By Bob Hertzel
For the Times West Virginian
MORGANTOWN —
The news, considering the horror stories we’d been led to believe all those years out of Cincinnati, was startling.
The news came out of Providence, R.I., which is where the Big East Conference is headquartered, and it was a listing of this year’s Team Academic Excellence Awards, presented to the school in each sport that has the highest cumulative grade point.
Over the past few years, West Virginia has prided itself on the way it has upgraded its approach to academics throughout the athletic department, so it was no surprise that one of WVU’s teams won such an honor.
What was stunning, however, was which team was recognized for it was none other than Bob Huggins’ men’s basketball team.
Think of this for a moment. The national media spent a great deal of time and effort pointing out that when Huggins was at Cincinnati that he was recruiting thugs, not students, and that he had trouble graduating them.
After he left in 2005, Stuart Mandel of SI.com noted that 19 of his players during his stay at the school had been charged with crimes, five spending time in jail. Mandel then wrote:
“Cincinnati graduated players at a disturbingly low rate under Huggins. According to a letter faxed to Huggins’ attorney last August by a university lawyer, 27 players graduated during Huggins’ 16 years, or an average 1.7 per year. A typical recruiting class includes four to five players.
“Huggins’ standard defense was to criticize the flawed nature of the traditional graduation rate used by the federal government, which doesn’t take into account entering or departing transfers who graduate. A funny thing happened, however, when the NCAA unveiled its new, more realistic Graduation Success Rate last fall: Cincinnati’s score for players who entered the program from 1995-98 actually went down, from 40 percent to 31 percent.”
That, along with so many other things, has all changed since Huggins came to West Virginia. Few have had so tarnished a reputation as Huggins had when left Cincinnati and fewer have been able to rehabilitate better than Huggins has in his three years here.
If he was a bad a person has he had been made out to be, what was he doing there this March, his team about to be eliminated from the NCAA Final Four, down on his knees, face to face with his injured forward, Da’Sean Butler, offering aid and comfort in his moment of misery?
It is a picture that went across America, on the television screen in every bar that Huggins had ever frequented and quite a few others than he hadn’t, in every newspaper in every city across America.
This was not a villain down there on the ground. This was a warm, caring man.
You talk to his players and they admit, yes, he curses them and pushes them, but he is honest with them and rather than putting his hands around their throat at the end of a bad practice or game, Huggins is more than likely to put an arm around their shoulder and encourage them to do better the next time.
If the picture of Huggins and Butler didn’t do it, two years earlier there was Huggins warmly talking with Wellington Smith after he had just let his Xavier opponent break free for an game-winning basket as the Mountaineers were eliminated from the NCAA Tournament.
Now it’s true that Huggins inherited not only a lot of talent when he replaced John Beilein at West Virginia, but a whole lot of class as well.
There was Joe Alexander and Alex Ruoff and Butler and Smith, players who could star in the classroom as well as on the court. But Huggins did nothing to distract them from their academic endeavors, to create an atmosphere that academics and behavior were not important.
Only two players from Huggins’ first three years at WVU failed to graduate, Alexander and Devin Ebanks, each an NBA draft choice who left the program early.
Former players Darris Nichols, Jamie Smalligan and Alex Ruoff all graduated. Five scholarship athletes from last year’s team — Smith, Da’Sean Butler, Jonnie West, Cam Thoroughman and Joe Mazulla — each has his diploma.
West left the program with eligibility left, but not because of a problem with Huggins. It was more to further pursue his education.
Huggins has not only encouraged academic progress, but he has dealt with whatever discipline problems that has come his way swiftly, quietly and effectively.
At the same time, while hardly giving up his evening socializing, he has found a way to keep himself out of the headlines and the police blotter.
In fact, Huggins worst transgression since becoming coach at WVU was wearing that gold suit on the sideline in his first season, a decision that probably should have landed him in the clink.
E-mail Bob Hertzel at bhertzel@hotmail.com.
