July 17, 2018 • 54 mins
Adam Stanco’s in-depth interview with West Virginia head coach Bob Huggins. They discuss his parents and his upbringing in the Mountain State. Huggins explains how he transitioned from a player to assistant coach and how he found success as a head coach at Akron, Cincinnati, Kansas State, and West Virginia. Huggins also reveals fascinating details about his relationships with some of his best players, including Kenyon Martin, Nick Van Exel, Da’Sean Butler, and Jevon Carter.
Find out more at 40YearCoach.com and follow us on Twitter...
Adam Stanco: @naismtihlives
40 Year Coach Podcast: @40YearCoach
Bob Huggins: @CoachHuggs
Find out more at 40YearCoach.com and follow us on Twitter...
Adam Stanco: @naismtihlives
40 Year Coach Podcast: @40YearCoach
Bob Huggins: @CoachHuggs
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:15):
This is the inaugural episode of theforty Year Coach Podcast, and I'm Adam
Staco delighted for the guests that I'mabout to bring on. He really needs
no introduction, but I'm going tointroduce him anyway because his success in college
basketball and in the basketball community anyhowis has been remarkable. A Final four
(00:38):
appearance at Cincinnati two Elite eight teamstotally changed the culture of that program,
was successful in Kansas State, andthen became head coach of West Virginia in
two thousand and seven, and hissuccess there has been remarkable as well.
Two and ten reached the Final fourfor the first time for the program in
fifty one years. Of course,I'm referring to the great Bob Huggins coach.
(01:03):
Welcome to the forty Year Coach Podcast. Well, thank you very much,
pleasure to be with you. Iknow that at least legend has it
that you hate talking about about yourpast as well as yourself, so this
may be a little bit odd,but but still I'd like to take things
back to the beginning. When didyou first fall in love with basketball?
(01:26):
Well, I guess when I couldwalk. Probably I used to go around
and gather up all the coke cupsand try to walk them into a ball
and try to go shoot that ina basket. When I was very very
young, my dad was playing collegebasketball at the time, and after the
(01:49):
games, I'd try to make abucket with a few coke cups waded up.
And my dad was a high schoolcoach, and so I was.
I lived in a gym pretty much, So I can't ever remember being without
basketball or when I wasn't around basketball. I know you were born in West
(02:12):
Virginia and you lived there until youwere you were ten, and I had
read that you you sat on yourgrandfather's lap and listened to West Virginia games.
So the program, how much didit mean to you even as a
young age is sort of being away of life. Well, it is
that way in West Virginia. Youknow, there's no pro teams, it's
(02:35):
it's West Virginia University, and everythingkind of centers around the university and particularly
the football on the basketball program.So yeah, I said on my grandfather's
lap. And I don't remember goingto the field house. I know my
dad went to games and and sallyou know, hot Rod play and soa
(03:00):
Jerry play and saw Rod Thorne play, and Fritz Williams and so on.
But I don't remember that. Ido remember sitting in my grandfather's lap right
in front of the radio listen tothe games. Incredible. You then moved
on to Port Washington, Ohio,and as you mentioned, your father,
(03:22):
Charles Hall of fame high school coachIndian South Valley High School. Um,
what was it like playing for yourdad? It was hard, it was
It was one of the hard thingsthat I did. I mean, I
think it was certainly one of thebest things that's ever happened to me.
(03:46):
But it was rough. He wasHe was rough on everybody, and I
think particularly rough on his sons,just in terms of how he was yelling
or what he said, a multitudeof those things. Yes, uh so,
Um, playing for him in highschool at that time, did you
(04:11):
have thoughts of being a coach?Well, my dad always tried talking me
to being a doctor, and sowhen I went to I went to college,
I was in pre med for aone quarter and that was enough.
That was too much time in alibrary and not enough time in a jam.
(04:32):
So I wished I didn't know whatI wanted to be you know,
I was. I was accepted tophysical therapy school. I was going to
be a lawyer. M I wasreally going to be pretty much anything but
but a basketball coach, and wasfortunate enough to go with Philadelphia seventy six
(04:53):
years got cut deservedly, so Icame back to West Virginia. I had
no idea what I wanted to do. Coach Gardner asked me if I wanted
to be a red assistant, andI really had nothing else to do.
So I did, and I kindof liked it, and I've been doing
it ever since. How much timedid you have you spent thinking about the
(05:13):
idea that you might have been aphysical therapist? Well, not not inning
at all, to be honest withyou. I went that was that was
during Vietnam. And to go upto that particular physical therapy um whatever it's
called place, and to see peoplecoming in with you know, half an
(05:36):
arm, half a leg, andthen do an ultrasound with those people was
really not really not what I wantedto do for the rest of my life.
I had great compassion for him andwhat they stood for and what they
did. I just that just wasn'tme right. Um, you know,
(06:00):
I've spoken a lot of coaches totalk about the idea that it's a difficult
transition to go from from being aplayer and in that mindset to the coaching
mindset. How you know, whenyou go under under coach gardner Um and
you go back to West Virginia,how difficult was it for you personally having
just come from that situation with theSixers, going from that player mindset to
(06:24):
a coach mindset for you, Ireally wasn't that hard because I've been around
it so much. But I'll tellyou what I think the biggest change is
when you're a player, you kindof worry about yourself, you know,
you kind of worry about your playingtime. I mean, obviously a lot
(06:45):
of guys are are great team players, and I would like to think that
I was, but I mean,you're still your main focus is on what
you do, and what you findwhen you become a coach is you have
to focus on what everybody does,and you have to look at what's good
for the whole, not what's goodfor a particular player, but what's good
for the whole. And I've I'vebeen blessed to have several guys become grad
(07:11):
assistants and former players that have workedwith me, and you know, I'll
always ask them, you know,a week or so in you know,
what's the difference. It's like,man, you'll worry about everybody. You
just don't worry about you know,yourself. You're You're more concerned with what's
best for the whole rather than what'sbest for an individual. And I think
(07:32):
that's the biggest thing that every formerplayer goes through initially when they began coaching.
As you went along in your journeyand you go to Ohio State as
an assistant coach, and and thenyou finally reach Walsh University and you're a
head coach at twenty seven years old. You had a lot of success there
(07:57):
seventy one, twenty six and threeseasons, but you're only twenty seven.
What did you find was the biggestdifference for moving from that assistant coach seat
over to the head coach seat.Well, I think Coach Knight said it.
He said it's it's it's the longesttwenty four inches in the world to
(08:18):
move from one chair to the next. I enjoyed it, I mean I
really enjoyed it. We inherited aprogram that had never won, and so
it was it wasn't just getting playersand coaching, it was changing an entire
(08:39):
culture, which I think we werefortunate enough to do. And we went
from you know, being kind ofthe laughing stock of the league, to
dominate in the league and really dominatingthe district and going to the national tournament.
So, you know, my preparation, because of all the time I
(09:00):
spent around my dad, I thinkwas a whole lot different than normal people.
And I think I had a littlebit better grasp. I mean,
I still I probably expected more thanthan what they could give me. I
probably expect him to be better thanwhat they were capable of being. But
that's not a bad thing, youknow, It's not a bad thing to
(09:22):
aspire high. What what would peoplethink of the coach who were then compared
to to the coach who are now, Well, they probably thought I was
crazy then and now I think everybodythinks I've no old. Yes, yeah,
(09:43):
I think there's been some of thatover the last few years, certainly
in perception um. The You thengo back to being an assistant coach at
at UCF. You spend one seasonan assistant coach, and then your head
coach again University of Akron. Fiveseasons there, you were nearly a hundred
(10:05):
games, n see a tournament birthas at that point in your career,
as as you're starting to evolve asa head coach. Now you spent some
time doing it. Where where didyou feel like you you were in relation
to sort of where you wanted tobe. I guess the question really is
(10:26):
did you have an end goal?Well? I went to Central Florida because
Chuck Meishock. I mean, inall honesty, it was all because of
Chuck Meishock. Chuck was very verygood to me, recruited me to West
Virginia and then really was very influentialin helping me get the assistant job at
(10:50):
Ohio State. And you know,I grew up where you know, loyalty
demands loyalty, and he had beenvery loyal to me, and I wanted
to be loyal to him as well. And he was gone down to start
a program basically, and I keptsaying, now I'm happy where I am,
and he kept saying, no,I need you, and and you
(11:13):
know, I end up going.Then I kind of found out that I
really didn't want to be an assistantcoach anymore. I want to be a
head coach, and got the opportunityto go to the University of Acron because
of Dominica Zetta, who was thepresident at that time, who saw me
at Walsh and saw something in mehe liked and gave me an opportunity of
(11:35):
a lifetime to go be a Divisionone head coach, you know whatever,
forty five minutes from where I grewup in Ohio. So he is a
great opportunity for me. What thenprompted the move to Cincinnati, oh I
think one was a change in philosophyat the University of Acron and I think
(11:58):
the there probably more importantly was anopportunity to go to a program that had
fallen on hard times, would hadgreat history, um in a university that
had had sex success before and onethat I thought we could have success at.
