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Huggins’ DUI arrest creates many questions

5 min read
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MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The aftershocks from Bob Huggins’ Friday night DUI arrest in Pittsburgh and his subsequent resignation that figures to bring an end to a Hall of Fame career continue into the new week as people try to make sense of the situation that now stares West Virginia in the face.

The word why rings out the loudest, as in why would Huggins be so irresponsible to blow a .210 Breathalyzer figure after Pittsburgh police found him with a flat and shredded tire in the middle of the street, unsure of where he was or where he was going.

Why, after all the work he had put into putting together a team that he felt would be competitive on a national level, would he put himself in such a situation, being a man of means who could get someone to drive for him?

But why do any of us do such things? Is it not part of the human equation? They say you learn from your mistakes, but no one yet has put a figure on the number of mistakes it takes to teach the lesson.

For some it is far higher than for others.

The problem in Huggins’ case is that he probably had used up his mistakes long before he committed this last one.

Huggins is – and always has been – a walking paradox.

He is a loving, caring person, charitable and loyal. He would do anything for his players, as they noted in the wake of his resignation. Former point guard Jordan McCabe took to social media, posting:

“My mother was diagnosed with breast cancer when I was freshman at WVU. Bob Huggins was the one who brought her to Morgantown and ensured me she’d have the best surgeon and care possible. She’s been cancer free for 4 years. Always in your corner coach ?? thank you.”

There are hundreds of stories like that. Bill Koch, who covered Huggins in Cincinnati, recently wrote a book to coincide with his induction into the Hall of Fame where he just let former and current players tell their stories of what Huggins had done for them or meant to them.

But if you stop and realize how many people he hurt with his homophobic slur a month or so ago on Cincinnati radio and how widespread his digression and resignation are and how much they hurt the people he was so kind to.

McCabe, for example, was planning to return to WVU this season as a graduate assistant for Huggins and a source said he turned down a couple of assistant jobs to learn under the man he respected so much. Now he has to change his plans.

And there is a basketball facility filled with Huggins devotees, assistant coaches and trainers and office staff members who now are in limbo. There is Jasy Kuntz, the man who took over the never-ending roster building chores and who has considered Huggins a second father. He knows not now what direction his future will take.

And there is a team of players, the majority of them transfers and recruits who came to play for Huggins, caught up in whether they stay or go. The transfers have 30 days to decide and there is much scurrying and salesmanship going on to keep together the group Huggins had assembled.

There are fans and season ticket holders … and what now of the Bob Huggins Fish Fry which had raised millions of dollars for cancer research and to build a regional cancer center?

Bob Huggins loves his family, his players, his city, his state and his university.

That is unquestioned, but the judgment he has used at times throughout a controversial career is often quite questionable.

Why is the first question.

Who is the second.

Who replaces him? The timing is insane because people have their jobs, they have their teams, they are deeply into recruiting for not only this year but next.

Sportswriters toss around names sort of the way WVU tossed around the basketball at its worst moments. They look at who doesn’t have a job and make him a candidate, but we really don’t know what is on athletic director Wren Baker’s mind.

He is new here with a background that differs from the people we all know. This is a hire he can’t screw up because football has been terribly disappointing of late and basketball has not been exactly thriving under Huggins, either.

The school is at a crossroads in a changing NCAA world and in a conference that is being completely reconfigured. With Oklahoma and Texas gone and four new schools coming in, none of them with the kind of clout the Sooners and Longhorns have long possessed, there is a power void within the conference and WVU certainly is spotted right to fill that void.

But Baker has to make the right decisions on Neal Brown in the football office and on his choice to replace Huggins.

It is a huge responsibility and a tremendous challenge, but it is also an opportunity to take a huge step forward and turn what has been negative into a positive and give WVU a seat at the Big 12 power table.

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