MORGANTOWN, W. Va. — It is going on nearly 40 years now since Bob Huggins walked down the sideline at Oberlin (Ohio) College and shook hands with Ed Janka, marking Huggins’ first career victory as a basketball head coach in 1980.
Janka, after finishing 1-25 in his only season at Oberlin, went on to become a name in basketball for sponsoring and conducting a number of Nike clinics around the country.
Huggins went the other way. He just kept on winning.
The West Virginia coach tied Kentucky legend Adolph Rupp on Saturday with his 876th career victory, a 74-51 victory against Missouri in the Big 12/SEC Challenge.
Both coaches are tied for seventh place on the all-time Division I list.
Minutes later, Huggins walked into his postgame press conference like it was simply another day at the office.
“They announced it like 10 times out there,” he joked. “It was kind of hard not to hear.”
Make no mistake, Huggins didn’t walk down the floor that day in November 1980 to shake Janka’s hand with the idea that someday he would tie Adolph Rupp in wins.
He didn’t envision one day passing North Carolina legend Dean Smith, which Huggins will with four more victories this season.
As the milestones have become greater throughout his career, Huggins has worked harder and harder to not make it about himself.
That’s what he did Saturday in spending more time discussing the effort of his players and even their lack of effort at times.
“We know he’s not going to make a big deal out of it. That’s just not him,” WVU guard Miles McBride said. “As a player, you want to see him succeed. We wanted to come out and get this one for him.”
It’s not that Huggins is oblivious to his place in history. Make no doubt about it, after he passes Smith, the legendary names just keep getting bigger with coaches like Bob Knight and Jim Calhoun within reach in the seasons to come.
“My dad [Charlie] was one of the winningest coaches in the history of Ohio high schools and they used to say to him that was win No. whatever and you just tied so-and-so,” Huggins said. “His response always was, “Man, that just means I’m old.’ You look at everyone of those guys on there, they’re old, but I just never got caught up in it.”
It’s just when it comes to history, Huggins is quick to use it as a teaching tool, rather than as a coaching resume.
“I can’t tell you how many times he’s talked about Kenyon Martin and about how tough he was,” WVU forward Gabe Osabuohien said. “He always talks about Jevon Carter and about how hard he worked.
“He wants us to be able to look up to them and try to be just like them.”
It was previously announced that Huggins is a candidate for the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame’s class of 2020.
The class will be unveiled during the Final Four in April, an event Huggins could very well be coaching in this season based on the Mountaineers’ past two performances.
Whether or not it happens this season for Huggins remains to be seen.
In time, it is difficult to believe Huggins’ name won’t eventually be called. When that day comes, it will surely be an induction speech worth the price of admission.
Until then, Huggins has more important things to worry about.
Maybe, when it’s all said and done, that’s what made him so successful — he’s always had more important things to worry about.
“I’m more caught up in we’re 16-3 and we need to be about 29-3. More than that, if we’re going to win the conference tournament,” he said.
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