Cincinnati is a great city. Butthe people in Cincinnati were absolutely phenomenal.
(12:22):
Um. You know, the programhad kind of taken some steps backwards,
and it was it was great tobe able to I've never gotten into,
you know, a situation that wasready made, you know, but
that's what it is. I guesswhen you get a job, it's because
(12:43):
somebody else had a hard time withit. Otherwise they keep the guy that
was there. So yeah, well, so I just thought it was a
great opportunity, and I thought itwas a place where at an Acron we
were never going to be able toplot in the final four. You know,
we could be successful, which wewere and win some games maybe in
(13:07):
answer tournament, but I just didn'tthink we could make the impact on the
landscape that we could at Cincinnati,and and truth being known, in two
thousand, we were the best teamin the country without a question, and
Kenyan broke his leg, and youknow, those those hopes and dreams kind
of went down the tubes. Yeah, I have a bunch of questions about
(13:31):
Cincinnati and the culture. But butsince you bring up to Kenyan Martin.
I talked to Seth Greenberg the otherday and said that I was going to
be speaking to you, and hesaid, you know, make sure to
ask him how good Kenyan was beforethe injury. And as as a fan,
I remember watching and thinking about howgood he was. But as a
coach, how good was Kenyan Martin? Oh, he was the best player
(13:54):
in the country. He was farand away the best player in the country.
And I think everybody knew that.He won every National Player of the
Year award, he won every defensiveNational Defensive Player of the Year award,
and he was great to coach.Here's a He's a great guy. He's
a very very loyal guys. He'sa very competitive guy. He's a very
(14:16):
tough guy and was blessed with alot of physical ability. And I had,
I mean, I had an absolutelywonderful time. He is one of
my favorite guys of all time becausehe competed so hard, because he wanted
to win, because he was soselfless, He just he just wanted to
(14:39):
win. And I love coaching him. I mean I from the day walked
on campus. I love coaching him. When did you realize how thought he
was going to be. I wentdown to Washington, played in a high
school game. He block thirteen shotsin the first half. I thought he
might have a chance. Then,um, I think once he got the
(15:03):
campus and you saw his work ethicand you saw his drive, and when
he got there, we were goodalready. Now we had Danny Fortson and
Bobby Brandon, and I think Ithink Hardlong may have just graduated, but
Danny was there, Bobby was there, Jackson Jilson. We I mean we
(15:28):
had we had some some really goodVIGs that he played against every day and
and was was so competitive with thoseguys, and really, um, you
know that was that was a toughgroup. I mean they were physically very
tough guys. And he didn't backdown, not a bit at whatever.
(15:48):
He was probably one hundred and eightypounds maybe then I grew up outside of
Philadelphia, but the legend of DannyFortson, even being a kid that wasn't
from that side of the state.Um, people were fearful of him and
just his intimidation and how physical andtalented he was. So the fact that
Kenyan was able to battle with himat that that size is pretty remarkable.
(16:12):
Um. He ended up starting afew games as a freshman, So I
think that tells you how far alonghe came in a very short period of
time. Absolutely, absolutely, youwere quartered as saying that that that team
played with a chip on their shop. That at Cincinnati, you you played
with a chip on your shoulder,not just you, but the entire roster.
(16:34):
And I am curious about how youchanged the culture of an entire program.
So how do you do it?I think we were really fortunate.
We were fortunate to get a guynamed Nick found Exel that had a lot
to do with a Tory Blunt hada lot to do with it, and
(16:56):
and really we're blessed took him endto a situation and we just didn't have
very many guys. I think wehad maybe like five or six scholarship guys
the first year I was there.But I had Lou Banks, I had
Laverse Robins, and I had KeyStarts, I had Andre Tape, and
they were all they were all reallygood players. I just didn't have any
subs. And those guys I thinkstarted to change the culture because they competed
(17:22):
so hard and because really we wentinto every game kind of overmatched and still
were able to compete and win morethan our share. And then we were
able to go out and recruit toCorey Blunts and Nick van Exel's and Eric
Martins and Alan Jacksons and so forth, and all of a sudden, we
(17:42):
were pretty lucky, done good.You talk about luck playing a role,
but also at the same time,there has to be a certain type of
kid that you're looking for that's goingto fit what it is that you guys
want to do at that time.And I guess even now when you go
out in the recruiting train, otheryour assistants go out, what qualities are
(18:03):
are you looking for? One?Guys I liked the game. I think
that's the biggest thing we want.We want guys that enjoy the game.
They enjoy playing the game, theyenjoy working at the game, they enjoy
getting better. And I think ifyou look down through what we had at
Cincinnati, we had guys like that. Danny Fortson put an incredible amount of
(18:27):
time in on his own, asdid Nick Van Exel, as did Corey
Blunt, as did Eric Martin,as did Kenyon Martin and Tamar Johnson and
so forth and so on. Imean, we just beat Michael. We
just had guys who love basketball.And I think when you love basketball,
you're going to put the time in. And then it's just a matter of
(18:48):
channel and that energy in the rightdirection to get guys to work on the
things that they need to work on. You know, the hardest thing about
basketball is people who want to workon the things they're really good at because
it's more fun then trying to workon the things that they're not good at.
And those guys. They just they'dlove to play. I mean,
(19:10):
I can remember Kenyan coming in myoffice saying, coach, they you know,
they're telling me I can go inthe first round. What should I
do? And I said, Idon't know, man, what do you
want to do? And he said, I said, well, let's let's,
you know, try to find outwhere you would go. And I
think somewhere he would have won eighteento twenty somewhere in there in the first
round. And he came back inand I said, Kenny, what do
(19:33):
you want to do? And hesaid, Coach, I want won a
national championship. I said what Hekind of answered your own question, then,
didn't you? And he said yes, sir and walked down. I
never heard another word about the draftor anything else. And you know,
I think it got to the pointwhere, you know, we talked and
said, you know, how youyou're going to be the number one pick
in the draft. And if youthink about how remarkable it is that he
(19:56):
was the number one pick in thedraft with a broken leg. Yeah,
I mean, that's that's strong.I mean, I don't I don't care
who you are. What's are thatstrong? When you can be the number
one pick in a draft, whata broken life, A truly special talent.
And like you said, the workethic, it's it's it's remarkable on
(20:18):
a daily basis and in practice,your your practices are are legendary, and
how your team's play in games it'slegendary. It feels like you can always
tell a Bob Huggins coach team.And I know it starts in practice from
from all the tales that I've heard. What is it that you're trying to
accomplish on a daily basis in eachpractice? Well, I think it consistent
(20:42):
work ethic. But but again,when you get guys that want to play
that enjoy basketball, you know,there are guys that play basketball and really
don't enjoy it. They're guys playbasketball for the wrong reasons. We try
to find guys that that may notbe as highly rated. They may not
be you know, on this AllStar team or that All Star team,
(21:04):
but you go into gym and you'llwatch and you can tell that they love
basketball. They just love being aroundbasketball, love playing basketball, love spending
time with basketball. And you recruitthose guys. They don't mind. Actually,
they want to practice and they wantto practice, they want to put
time in the gym. Eric Martinsaid he'd kill you in practice and afterward
(21:30):
he'd build you back up. Thatwas hugs, Jedi mind trick. Um,
what are your thoughts on that quote? So, I think it's very
accurate with Eric. I mean,Eric need need torn down a little bit
than put back up. I thinkI think that's very accurate. I'm not
so sure that's that's accurate for everyone, but it's certainly at Eric's case that
(21:52):
was probably the right thing to do. Yeah, yeah, how how how
much do you have to coach differentplayers differently? We hear about that all
the time. You know that,Um, you know that every player you
know sort of has to be sortof treated differently. But I know different
coaches subscribe to different theories on that. How what do you think about about
(22:15):
coaching different guys in different ways alittle different personalities? I think you handle
differently. You know, you geta guy who who just loves being in
the gym and loves playing. Youknow, you don't have to you don't
have to motivate him, maybe asmuch as somebody who doesn't quite enjoy it
(22:38):
quite so much, you know,And to think about basketball, I think
that everybody forgets that you have torun. I mean, when you sit
down and talk to it, virtuallyanybody playing basketball, what do you want
to do that? I also,I want a fast break, but they
don't want to run, but theywant a fast break. And unfortunately for
those people, you do have torun to be able to fast break.
