MORGANTOWN — In 1984, Bob Huggins was a rookie Division I basketball coach at Akron and Nike was just another name in the shoe business.
That’s when the relationship between the two began, when neither was a household name like they are today.
“Back then, when you took a look at it, different schools had different show companies,” Huggins said. “I don’t know if it was little by little, but Nike kind of took it by storm. They obviously have their pick of the litter now.”
That’s evident since the creation of the series of games meant to celebrate Nike co-founder Phil Knight, which began in 2017 to celebrate his 80th birthday with a 16-team field broken up into two brackets. In 2019, four schools combined to play a two-game invitational.
The third event this year in Portland is celebrating Knight’s 85th birthday, and again includes 16 teams in two separate brackets.
WVU (4-0) is in the Phil Knight Legacy tournament and plays No. 24 Purdue (3-0) at 10 p.m. Thursday in the first round. No. 6 Gonzaga or Portland State will be the second-round opponent, while No. 8 Duke, Xavier, Florida and Oregon State are in the opposite bracket.
The Phil Knight Invitational — played at the same time as Legacy — includes top-ranked North Carolina, as well as Villanova, No. 20 UConn, No. 12 Michigan State, No. 18 Alabama, Oregon and Portland.
All schools involved have deals with Nike, which for WVU is a multi-million-dollar deal annually, according to a source.
WVU will not release the exact amount due to competing purposes for future contract negotiations, but the value is broken down into the money Nike pays WVU for the rights to be its athletic apparel provider, as well as the value of the shoes, practice gear and uniforms it provides the athletes and coaches of all WVU sports on a yearly basis.
For Huggins, it’s a relationship with Nike that went back to Akron, as well as his days at Cincinnati and Kansas State.
“It’s the way you get treated,” Huggins said. “You go to their events, but really it was a vacation, but you name a coach and I’ll tell you he was there. Michael (Jordan) was there. Charles (Barkley) was there. A lot of the NBA guys were there. You went and bowled together and did different events, but mostly you sat around the pool.”
Perez update
Manhattan transfer guard Jose Perez is enrolled at WVU, but has yet to begin practicing with the Mountaineers.
Huggins said the school has sent in a waiver to the NCAA, requesting that Perez be ruled eligible to play this season after transferring earlier this month.
Until he is ruled eligible, Huggins said Perez will be unable to practice.
Perez was the preseason player of the year in the Metro Atlantic after averaging 18.9 points and 4.5 assists last season, but head coach Steve Masiello was fired on Oct. 25, and Perez entered the transfer portal.
The school is expecting Perez, who is a walk-on, will be ruled eligible after the completion of the fall semester, at which time he will become the 15th member of the roster.
He’ll have to be brought up to speed in a hurry.
“I wouldn’t think it’s as tough as people are making it out to be,” Huggins said. “I had to do it at Akron, I had to do it at Cincinnati a time or two.
“I play people, because they deserve to play. I don’t play people because of their name or who they think they are. I play them because I’m going to try and play the best guys, because we’re going to try and win.”
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