Okay, so to start, yes Bob Huggins is a good coach. Yes, he is one of the top coaches in college basketball right now, I mean c’mon 813 wins, enough said. But just because he is a good coach overall doesn’t mean he is a good coach in March. In fact, he’s actually a terrible coach. Sure, I might be writing this directly after WVU lost to Gonzaga in the Sweet 16, so I may be a little more fired up than usual, but it doesn’t change that Bob Huggins is TERRIBLE in March. Maybe if Huggins didn’t waste his last 2 timeouts for no reason, we would’ve had a timeout at the end to set up an actual play rather than Jevon Carter getting double teamed and not even getting a shot off. Think about this, Huggins just got out-coached in March by the King of Choking in March, Mark Few. So look out Coach Few, Huggins is coming for your title.
Bob Huggins got his first head coaching gig at Walsh University all the way back in 1980, 18 years before I was even born. Since that time, Huggins had made the tournament a total of 23 times. Now, 23 is a lot, like I said, Huggins is a great coach. But of those 23 times, he has been kicked out in the Round of 64 6 times. Now that doesn’t seem that bad, so what am I talking about Huggins is a bad coach? The majority of his coaching career has been at Cincinnati, Kansas State, and West Virginia. At big schools like those, most teams that do make the tournament usually get a top 8 seed and the lower 8 seed usually go to smaller schools, so in reality, Huggins should have won most, if not all of those games. So let’s move on to games where he maybe should’ve started to lose some. He’s lost in the Round of 32, out of the remaining 17 appearances, a whopping 9 times, more than half of those remaining. So out of Huggins 23 NCAA Tournament appearances, he has made it out of the first weekend only 8 times. HUGGINS SUCKS IN MARCH.
Wanna go another round? Let’s see how many times he’s been kicked out in the Sweet 16. I tally up a total of 4. So let’s keep on keeping track. He’s made it past the Sweet 16, into what I would consider a deep tournament run… 4 times out of 23 attempts. Now I know what you’re going to say, he has 2 Final 4s, that’s pretty good. So he made the Final 4 in 2009-10 at West Virginia, before that… not since 1991-92 at Cincinnati, and he hadn’t even made it to the Elite 8 since 1995-96. In the last 21 years, Bob Huggins has made it out of the Sweet 16 1 time… Are you kidding? Most of that time has been spent at huge power 5 schools like Kansas State and WVU, there is absolutely no excuse for that. Yes Huggins is a great coach, but he needs to do way way way way way way better in March if he ever wants to be in the discussion about the best coach in college basketball either currently or ever.
Let’s also take a look at what I think are my favorite, “I’m Bob Huggins and I choke in March” moments. As much as I want to include that game against Gonzaga, because we should have had that game won, we were a 4 seed facing a 1 seed and were favored to lose,so I don’t consider that choking. Now last year, 2015-16, that was an all-time choke job. I’m pretty sure y’all remember, but I’m going to bring it up anyways. Stephen F. Austin, nuff said. I love the state of Texas, so I hate to hate on a school from there, but I strongly dislike SFA. If you want an indication of how good or bad Huggins really is, WVU runs the best press in the country, without a doubt, but when they face other teams that press, like SFA, they have 22 turnovers. A 3 seed with 22 turnovers against a 14 seed. We practice against the press every single day in practice how is it physically possible that they can’t beat it. You can’t make the argument that SFA had better players, because that’s a joke. Huggins is just prime March Huggins. We lost to a 14 seed by 14, 70-56… how? Huggins, really?
Some other fun Round of 64 upsets to look back on.. In the Round of 64, Huggins has lost as a 3 seed, as well as a 10, 6, and twice as an 8 seed. He also lost as a 15 seed at Akron, but I can’t count that against him. Of his 6 times losing in the Round of 64, Huggins was the higher seed 4 times… unacceptable. In the Round of 32, some fun losses for Huggy Bear include losses as a 1 seed, 2 seed 2x, and as a 3 seed 2x. He had a run while at Cincinnati where he was eliminated in the Round of 32 as a 2 or 3 seed in 4 straight years. Huggins c’mon, can’t keep getting upset like this, you’re letting people down.
I’m as big a Huggy Bear fan as the next guy, but I sure hope he starts showing up in March soon. I’m here for 3 more years. This year we are losing 1 starter in Nathan Adrian, as well as backups Brandon Watkins, Teyvon Meyers, fan favorite James Long, and Big 12 sixth man of the year Tarik Phillip. I’ll be the first to admit that I dislike Nathan Adrian more than probably any WVU fan ever. I don’t understand people’s obsession with him besides his being from Morgantown. In my opinion, he’s not as good as people give him credit for. He and Phillip will be losses, in my opinion, only because of leadership. Next year we should bring back Carter, our best player, as well as Miles Jr., Ahmad, Konate, Macon, West, Bender, and Beetle Bolden, in addition to a 4 star power forward recruit, Derek Culver. Next year looks like a good year to make a deep run, and I think this team is primed and ready to do exactly that. Hopefully Huggins gets some tips from Bill Self, Tom Izzo, John Calipari and others who actually know what winning in March feels like. If he doesn’t he will waste another year of talented players who can’t make a deep run because of their coach, who doesn’t know how to get out of the Sweet 16.