(23:00):
So when you play at the pacethat we play, it's you know,
it's important that you get up anddown the floor. And you know,
the crazy thing, I mean,we talked about Danny, but people said,
well, Danny's not going to beable to play that style, and
I said, no, Danny willbe fine playing that style because Danny loves
basketball. And you know, Imean, the reality is, it's the
(23:21):
best thing that ever happened to Dannyis his ability to run the floor.
Because that's you know, the crazything is everybody everybody thinks that they you
know, that they run, whenthey really don't run. And then the
shorter the clock, the more youhave to run, the more possessions there
are, and the faster the gamebecomes because you have don't have a whole
(23:44):
lot of time to flour round withthe ball. So when I had guys
go to the NBA when they cameback, I always ask them, you
know, what's the difference, AndI initially I didn't know. I mean,
I thought they would say size orright at their skill level or whatever.
They said, speed to the gamesaid, the speed of the game
(24:06):
is so much different. To speedthe game is so much faster. And
that kind of puzzled me for aminute. Then you start to think about
it. Look at the difference inthe shot clock. You don't you don't
get a whole lot of ball reversal, you don't. You don't get a
whole lot of set offense. Youget. You get whatever you're getting the
ball screen, and you play,and then you run to the other end
and guard, and then you comeback and do the same thing again.
(24:29):
It's it's a it's an entirely differentgame. And to speed the game is
so much faster. You know,we see it in college forty five second
shot clock thirty five thirty. AndI know you've been a for lack of
better term of critic of, youknow, the shot clock going down probably
for exactly that reason. How muchhas coaching been sort of taken out of
(24:52):
the college game because the shot clockhas been diminished Well, here's what puzzles
may every time you see any thingon the greatest games that were in the
Final four and the and the greatestupset, the greatest game maybe was Villain.
It would beat in Georgetown. Theynever shot the ball, you know,
(25:12):
I mean they they they really shortenedthe game and really did a great
job or shortened game and just takingpossessions away. Well, you can't do
that with a shot clock. Andso if that is the greatest game,
the greatest Final four game of alltime, or the greatest championship game of
(25:33):
all time, or if it's inthe top three, why it was that
that was because there was no shotclock. So I just have a hard
time and I'm not against the shotclock. I'm just saying you can't have
it both ways, right, right, Exactly does that change who what type
of player you you bring in,and of course the style will play,
(25:56):
but just in terms of the kindof athlete that you bring in. Well,
there's a reason why Kentucky and Kansasand Carolina and all those people are
in the top ten every year ina country, right because they have the
best players and the more possessions thebest players are not gonna win all the
(26:17):
time, but they're going to winthe majority of the time. It's true.
The shorter of the clock, thebetter chance the best players are gonna
win because they have more opportunities.Speaking of the best players, and you
talked about it and all with Nickben Exel, what's your fondest memory from
that Final four run in ninety two? Oh, I think I think probably
(26:44):
the fact that we beat Memphis fourtimes, a very very good Memphis team,
and the fact that everybody said wecouldn't do it. I mean everybody
said, you can't beat them fourtimes. Actually they said you can't beat
them three times. He said wecouldn't beat them once, but to beat
them, to beat them four timesin the first whatever six seven months of
(27:07):
that game, where it was someof the greatest basketball that I'd ever seen.
I mean, they would come down, Penny would come down and make
an unbelievable play, and then Nickcould go down and make an unbelievable play,
and then they'd have a at lastspent to make an unbelievable block.
And then you go down and Coreyblock or Eric Martin make a unbelievable block.
(27:30):
It was just that the game wasplayed at such a high level,
and we were fortunate enough to winfour times. And I, you know,
I'm ac guire kept saying to me, you know, I don't think
you can beat anybody that good fourtimes. And finally I set out,
I think we can, and hegoes, you ever heard anybody beat that
good, beating anybody that that goodfour times? I said, yeah,
(27:52):
when I was at once, webeat Route Round four times and they were
really good, you know, andhe just he just laughed, and I
think you might have probably used avery nutellacast, but I love it.
The legendary Al McGuire. Uh.The So, after that Kenyan Martin situation
(28:18):
in two thousand, um, youthen have a string of of sad instances
in your life. You have theart attack in two thousand and two,
and then on May twenty four totwo thousand and three, your your mother,
Norma May Huggins passes away and youstarted the Normal May Huggins Cancer Research
Endowment Fund. And I know thatyou've raised millions through that. What kind
(28:44):
of inspiration was your mom throughout yourlife? My best friend, UM,
wasn't just my mother was my bestfriend, and you know my dad was
my dad was still in college whenI was born, and so I spent
a lot of time with my withmy mother and my dad being a being
a coach. I mean, mydad left in the morning before I got
(29:07):
up, and I was generally inbed before he got home. That's just,
you know, the kind of lifeof a coach. And um,
so I spent a lot of timearound my mother. My mother was you
know, everything, and to loseher was was very difficult. And I
know that from what I've read,you started the Endowment Fund because people were
(29:34):
sending flowers and cards and you feltlike there was a better way to contribute.
Um, how how surprised are youat at sort of all the money
that's that's been raised to help otherpeople through through her name. I'm not
really that surprised because the effect thatthat she had on people. And I
(29:57):
think, and I think the peopleof West Virginia, certainly since I went
to West Virginia. I started atwhen I was at Cincinnati, and and
it was it was okay, butit's got it's got ramped up pretty good
at at West Virginia. People ofWest Virginia are terrific. And I think,
(30:19):
you know, I think what's reallyneat is that we the Cancer Center
of West Virginia continues to grow,it continues to do a great job with
research, And wouldn't be great if, you know, state of West Virginia
at one point whatever six million peopleand we could find a cure for cancer.
(30:41):
I mean, I think that wouldbe one of the most remarkable things
ever. And so it's kind ofa neat thing. And it's a neat
thing that we have a place inour state where people don't have to leave
our state to go elsewhere for treatmentbecause they have world class care right there
in West Virginia. Yeah, it'sit's it's incredible. So I know how
(31:07):
much the West Virginia means to you. And so after you know the end
at Cincinnati, then you're head coachat Kansas State for a year, um
maybe through how talks started with WestVirginia and basically how that that process ended
up that you you became the headcoach at the place that meant so much
(31:29):
to you growing up. Well,they offered me the job earlier when I
was still at Cincinnati and it justit just didn't work for a lot of
reasons. And then going to KansasState and leave in Kansas State's hardest thing
I've ever done, and in mycoaching career. Why is that people there
(31:53):
are these wonderful people, absolutely wonderfulpeople, and and a president who was
incredible, the best ad that thatI had ever worked for, and just
the the support that you got fromthe case Staters and the people at the
(32:15):
university was something that I had neverexperienced before in any of the jobs I'd
had prior to that. So itwas, it was, it was very
difficult, but it was you know, it was the last opportunity to go
to go home, the last opportunityto get around my family. Um,
it's you know, it's great nowthat my brothers and sisters come to games,
(32:38):
and you know, my dad wasable to come to games, and
that was impossible when when I wasa Kansas thing. Was coaching at West
Virginia something that was always in theback of your mind, And it was
when I was younger, I think, I think when it didn't happen and
(33:00):
and uh, I mean I alwayslooked into at the box scores. I
always looked to see how they did. Um, but I thought we were
I thought we were probably past thattime and all honesty, so you get
the head coach. What's what's dayone? Like m kind of like gold
(33:27):
home week. It was. It'sit's amazing that the athlete director that hired
me was assistant athletic director when Iplayed there. I had known him for
whatever it was thirty years. Umto walk down to Holland of the hallway
and see professors that I had hadwhen I was there. Um, people
(33:51):
working in the athletic department that we'reworking in the athletic department when I played
there. You know, it's ait's Uh, it's a place that people
have a hard time leaving the theprogram. UM. I mean, obviously
(34:12):
it's it's had success at different timeshistorically. UM. But where you have
it now and where you've you've takenit. Um, it's just been remarkable
over the last decade. UM.What do you think is the biggest reason
that you've been able to find successat West Virginia. Well, we've got
(34:35):
great support from the stake I think, I think first and foremost, we
built the best practice was still inAmerica, all private money, all from
West Virginia people, and upgrades Ithink in the coliseum have made a huge
difference. You know, it's ait's a grand old building. I mean
(34:58):
for being build in nineteen seventy,you would you would never guess that it's
it's a great building. And justpeople. I mean, if we can
get people to campus, and that'swhat we've pretty much said since we got
there, if we can get peopleto campus, we got a great chance
to get them. Because people arejust are are so nice, so so
(35:21):
good, make you feel so comfortable, and it's it's a much better place
than what I think people on theoutside think it is. I mean,
it's it's a great town. Andthere are very very few places where you
have the support of an entire state. We went to the final four,
the governor. The governor had allthe game pumped into the minds pumped into
(35:47):
all the workplaces in the state ofWest Virginia because they were afraid nobody would
go to work. That just doesn'thappen a lot of places. No.
