MORGANTOWN — At some point Saturday evening in Springfield, Mass., Bob Huggins will join the most elite of company ever involved in the game of basketball.
It is the culmination of 40-plus years as a college basketball coach, a journey that’s seen Huggins take both Cincinnati and West Virginia to a Final Four, that led him to his ultimate Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame enshrinement.
His secret, Huggins says, is truly no secret at all, which is to say while he was working his way up the coaching ladder, he never once attempted to be a clone of Bob Knight, Dean Smith or Lefty Driesell.
Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame enshrinement
WHEN: 7 p.m. Saturday
WHERE: Springfield, Mass.
TV: NBA TV (Comcast 287, HD 1218; DirecTV 216; DISH 156)
Instead of copying a style of those legendary figures who were at the top of their games when Huggins was a guy few had ever heard of, he charted his own course, his own style, his own way.
“I think everybody has to coach to their own personality,” Huggins said. “I think guys get in trouble when they try to be someone they’re not. As I talk to these other guys who are Hall-of-Famers, the thing that pops in my head is they’re real. They don’t try to be something they’re not. I’ve never tried to be anybody other than me.”
Just who is Bob Huggins? That’s a question with thousands of answers, and that’s truly one of several reasons why he’s heading for Springfield in the first place.
After all, no one gets in a prestigious Hall of Fame like this without making a million different impressions on people, many of whom have never even had as much as a cup of coffee with Huggins.
That doesn’t change perceptions, though. Huggins is viewed as combative, yet good-natured; controversial, yet humble.
He’s the big guy yelling and screaming on TV to so many. To those who know him better, Huggins is also the guy who would quickly give the shirt off his back to help out a fellow human being.
Huggins, of course, is not oblivious to any of this. His setbacks in the decade of the 1990s, including a DUI and the so-called zero percent graduation rate at Cincinnati, may have played a role in Huggins not being inducted sooner.
They certainly paved the road for his detractors, those who branded Huggins a bad guy.
His own explanation through the years of his national reputation was to use the analogy of the old westerns, referring to the good cowboys as wearing white hats and the bad guys as wearing black ones.
Somewhere along the line, Huggins said, he was fitted with a black hat.
Guys with black hats still get inducted into hall of fames, boy do they ever.
Springfield, Canton, Ohio (football), and Cooperstown, N.Y. (baseball), are the hall-of-fame homes to some of the most notorious characters ever to take part in sports.
Their memberships include noted racists, drug addicts, convicted felons, accused murderers and one guy who famously wore a wedding gown in public to promote a book.
It also includes coaches who have had career wins and Final Four appearances stricken from their record due to NCAA sanctions and violations.
Some would simply say they were cheaters, another negative quality that’s apparently not negative enough to keep guys out of the Hall of Fame.
It is here we must point out that we’re not comparing Huggins to any of this or to even suggest he’s in that same neighborhood.
He’s never had any of his 916 wins or 25 NCAA tournament appearances wiped off the record books.
And while Huggins may have been crucified at Cincinnati academically, his 15 seasons at WVU have been spent with the Mountaineers consistently among the best in the nation for their APR scores and graduation rates.
As for those who either cheer or boo Huggins, these are the facts that are either celebrated or ignored.
He is either larger than life or a guy wearing a black hat, and it’s been that way for a long time.
And so we ask: Does Saturday’s enshrinement change the narrative for those who are quick to dismiss Huggins?
“That’s a hard question to answer without getting in trouble,” Huggins begins. “I’m extremely proud of what I’ve accomplished or what people think I’ve accomplished. I know what my guys think about me.
“I didn’t break the rules and I didn’t cheat to do it. You look around at some of those guys who are where I guess I’m headed, they broke a lot of rules trying to get there. I never did.”
Who is Bob Huggins? Honestly, he doesn’t care what your answer is, and that’s part of his persona that’s hard not to respect.
On Saturday he becomes a Hall-of-Famer, and he did it his own way.
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