HELLO OLD FRIEND
West Virginia’s Bob Huggins has great respect for UConn
MORGANTOWN, W.V. — Bob Huggins speaks in hushed tones when reminiscing about UConn and the Big East.
In truth, Huggins speaks in hushed tones about almost everything these days. Hardly the tough, short-tempered bully he’s portrayed on the sidelines for years, Huggins, 68, is noticeably more mellow. He’s even contemplating retirement like his former cantankerous coaching rival, Jim Calhoun.
“I’m happy for whatever it is that makes him happy,” Huggins said of Calhoun, who recently retired from his post as head coach at Division
III University of Saint Joseph. “I’m getting there. I’m getting to the point where you think about maybe retiring. Then I look at guys that have retired, and all of a sudden they really don’t want to be retired.”
Huggins, who needs only 19 more wins to pass Calhoun for third on the all-time coaching wins list, will bump heads with UConn for the first time in seven years on Wednesday when his Mountaineers
host the 15th-ranked Huskies at WVU Coliseum (7 p.m., ESPN2) as part of the Big East-Big 12 Challenge.
The last time the teams met was in the Puerto Rico Tip-off in San Juan Nov. 23, 2014 (a 78-68 WVU win). The last time they met as Big East rivals was in the 2012 Big East tournament, a 71-67 UConn overtime victory.
Huggins came over to his alma mater in 2007, though only coached in the Big East for five seasons before WVU bolted for the Big 12. But he still has fond memories of his time in the league.
He remembers Joe Alexander dominating the Huskies multiple times in 2007-08 He remembers being ejected from a game at UConn, though doesn’t remember exactly what he said to get booted.
“Probably not as much as Calhoun,” he noted, “but I was the opposition, so ...”
He doesn’t remember the last time UConn played at WVU Coliseum (a 65-56 Mountaineer win on March 2, 2011) but remembers what happened after that: the Huskies winning 11 of their next 12 games en route to their third national title.
And when he watches this year’s UConn team on film, he can’t help but remember some Huskies teams of yore.
“They’re really, really good,” Huggins said. “Athletic as can be. They remind me of some of their teams of the past. They do a great job in transition, really rebound it, superior athletes.”
Of course, UConn (8-1) will be without two of its top scorers — sophomore center Adama Sanogo and senior wing Tyrese Martin. But there was good news on that front, Hurley announced on Tuesday night. Martin (wrist) is out of a hard cast and in a splint, took shots at practice on Tuesday afternoon and is pushing to play on Saturday against St. Bonaventure.
“And we’re pushing back,” Hurley said. “I think it’s much more realistic the start of Big East play (on Dec. 18 vs. Providence).”
Sanogo (abdominal injury) is “healing well and quickly, but an injury like that, you can’t come back too soon.”
Still, Hurley believes he’ll be back sooner than the coach indicated last week, which hinted at least two weeks and possibly a lot more than that.
Huggins didn’t seem too concerned about who would or wouldn’t play for UConn.
“I’m worried about us more than anything,” he said of his 7-1 team.
Huggins and Hurley are both sons of coaches, a bond that supersedes their age gap of some 20 years.
“I have great respect for
Dan,” Huggins said. “Did a great job as a prep school job, moved on to the college level and done a fantastic job. I have an appreciation of what coaches’ sons go through. If his experience was anything like mine ...”
Not an overly nostalgic type, Huggins said what he misses most about the Big East are the shorter flights for road games. In the Big 12, West Virginia is frequently logging 3, 3 1⁄2-hour flights to Texas, Oklahoma and the like.
But he certainly has an appreciation for the history of the Big East.
“It’s the smallest league by number, but when you look at all the pros, all the first-round draft picks that have come out of it, it’s a
really, really hard, athletic league,” he said. “You’re coaching against, how many Hall of Famers came out of the Big East? There’s Hall-of-Famer after Hall-of- Famer.”
Indeed, that list includes names like Calhoun, Lou Carnasecca, John Thompson, Jim Boeheim and, most recently, Jay Wright. It even includes Bob Hurley Sr., Dan’s father.
It doesn’t include Bob Huggins, though it almost certainly will at some point. He does, after all, boast 900 career wins.
UConn just hopes No. 901 doesn’t come on Wednesday night.