That is that's remarkable to think about, and it feels like when the former
(36:08):
players talk about their experience at WestVirginia, it almost always feels like you
describe that um that there is alove you know, you compare it.
People talk about the Duke family orthe North Carolina family. It almost always
seems like it's it's it's something thatformer players share with other former players,
whereas the former West Virginia players almostshare it with as you describe the entire
(36:31):
state, or the at least theentire university, UM, that they're just
taken in and loved by this,this town, in this in this state.
UM. And it certainly seems likeit's something that you feel. So
as you're going through that that runtowards the Final Four in two thousand and
ten, UM, you know,what are some of your memories from from
(36:55):
that experience? Oh? I thinkjust the outpouring from the state. UM.
We played the first two games inBuffalo and the second two games in
Syracuse, and to look up there, I mean playing Kentucky and in the
(37:20):
Elite eight, and you know,you hear so much and deservedly so about
the Wildcat Nation. They didn't haveanything on West Virginia people. And when
you stop and think it's a stateof one point six million people and you
know we had to have at leasthalf the crowd, I mean that's saying
something and probably that was it.That was it. I think I think
(37:49):
Johnny West full on with Jerry,telling Jerry they were about to break direct
the school record for number of winsand the last team to go to the
final four was led by Jerry.That says you've mentioned earlier. It was
just, um, you just youjust felt so good for the people in
(38:12):
the state of West Virginia and youyou beat a team with John Wall,
Eric Bledsoe, DeMarcus Cousins, um, And people forget that before that Kentucky
game, Daryl Bryant breaks his footin practice. I mean a lot of
people remember the Deshaan Butler injury.I mean, you're string of bad luck
in the NCAA tournament in terms ofinjuries is second to none. But Joe
(38:35):
Missoula gets his first start of theseason and he's phenomenal. Um, what
were your discussions like with the team? Um, you know, you just
lost Bryant and here you're playing thissuper talented Kentucky team. Um, what
what are your discussions like with theteam after after having suffered such a big
injury At that point, let's justgo applay. I think the good and
(39:01):
the bad thing was Truck had sprainedhis ancle earlier in a year and missed
from James, and we didn't haveJoe. Joe was still coming off of
shoulder surgery, and so we playeddash on Butler a point and you know,
Dave's coming off of playing power forwardbefore we got there, and then
(39:22):
all of a sudden he's out ofpoint guard. But we had a lot
of guys who could handle the ball, a lot of guys we had.
We had a lot of skill guys. That one of the amazing things about
that game, I think to thisday is that we didn't have a two
point field goal in the first halffor sixteen and we led, and we
(39:44):
led, and we led at halftimewithout mecca two point field goal. That's
pretty You start your coaching career,there's no three point line and you play
the first half of the Kentucky inthe lead a game going over sixteen on
two. Yeah, it's about hisremark. Couple of story is as as
there is um the you know youtalk about Dayshaun Butler just a super talented
(40:07):
player. I think a lot ofpeople forget just how good he was in
college as well. Tears his aclobviously less than nine minutes to play in
that final Final four loss to Duke, and a lot of people remember you,
um, you know, consoling himin that moment. What did you
say to him? Well? Ithink the great thing about about Day much
(40:31):
like Kenyon Martin. I was likewhen ken broke his leg. It was
the same kind of situation. AndI can remember Kenyon saying you know why
and you know And the first thinggoes through your head is here's a guy
who was going to be the firstpick in the graft and he's all he's
worried about is is is won ina national championship? All he was worried
(40:55):
about was his teammates. And whenI went out to see Day, it
was the same thing. It was, you know why why now, coach?
Why now? You know? Whycan't why can't we win a national
championship? It was never about himand it was never about his career.
It was never about anything other thanthe team, which is probably why we
(41:22):
went to two final fours with thoseguys being our leaders, because they were
they were so talented, but sotwo more. It seems like so many
of the guys that you had throughoutthe years, when you hear them in
interviews or when people are just justtalking to them, that, um,
your players just just speak about youin such a loving way, and it's
(41:45):
it's really remarkable, you know that. Um, there's you know, being
around the game and knowing a lotof coaches, it's always seems like there's
ways coaches are perceived publicly and inthe media, and how some fans may
perceive them, and then there's theactual way that that they are. Um,
(42:05):
how do you think it's been ablethat that you've been able to have
this contrast of you know, workingthese guys so hard and having them competed
at such a high level and havingto get on them as hard as we
know you do, but then alsothey walk away and to a man,
they all speak so highly of you. Um, how how have you made
that work? Well? I thinkpeople know when you care about them,
(42:30):
and and I think I've been veryfortius to have a staff that is the
same way that they're gone. Youknow, people people really want to be
the best they can be. Theyneed help doing that, and so we
try to help them. But inthe same in the same sense, I
(42:51):
mean, we have a relationship withthem. It's not we just don't see
them, you know, three hourson the floor during practice, we see
him a lot of a lot duringthe day they're in the office there,
I don't I've never had a closeddoor policy. You know, they can
walk in my office at time theydon't want to walk in and do and
(43:16):
um, you know. And Iguess the persona or my persona particularly on
probably got the way I got becauseI really didn't care. I mean I
really didn't care what media people thought. I really didn't care what anybody outside
(43:37):
the family really thought. So sothat part, I would probably is my
fault. But I mean, youyou've had so many special kids, so
I mean you you refer to himall those kids at Cincinnati, and then
the Deshaun Butler so special and andmost recently h Javon Carter um, who
(44:01):
to me just symbolizes everything that acollege athlete should be. I mean,
the guy you watch him play.He's not the greatest athlete on the planet,
but I don't know that I've everseen a point guard play better on
the defensive end. And then seemssuch a like such a leader offensively.
Um, and the and the pacethat you guys play at for guys to
(44:23):
compete that hard defensively for so long. M What did Javon Carter mean to
the program. What did he meanto you personally? Now we're we're coming
off of some a couple of roughyears, and uh, Dickie Simpkins called
me and said, I think wegot the guy you need to look at.
(44:45):
And when I'd never forget, it'seight o'clock in the morning at Disney
the Furthest Court. You can youcan be on. I go over there
at day o'clock in the morning towatch this guy and he's he's got a
one man press going on and andjust playing so hard and trying to guard
and just trying to win. AndI called our guys, I said,
(45:08):
this is this is this is oneof the guys we need to get right
here. And we're fortunate enough tobe able to recruit him. And his
work ethic is his legendary. Imean, he just he puts in And
I've been blessed. I've been blessedwith guys that have had an incredible drive
to be the best and incredible driveto be UM special and his is every
(45:37):
bit as good or better than anybodyI've ever had. You talk about that
um in terms of finding guys thatare that special, and you also mentioned
before that guys that love the game. Is this something coach that you and
your staff can pick up on justjust in watching them play for a few
(46:00):
minutes, or do you need tospend time with them, you know,
um talking to people around them,you know, to go back to those
qualities that that you're looking for,not just as great players, but they
seem to all be these great menit you know what, how much time
do you really need with them inorder to see their love of the game
(46:21):
and to see what kind of peoplethat they are. Because in our business,
I know it's going to be hardfor you to relive, but people
do negative recruit in our business,and people do kind of sometimes not not
do everything by the book. Andso it used to really bother me.
(46:45):
And then I figured out finally thatit really helps me because when they go
in and say, you know thatyou're gonna they're gonna practice you so hard,
and you know everything is going tobe so so disciplined and all this
and that, and and so youknow, the guys who don't really want
(47:06):
that, the guys who really don'twant to come in and work, the
guys who really don't want to getas as good as they can possibly be,
They go somewhere else. And sothese guys that are you know,
they think they're hurting us by negativerecruits, they're really helping us, you
know. They kind of they kindof narrow the field force which helps us
(47:29):
considerable. That's fascinating. They're almostpushing them towards your program in a way,
the guys you want, so absolutely, UM, coach, just a
couple more questions for you. Alot of young coaches. UM, sure,
we'll be listening. UM, I'mcurious to any advice that you'd give
(47:50):
a young coach that's um first startingoff in this profession. You know,
it's more than exus and those obviously, It's it's dealing with people, and
it's it's being able to relate topeople, to be able to deal with
people to to a degree, tryto judge, you know, what kind
(48:12):
of what kind of person you knowthat you're really recruiting that you're bringing into
your family. UM, it's alot of things, you know, and
and it's it's you gotta you know, you're you're probably in most cases DPR
guy on campus. You're the guythat they want to hear from. Um,
(48:36):
you're the guy that they all Iwant to see. It's it's a
whole lot more than walking out therefor you know, an hour and a
half and doing some layup drills andlaving. It's uh, it's a full
time job. It's a full timejob, but it's it's also one of
the most rewarding jobs I think thatyou could ever have. How much do
(48:59):
you need to reach out throughout thejourney to other coaches and pick their brains
and learn about what they're doing.And who have you reached out to throughout
the years as you've grown as acoach. I've been blessed because I could,
I could call my dad and didI know, particularly early on,
(49:25):
there's a guy at a high schoolcoach named Dad McCluskey at Farrell, Pennsylvania
who was very close with my dad, who when I was at watch,
i'd go, I'd go pick himup and I'd bring he was having a
hard time to see and then Icould get him, bring him to practice.
