much more offense oriented system prior.

Whatever the reason, Huggins is likely in his twilight years of coaching and is about to have a completely blown up roster with little in the way of developed, in program talent. I don't see Huggins style lending itself well to bringing in transfers and having those transfers be the driving force of the team rather than compliments.
 
Majority of the pinnacle team under Huggins may have been his recruits, but the heart of the team was Butler which was a JB recruit. Also regarding primary contributors, it was evenly split between JB and Huggins guys. Butler, Flowers, Mazzulla, and Smith were JB guys while Ebanks, Jones, and Bryant were Huggins guys.

No matter how you slice it, Huggins has never eclipsed what he achieved with having at least some players taking big roles who played JB ball before Huggins ball. Since then, all the recruits who play only Huggins ball have fallen short of that water mark. Maybe it was just a cosmic alignment in 2010, but let's be honest that Huggins hasn't been able to recreate a team close to that one in 12 years and offensive inefficiency is practically always the primary reason as to why.

A couple of the press Virginia teams were 2010 level. The team that lost 1st round ncaa could play with anyone. Also both years we lost to Gonzaga and Nova in close games were 2010 level IMO.
 
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