By John Veasey
FAIRMONT — The fourth-winningest active college basketball coach in America was here Thursday to address the local civic clubs. And the coach who has had 20 or more wins in all but four of his 27 seasons says he is “looking forward to a great year.”
West Virginia University coach Bob Huggins, who now has 639 victories to his credit, discussed numerous topics but stressed that he “likes to hang banners” and hinted that when he gets old and retires, he would like to see some banners saying that his Mountaineers were the champions, or “national champions,” during his tenure here.
He noted that WVU has sold some 7,900 season tickets this year and hopes a Big East ticket package will guarantee that the Coliseum is sold out for Big East games.
He said as for the black uniforms, “That was Nike that did that. That’s Nike. It’s not me. I wear black because I am fat,” and everyone laughed at that remark.
“If you saw me or saw pictures of my gold suit, you’ll know what I mean,” he said.
Then he reverted back to his team members for 2009-2010.
“I think we have a chance to be a pretty good basketball team,” he said. He said that Da’Sean Butler and Devin Ebanks are “as good a pair of forwards as there are in the country.”
He said that doesn’t mean they are the two best but as a tandem, there are few better.
Asked who might start against Loyola Sunday in the season opener at the Coliseum, he said the five would probably be Ebanks, Butler, newcomer Casey Mitchell, Truck Bryant and sophomore Kevin Jones, with senior Wellington Smith probably being the first man off the bench.
When asked which player has been the biggest surprise this fall, he singled out junior reserve John Flowers.
“He has played pretty well,” Huggins said.
Huggins said he hopes Joe Mazzulla’s shoulder problem will not be an ongoing one. Mazzulla missed most of last season with the injury.
“I’d rather have two point guards than one,” he said, speaking of Bryant, who played the point most of last season.
He said some improvements are needed at the WVU Coliseum.
Huggins said the Coliseum is probably the best building built in 1970. “But this is 2009. It could stand upgrading a little bit.”
He also pointed out that the university hasn’t done a very good job boasting its basketball history.
“That’s what we want to do. Pay homage to the past and build for the future,” he said. “We have the Jerry West statue and the Jerry West Lounge. But we don’t have much about Hot Rod Hundley. We don’t have much about Rod Thorn or Wil Robinson or Warren Baker.”
Huggins says he learned most of his basketball from his father, Charlie Huggins, who was an all-state basketball player for Morgantown High School in the 1950-51 season.
“Frankly, I learned a lot from my dad,” he says. “He was a lot smarter coach than I will ever be.”
Huggins noted that in all of WVU’s losses in last year’s 23-12 season, it failed to reach the 70-point mark.
In discussing the Big East teams he believes will be strong, he noted that “Pitt is deep. They have a lot of guys who are pretty good. Villanova has a lot of players. Seton Hall and Cincinnati should be talented. Cincy may be the most talented team in the league. “
The WVU coach, beginning his third season at his alma mater, said Connecticut is deep but they are young and Villanova is young as well as talented.
‘We’re young too,” he pointed out, explaining that three sophomores are key players — Ebanks, Bryant and Jones.
Tiffany Samuels, United Way director for Marion County, thanked Huggins for allowing his basketball players to put on a clinic here in August, something that everyone who attended seemed to enjoy thoroughly.
“We have some really good guys,” Huggins replied. “They are polite, well-mannered and they really try to help people.”
E-mail John Veasey at jcveasey@timeswv.com.