You'd watch practice, we'd sit andtalk after practice, get a BikeE
(49:49):
to eat, and I take themhome. And those two guys probably had
the most influencing and everything that we'vedone over the years, I'm not been
blessed I mean that for some reason, the older guys have kind of like
me. Al McGuire was phenomenal withme Abelem and Jerry Tarkanian, Pete Noell
(50:13):
coach Iva. You know, thoseguys have been phenomenal to me for and
and it's it really isn't so muchcoaching all the time. It's just you
know, it's about it's about.It's coaching, but it's not on the
floor coaching, just things that letyou sit and talk about. And then
(50:37):
ed Janka because he ran all theNike clinics, and to be able to
sit in a room with Jimmy vor Louis Carnaseka and Diggert Felps and so
forth and so on as a youngguy and just kind of sit over in
a corner and listen and learn wasphenomenal for me. You know. So
(50:59):
I was able to go in thereon on a Friday and you know,
stay through Sunday, and and Ihave an opportunity to be around the really
the greats that have ever coached thisgame. So I've been blessed. It's
really remarkable. Um. Last questionfor your coach, Um, anyone who's
(51:22):
watched you are on media day,has seen some pretty eclectic outfits, some
outrageous stuff. Um, and they'veall been been great. What's been the
inspiration behind some of your attire?On media day, Bill self, Um,
(51:44):
every every well I wore. Iwore my pull over the first year,
and everybody had a suit and tieon. And I told I was
joking around with him. I said, I'm gonna have to change my attire.
I guess you guys are gonna dresslike you're called the church. And
and so I said, I thinkI'm gonna wearing my letter jacket or my
(52:04):
letter sweater from what I played atWest VIRGINNY. And he'll laugh, I'll
never do that. And so thenext year I wore the letter sweater.
And then it just kind of gotto be kind of a fun thing to
dress a little different dress, dresslike President b one time. Um,
it's kind of neat with the pantswithout the pants to shoes. But both
(52:30):
old dull coach. I know you'veyou've always been a little bit different.
But in terms of the coaching community, the people within it so many respect
you. And when I'd reached outto a few coaches telling them that i'd
be I'd be speaking to you almostevery single one said he's the best.
I mean, that's how they alldescribed you. So um, you are
(52:52):
certainly well respected within the community andum and I really can't thank you enough
for jumping on with me today.Thank you a lot. I appreciate it,
huge, huge thanks to coach BobHuggins, a remarkable coach, one
of the winnings coaches in college basketball, and more than that, a guy
(53:12):
who has really shaped a lot ofyoung men and and and really done tremendous
things that throughout his career, butobviously most notably at Cincinnati and West Virginia.
So I can't appreciate you. Can'tthank Bob Huggins enough for the time
and for the candor today. Again, I'm Adam Stanko. You can catch
(53:34):
me on Twitter at nay Smith Lives. You can catch our podcast at forty
year Coach on Twitter as well,and make sure to subscribe and give us
a review. Tell us what youthink of the podcast. We'd appreciate that.
And of course we also have awebsite forty yearcoach dot com. Check
out our website and it's super helpfulresource to anyone that wants to be involved
(54:00):
in the in the coaching community,or people that already are, so we
appreciate it. UM, thank youso much for listening, and catch you
next time.
This is the inaugural episode of theforty Year Coach Podcast, and I'm Adam
Staco delighted for the guests that I'mabout to bring on. He really needs
no introduction, but I'm going tointroduce him anyway because his success in college
basketball and in the basketball community anyhowis has been remarkable. A Final four
(00:38):
appearance at Cincinnati two Elite eight teamstotally changed the culture of that program,
was successful in Kansas State, andthen became head coach of West Virginia in
two thousand and seven, and hissuccess there has been remarkable as well.
Two and ten reached the Final fourfor the first time for the program in
fifty one years. Of course,I'm referring to the great Bob Huggins coach.
(01:03):
Welcome to the forty Year Coach Podcast. Well, thank you very much,
pleasure to be with you. Iknow that at least legend has it
that you hate talking about about yourpast as well as yourself, so this
may be a little bit odd,but but still I'd like to take things
back to the beginning. When didyou first fall in love with basketball?
(01:26):
Well, I guess when I couldwalk. Probably I used to go around
and gather up all the coke cupsand try to walk them into a ball
and try to go shoot that ina basket. When I was very very
young, my dad was playing collegebasketball at the time, and after the
(01:49):
games, I'd try to make abucket with a few coke cups waded up.
And my dad was a high schoolcoach, and so I was.
I lived in a gym pretty much, So I can't ever remember being without
basketball or when I wasn't around basketball. I know you were born in West
(02:12):
Virginia and you lived there until youwere you were ten, and I had
read that you you sat on yourgrandfather's lap and listened to West Virginia games.
So the program, how much didit mean to you even as a
young age is sort of being away of life. Well, it is
that way in West Virginia. Youknow, there's no pro teams, it's
(02:35):
it's West Virginia University, and everythingkind of centers around the university and particularly
the football on the basketball program.So yeah, I said on my grandfather's
lap. And I don't remember goingto the field house. I know my
dad went to games and and sallyou know, hot Rod play and soa
(03:00):
Jerry play and saw Rod Thorne play, and Fritz Williams and so on.
But I don't remember that. Ido remember sitting in my grandfather's lap right
in front of the radio listen tothe games. Incredible. You then moved
on to Port Washington, Ohio,and as you mentioned, your father,
(03:22):
Charles Hall of fame high school coachIndian South Valley High School. Um,
what was it like playing for yourdad? It was hard, it was
It was one of the hard thingsthat I did. I mean, I
think it was certainly one of thebest things that's ever happened to me.
(03:46):
But it was rough. He wasHe was rough on everybody, and I
think particularly rough on his sons,just in terms of how he was yelling
or what he said, a multitudeof those things. Yes, uh so,
Um, playing for him in highschool at that time, did you
(04:11):
have thoughts of being a coach?Well, my dad always tried talking me
to being a doctor, and sowhen I went to I went to college,
I was in pre med for aone quarter and that was enough.
That was too much time in alibrary and not enough time in a jam.
(04:32):
So I wished I didn't know whatI wanted to be you know,
I was. I was accepted tophysical therapy school. I was going to
be a lawyer. M I wasreally going to be pretty much anything but
but a basketball coach, and wasfortunate enough to go with Philadelphia seventy six
(04:53):
years got cut deservedly, so Icame back to West Virginia. I had
no idea what I wanted to do. Coach Gardner asked me if I wanted
to be a red assistant, andI really had nothing else to do.
So I did, and I kindof liked it, and I've been doing
it ever since. How much timedid you have you spent thinking about the
(05:13):
idea that you might have been aphysical therapist? Well, not not inning
at all, to be honest withyou. I went that was that was
during Vietnam. And to go upto that particular physical therapy um whatever it's
called place, and to see peoplecoming in with you know, half an
(05:36):
arm, half a leg, andthen do an ultrasound with those people was
really not really not what I wantedto do for the rest of my life.
I had great compassion for him andwhat they stood for and what they
did. I just that just wasn'tme right. Um, you know,
(06:00):
I've spoken a lot of coaches totalk about the idea that it's a difficult
transition to go from from being aplayer and in that mindset to the coaching
mindset. How you know, whenyou go under under coach gardner Um and
you go back to West Virginia,how difficult was it for you personally having
just come from that situation with theSixers, going from that player mindset to
(06:24):
a coach mindset for you, Ireally wasn't that hard because I've been around
it so much. But I'll tellyou what I think the biggest change is
when you're a player, you kindof worry about yourself, you know,
you kind of worry about your playingtime. I mean, obviously a lot
(06:45):
of guys are are great team players, and I would like to think that
I was, but I mean,you're still your main focus is on what
you do, and what you findwhen you become a coach is you have
to focus on what everybody does,and you have to look at what's good
for the whole, not what's goodfor a particular player, but what's good
for the whole. And I've I'vebeen blessed to have several guys become grad
(07:11):
assistants and former players that have workedwith me, and you know, I'll
always ask them, you know,a week or so in you know,
what's the difference. It's like,man, you'll worry about everybody. You
just don't worry about you know,yourself. You're You're more concerned with what's
best for the whole rather than what'sbest for an individual. And I think
(07:32):
that's the biggest thing that every formerplayer goes through initially when they began coaching.
As you went along in your journeyand you go to Ohio State as
an assistant coach, and and thenyou finally reach Walsh University and you're a
head coach at twenty seven years old. You had a lot of success there
(07:57):
seventy one, twenty six and threeseasons, but you're only twenty seven.
What did you find was the biggestdifference for moving from that assistant coach seat
over to the head coach seat.Well, I think Coach Knight said it.
He said it's it's it's the longesttwenty four inches in the world to
(08:18):
move from one chair to the next. I enjoyed it, I mean I
really enjoyed it. We inherited aprogram that had never won, and so
it was it wasn't just getting playersand coaching, it was changing an entire
(08:39):
culture, which I think we werefortunate enough to do. And we went
from you know, being kind ofthe laughing stock of the league, to
dominate in the league and really dominatingthe district and going to the national tournament.
So, you know, my preparation, because of all the time I
(09:00):
spent around my dad, I thinkwas a whole lot different than normal people.
And I think I had a littlebit better grasp. I mean,
I still I probably expected more thanthan what they could give me. I
probably expect him to be better thanwhat they were capable of being. But
that's not a bad thing, youknow, It's not a bad thing to
(09:22):
aspire high. What what would peoplethink of the coach who were then compared
to to the coach who are now, Well, they probably thought I was
crazy then and now I think everybodythinks I've no old. Yes, yeah,
(09:43):
I think there's been some of thatover the last few years, certainly
in perception um. The You thengo back to being an assistant coach at
at UCF. You spend one seasonan assistant coach, and then your head
coach again University of Akron. Fiveseasons there, you were nearly a hundred
(10:05):
games, n see a tournament birthas at that point in your career,
as as you're starting to evolve asa head coach. Now you spent some
time doing it. Where where didyou feel like you you were in relation
to sort of where you wanted tobe. I guess the question really is
(10:26):
did you have an end goal?Well? I went to Central Florida because
Chuck Meishock. I mean, inall honesty, it was all because of
Chuck Meishock. Chuck was very verygood to me, recruited me to West
Virginia and then really was very influentialin helping me get the assistant job at
(10:50):
Ohio State. And you know,I grew up where you know, loyalty
demands loyalty, and he had beenvery loyal to me, and I wanted
to be loyal to him as well. And he was gone down to start
a program basically, and I keptsaying, now I'm happy where I am,
and he kept saying, no,I need you, and and you
(11:13):
know, I end up going.Then I kind of found out that I
really didn't want to be an assistantcoach anymore. I want to be a
head coach, and got the opportunityto go to the University of Acron because
of Dominica Zetta, who was thepresident at that time, who saw me
at Walsh and saw something in mehe liked and gave me an opportunity of
(11:35):
a lifetime to go be a Divisionone head coach, you know whatever,
forty five minutes from where I grewup in Ohio. So he is a
great opportunity for me. What thenprompted the move to Cincinnati, oh I
think one was a change in philosophyat the University of Acron and I think
(11:58):
the there probably more importantly was anopportunity to go to a program that had
fallen on hard times, would hadgreat history, um in a university that
had had sex success before and onethat I thought we could have success at.
Cincinnati is a great city. Butthe people in Cincinnati were absolutely phenomenal.
(12:22):
Um. You know, the programhad kind of taken some steps backwards,
and it was it was great tobe able to I've never gotten into,
you know, a situation that wasready made, you know, but
that's what it is. I guesswhen you get a job, it's because
(12:43):
somebody else had a hard time withit. Otherwise they keep the guy that
was there. So yeah, well, so I just thought it was a
great opportunity, and I thought itwas a place where at an Acron we
were never going to be able toplot in the final four. You know,
we could be successful, which wewere and win some games maybe in
(13:07):
answer tournament, but I just didn'tthink we could make the impact on the
landscape that we could at Cincinnati,and and truth being known, in two
thousand, we were the best teamin the country without a question, and
Kenyan broke his leg, and youknow, those those hopes and dreams kind
of went down the tubes. Yeah, I have a bunch of questions about
(13:31):
Cincinnati and the culture. But butsince you bring up to Kenyan Martin.
I talked to Seth Greenberg the otherday and said that I was going to
be speaking to you, and hesaid, you know, make sure to
ask him how good Kenyan was beforethe injury. And as as a fan,
I remember watching and thinking about howgood he was. But as a
coach, how good was Kenyan Martin? Oh, he was the best player
(13:54):
in the country. He was farand away the best player in the country.
And I think everybody knew that.He won every National Player of the
Year award, he won every defensiveNational Defensive Player of the Year award,
and he was great to coach.Here's a He's a great guy. He's
a very very loyal guys. He'sa very competitive guy. He's a very
(14:16):
tough guy and was blessed with alot of physical ability. And I had,
I mean, I had an absolutelywonderful time. He is one of
my favorite guys of all time becausehe competed so hard, because he wanted
to win, because he was soselfless, He just he just wanted to
(14:39):
win. And I love coaching him. I mean I from the day walked
on campus. I love coaching him. When did you realize how thought he
was going to be. I wentdown to Washington, played in a high
school game. He block thirteen shotsin the first half. I thought he
might have a chance. Then,um, I think once he got the
(15:03):
campus and you saw his work ethicand you saw his drive, and when
he got there, we were goodalready. Now we had Danny Fortson and
Bobby Brandon, and I think Ithink Hardlong may have just graduated, but
Danny was there, Bobby was there, Jackson Jilson. We I mean we
(15:28):
had we had some some really goodVIGs that he played against every day and
and was was so competitive with thoseguys, and really, um, you
know that was that was a toughgroup. I mean they were physically very
tough guys. And he didn't backdown, not a bit at whatever.
(15:48):
He was probably one hundred and eightypounds maybe then I grew up outside of
Philadelphia, but the legend of DannyFortson, even being a kid that wasn't
from that side of the state.Um, people were fearful of him and
just his intimidation and how physical andtalented he was. So the fact that
Kenyan was able to battle with himat that that size is pretty remarkable.
(16:12):
Um. He ended up starting afew games as a freshman, So I
think that tells you how far alonghe came in a very short period of
time. Absolutely, absolutely, youwere quartered as saying that that that team
played with a chip on their shop. That at Cincinnati, you you played
with a chip on your shoulder,not just you, but the entire roster.
(16:34):
And I am curious about how youchanged the culture of an entire program.
So how do you do it?I think we were really fortunate.
We were fortunate to get a guynamed Nick found Exel that had a lot
to do with a Tory Blunt hada lot to do with it, and
(16:56):
and really we're blessed took him endto a situation and we just didn't have
very many guys. I think wehad maybe like five or six scholarship guys
the first year I was there.But I had Lou Banks, I had
Laverse Robins, and I had KeyStarts, I had Andre Tape, and
they were all they were all reallygood players. I just didn't have any
subs. And those guys I thinkstarted to change the culture because they competed
(17:22):
so hard and because really we wentinto every game kind of overmatched and still
were able to compete and win morethan our share. And then we were
able to go out and recruit toCorey Blunts and Nick van Exel's and Eric
Martins and Alan Jacksons and so forth, and all of a sudden, we
(17:42):
were pretty lucky, done good.You talk about luck playing a role,
but also at the same time,there has to be a certain type of
kid that you're looking for that's goingto fit what it is that you guys
want to do at that time.And I guess even now when you go
out in the recruiting train, otheryour assistants go out, what qualities are
(18:03):
are you looking for? One?Guys I liked the game. I think
that's the biggest thing we want.We want guys that enjoy the game.
They enjoy playing the game, theyenjoy working at the game, they enjoy
getting better. And I think ifyou look down through what we had at
Cincinnati, we had guys like that. Danny Fortson put an incredible amount of
(18:27):
time in on his own, asdid Nick Van Exel, as did Corey
Blunt, as did Eric Martin,as did Kenyon Martin and Tamar Johnson and
so forth and so on. Imean, we just beat Michael. We
just had guys who love basketball.And I think when you love basketball,
you're going to put the time in. And then it's just a matter of
(18:48):
channel and that energy in the rightdirection to get guys to work on the
things that they need to work on. You know, the hardest thing about
basketball is people who want to workon the things they're really good at because
it's more fun then trying to workon the things that they're not good at.
And those guys. They just they'dlove to play. I mean,
(19:10):
I can remember Kenyan coming in myoffice saying, coach, they you know,
they're telling me I can go inthe first round. What should I
do? And I said, Idon't know, man, what do you
want to do? And he said, I said, well, let's let's,
you know, try to find outwhere you would go. And I
think somewhere he would have won eighteento twenty somewhere in there in the first
round. And he came back inand I said, Kenny, what do
(19:33):
you want to do? And hesaid, Coach, I want won a
national championship. I said what Hekind of answered your own question, then,
didn't you? And he said yes, sir and walked down. I
never heard another word about the draftor anything else. And you know,
I think it got to the pointwhere, you know, we talked and
said, you know, how youyou're going to be the number one pick
in the draft. And if youthink about how remarkable it is that he
(19:56):
was the number one pick in thedraft with a broken leg. Yeah,
I mean, that's that's strong.I mean, I don't I don't care
who you are. What's are thatstrong? When you can be the number
one pick in a draft, whata broken life, A truly special talent.
And like you said, the workethic, it's it's it's remarkable on
(20:18):
a daily basis and in practice,your your practices are are legendary, and
how your team's play in games it'slegendary. It feels like you can always
tell a Bob Huggins coach team.And I know it starts in practice from
from all the tales that I've heard. What is it that you're trying to
accomplish on a daily basis in eachpractice? Well, I think it consistent
(20:42):
work ethic. But but again,when you get guys that want to play
that enjoy basketball, you know,there are guys that play basketball and really
don't enjoy it. They're guys playbasketball for the wrong reasons. We try
to find guys that that may notbe as highly rated. They may not
be you know, on this AllStar team or that All Star team,
(21:04):
but you go into gym and you'llwatch and you can tell that they love
basketball. They just love being aroundbasketball, love playing basketball, love spending
time with basketball. And you recruitthose guys. They don't mind. Actually,
they want to practice and they wantto practice, they want to put
time in the gym. Eric Martinsaid he'd kill you in practice and afterward
(21:30):
he'd build you back up. Thatwas hugs, Jedi mind trick. Um,
what are your thoughts on that quote? So, I think it's very
accurate with Eric. I mean,Eric need need torn down a little bit
than put back up. I thinkI think that's very accurate. I'm not
so sure that's that's accurate for everyone, but it's certainly at Eric's case that
(21:52):
was probably the right thing to do. Yeah, yeah, how how how
much do you have to coach differentplayers differently? We hear about that all
the time. You know that,Um, you know that every player you
know sort of has to be sortof treated differently. But I know different
coaches subscribe to different theories on that. How what do you think about about
(22:15):
coaching different guys in different ways alittle different personalities? I think you handle
differently. You know, you geta guy who who just loves being in
the gym and loves playing. Youknow, you don't have to you don't
have to motivate him, maybe asmuch as somebody who doesn't quite enjoy it
(22:38):
quite so much, you know,And to think about basketball, I think
that everybody forgets that you have torun. I mean, when you sit
down and talk to it, virtuallyanybody playing basketball, what do you want
to do that? I also,I want a fast break, but they
don't want to run, but theywant a fast break. And unfortunately for
those people, you do have torun to be able to fast break.
(23:00):
So when you play at the pacethat we play, it's you know,
it's important that you get up anddown the floor. And you know,
the crazy thing, I mean,we talked about Danny, but people said,
well, Danny's not going to beable to play that style, and
I said, no, Danny willbe fine playing that style because Danny loves
basketball. And you know, Imean, the reality is, it's the
(23:21):
best thing that ever happened to Dannyis his ability to run the floor.
Because that's you know, the crazything is everybody everybody thinks that they you
know, that they run, whenthey really don't run. And then the
shorter the clock, the more youhave to run, the more possessions there
are, and the faster the gamebecomes because you have don't have a whole
(23:44):
lot of time to flour round withthe ball. So when I had guys
go to the NBA when they cameback, I always ask them, you
know, what's the difference, AndI initially I didn't know. I mean,
I thought they would say size orright at their skill level or whatever.
They said, speed to the gamesaid, the speed of the game
(24:06):
is so much different. To speedthe game is so much faster. And
that kind of puzzled me for aminute. Then you start to think about
it. Look at the difference inthe shot clock. You don't you don't
get a whole lot of ball reversal, you don't. You don't get a
whole lot of set offense. Youget. You get whatever you're getting the
ball screen, and you play,and then you run to the other end
and guard, and then you comeback and do the same thing again.
(24:29):
It's it's a it's an entirely differentgame. And to speed the game is
so much faster. You know,we see it in college forty five second
shot clock thirty five thirty. AndI know you've been a for lack of
better term of critic of, youknow, the shot clock going down probably
for exactly that reason. How muchhas coaching been sort of taken out of
(24:52):
the college game because the shot clockhas been diminished Well, here's what puzzles
may every time you see any thingon the greatest games that were in the
Final four and the and the greatestupset, the greatest game maybe was Villain.
It would beat in Georgetown. Theynever shot the ball, you know,
(25:12):
I mean they they they really shortenedthe game and really did a great
job or shortened game and just takingpossessions away. Well, you can't do
that with a shot clock. Andso if that is the greatest game,
the greatest Final four game of alltime, or the greatest championship game of
(25:33):
all time, or if it's inthe top three, why it was that
that was because there was no shotclock. So I just have a hard
time and I'm not against the shotclock. I'm just saying you can't have
it both ways, right, right, Exactly does that change who what type
of player you you bring in,and of course the style will play,
(25:56):
but just in terms of the kindof athlete that you bring in. Well,
there's a reason why Kentucky and Kansasand Carolina and all those people are
in the top ten every year ina country, right because they have the
best players and the more possessions thebest players are not gonna win all the
(26:17):
time, but they're going to winthe majority of the time. It's true.
The shorter of the clock, thebetter chance the best players are gonna
win because they have more opportunities.Speaking of the best players, and you
talked about it and all with Nickben Exel, what's your fondest memory from
that Final four run in ninety two? Oh, I think I think probably
(26:44):
the fact that we beat Memphis fourtimes, a very very good Memphis team,
and the fact that everybody said wecouldn't do it. I mean everybody
said, you can't beat them fourtimes. Actually they said you can't beat
them three times. He said wecouldn't beat them once, but to beat
them, to beat them four timesin the first whatever six seven months of
(27:07):
that game, where it was someof the greatest basketball that I'd ever seen.
I mean, they would come down, Penny would come down and make
an unbelievable play, and then Nickcould go down and make an unbelievable play,
and then they'd have a at lastspent to make an unbelievable block.
And then you go down and Coreyblock or Eric Martin make a unbelievable block.
(27:30):
It was just that the game wasplayed at such a high level,
and we were fortunate enough to winfour times. And I, you know,
I'm ac guire kept saying to me, you know, I don't think
you can beat anybody that good fourtimes. And finally I set out,
I think we can, and hegoes, you ever heard anybody beat that
good, beating anybody that that goodfour times? I said, yeah,
(27:52):
when I was at once, webeat Route Round four times and they were
really good, you know, andhe just he just laughed, and I
think you might have probably used avery nutellacast, but I love it.
The legendary Al McGuire. Uh.The So, after that Kenyan Martin situation
(28:18):
in two thousand, um, youthen have a string of of sad instances
in your life. You have theart attack in two thousand and two,
and then on May twenty four totwo thousand and three, your your mother,
Norma May Huggins passes away and youstarted the Normal May Huggins Cancer Research
Endowment Fund. And I know thatyou've raised millions through that. What kind
(28:44):
of inspiration was your mom throughout yourlife? My best friend, UM,
wasn't just my mother was my bestfriend, and you know my dad was
my dad was still in college whenI was born, and so I spent
a lot of time with my withmy mother and my dad being a being
a coach. I mean, mydad left in the morning before I got
(29:07):
up, and I was generally inbed before he got home. That's just,
you know, the kind of lifeof a coach. And um,
so I spent a lot of timearound my mother. My mother was you
know, everything, and to loseher was was very difficult. And I
know that from what I've read,you started the Endowment Fund because people were
(29:34):
sending flowers and cards and you feltlike there was a better way to contribute.
Um, how how surprised are youat at sort of all the money
that's that's been raised to help otherpeople through through her name. I'm not
really that surprised because the effect thatthat she had on people. And I
(29:57):
think, and I think the peopleof West Virginia, certainly since I went
to West Virginia. I started atwhen I was at Cincinnati, and and
it was it was okay, butit's got it's got ramped up pretty good
at at West Virginia. People ofWest Virginia are terrific. And I think,
(30:19):
you know, I think what's reallyneat is that we the Cancer Center
of West Virginia continues to grow,it continues to do a great job with
research, And wouldn't be great if, you know, state of West Virginia
at one point whatever six million peopleand we could find a cure for cancer.
(30:41):
I mean, I think that wouldbe one of the most remarkable things
ever. And so it's kind ofa neat thing. And it's a neat
thing that we have a place inour state where people don't have to leave
our state to go elsewhere for treatmentbecause they have world class care right there
in West Virginia. Yeah, it'sit's it's incredible. So I know how
(31:07):
much the West Virginia means to you. And so after you know the end
at Cincinnati, then you're head coachat Kansas State for a year, um
maybe through how talks started with WestVirginia and basically how that that process ended
up that you you became the headcoach at the place that meant so much
(31:29):
to you growing up. Well,they offered me the job earlier when I
was still at Cincinnati and it justit just didn't work for a lot of
reasons. And then going to KansasState and leave in Kansas State's hardest thing
I've ever done, and in mycoaching career. Why is that people there
(31:53):
are these wonderful people, absolutely wonderfulpeople, and and a president who was
incredible, the best ad that thatI had ever worked for, and just
the the support that you got fromthe case Staters and the people at the
(32:15):
university was something that I had neverexperienced before in any of the jobs I'd
had prior to that. So itwas, it was, it was very
difficult, but it was you know, it was the last opportunity to go
to go home, the last opportunityto get around my family. Um,
it's you know, it's great nowthat my brothers and sisters come to games,
(32:38):
and you know, my dad wasable to come to games, and
that was impossible when when I wasa Kansas thing. Was coaching at West
Virginia something that was always in theback of your mind, And it was
when I was younger, I think, I think when it didn't happen and
(33:00):
and uh, I mean I alwayslooked into at the box scores. I
always looked to see how they did. Um, but I thought we were
I thought we were probably past thattime and all honesty, so you get
the head coach. What's what's dayone? Like m kind of like gold
(33:27):
home week. It was. It'sit's amazing that the athlete director that hired
me was assistant athletic director when Iplayed there. I had known him for
whatever it was thirty years. Umto walk down to Holland of the hallway
and see professors that I had hadwhen I was there. Um, people
(33:51):
working in the athletic department that we'reworking in the athletic department when I played
there. You know, it's ait's Uh, it's a place that people
have a hard time leaving the theprogram. UM. I mean, obviously
(34:12):
it's it's had success at different timeshistorically. UM. But where you have
it now and where you've you've takenit. Um, it's just been remarkable
over the last decade. UM.What do you think is the biggest reason
that you've been able to find successat West Virginia. Well, we've got
(34:35):
great support from the stake I think, I think first and foremost, we
built the best practice was still inAmerica, all private money, all from
West Virginia people, and upgrades Ithink in the coliseum have made a huge
difference. You know, it's ait's a grand old building. I mean
(34:58):
for being build in nineteen seventy,you would you would never guess that it's
it's a great building. And justpeople. I mean, if we can
get people to campus, and that'swhat we've pretty much said since we got
there, if we can get peopleto campus, we got a great chance
to get them. Because people arejust are are so nice, so so
(35:21):
good, make you feel so comfortable, and it's it's a much better place
than what I think people on theoutside think it is. I mean,
it's it's a great town. Andthere are very very few places where you
have the support of an entire state. We went to the final four,
the governor. The governor had allthe game pumped into the minds pumped into
(35:47):
all the workplaces in the state ofWest Virginia because they were afraid nobody would
go to work. That just doesn'thappen a lot of places. No.
That is that's remarkable to think about, and it feels like when the former
(36:08):
players talk about their experience at WestVirginia, it almost always feels like you
describe that um that there is alove you know, you compare it.
People talk about the Duke family orthe North Carolina family. It almost always
seems like it's it's it's something thatformer players share with other former players,
whereas the former West Virginia players almostshare it with as you describe the entire
(36:31):
state, or the at least theentire university, UM, that they're just
taken in and loved by this,this town, in this in this state.
UM. And it certainly seems likeit's something that you feel. So
as you're going through that that runtowards the Final Four in two thousand and
ten, UM, you know,what are some of your memories from from
(36:55):
that experience? Oh? I thinkjust the outpouring from the state. UM.
We played the first two games inBuffalo and the second two games in
Syracuse, and to look up there, I mean playing Kentucky and in the
(37:20):
Elite eight, and you know,you hear so much and deservedly so about
the Wildcat Nation. They didn't haveanything on West Virginia people. And when
you stop and think it's a stateof one point six million people and you
know we had to have at leasthalf the crowd, I mean that's saying
something and probably that was it.That was it. I think I think
(37:49):
Johnny West full on with Jerry,telling Jerry they were about to break direct
the school record for number of winsand the last team to go to the
final four was led by Jerry.That says you've mentioned earlier. It was
just, um, you just youjust felt so good for the people in
(38:12):
the state of West Virginia and youyou beat a team with John Wall,
Eric Bledsoe, DeMarcus Cousins, um, And people forget that before that Kentucky
game, Daryl Bryant breaks his footin practice. I mean a lot of
people remember the Deshaan Butler injury.I mean, you're string of bad luck
in the NCAA tournament in terms ofinjuries is second to none. But Joe
(38:35):
Missoula gets his first start of theseason and he's phenomenal. Um, what
were your discussions like with the team? Um, you know, you just
lost Bryant and here you're playing thissuper talented Kentucky team. Um, what
what are your discussions like with theteam after after having suffered such a big
injury At that point, let's justgo applay. I think the good and
(39:01):
the bad thing was Truck had sprainedhis ancle earlier in a year and missed
from James, and we didn't haveJoe. Joe was still coming off of
shoulder surgery, and so we playeddash on Butler a point and you know,
Dave's coming off of playing power forwardbefore we got there, and then
(39:22):
all of a sudden he's out ofpoint guard. But we had a lot
of guys who could handle the ball, a lot of guys we had.
We had a lot of skill guys. That one of the amazing things about
that game, I think to thisday is that we didn't have a two
point field goal in the first halffor sixteen and we led, and we
(39:44):
led, and we led at halftimewithout mecca two point field goal. That's
pretty You start your coaching career,there's no three point line and you play
the first half of the Kentucky inthe lead a game going over sixteen on
two. Yeah, it's about hisremark. Couple of story is as as
there is um the you know youtalk about Dayshaun Butler just a super talented
(40:07):
player. I think a lot ofpeople forget just how good he was in
college as well. Tears his aclobviously less than nine minutes to play in
that final Final four loss to Duke, and a lot of people remember you,
um, you know, consoling himin that moment. What did you
say to him? Well? Ithink the great thing about about Day much
(40:31):
like Kenyon Martin. I was likewhen ken broke his leg. It was
the same kind of situation. AndI can remember Kenyon saying you know why
and you know And the first thinggoes through your head is here's a guy
who was going to be the firstpick in the graft and he's all he's
worried about is is is won ina national championship? All he was worried
(40:55):
about was his teammates. And whenI went out to see Day, it
was the same thing. It was, you know why why now, coach?
Why now? You know? Whycan't why can't we win a national
championship? It was never about himand it was never about his career.
It was never about anything other thanthe team, which is probably why we
(41:22):
went to two final fours with thoseguys being our leaders, because they were
they were so talented, but sotwo more. It seems like so many
of the guys that you had throughoutthe years, when you hear them in
interviews or when people are just justtalking to them, that, um,
your players just just speak about youin such a loving way, and it's
(41:45):
it's really remarkable, you know that. Um, there's you know, being
around the game and knowing a lotof coaches, it's always seems like there's
ways coaches are perceived publicly and inthe media, and how some fans may
perceive them, and then there's theactual way that that they are. Um,
(42:05):
how do you think it's been ablethat that you've been able to have
this contrast of you know, workingthese guys so hard and having them competed
at such a high level and havingto get on them as hard as we
know you do, but then alsothey walk away and to a man,
they all speak so highly of you. Um, how how have you made
that work? Well? I thinkpeople know when you care about them,
(42:30):
and and I think I've been veryfortius to have a staff that is the
same way that they're gone. Youknow, people people really want to be
the best they can be. Theyneed help doing that, and so we
try to help them. But inthe same in the same sense, I
(42:51):
mean, we have a relationship withthem. It's not we just don't see
them, you know, three hourson the floor during practice, we see
him a lot of a lot duringthe day they're in the office there,
I don't I've never had a closeddoor policy. You know, they can
walk in my office at time theydon't want to walk in and do and
(43:16):
um, you know. And Iguess the persona or my persona particularly on
probably got the way I got becauseI really didn't care. I mean I
really didn't care what media people thought. I really didn't care what anybody outside
(43:37):
the family really thought. So sothat part, I would probably is my
fault. But I mean, youyou've had so many special kids, so
I mean you you refer to himall those kids at Cincinnati, and then
the Deshaun Butler so special and andmost recently h Javon Carter um, who
(44:01):
to me just symbolizes everything that acollege athlete should be. I mean,
the guy you watch him play.He's not the greatest athlete on the planet,
but I don't know that I've everseen a point guard play better on
the defensive end. And then seemssuch a like such a leader offensively.
Um, and the and the pacethat you guys play at for guys to
(44:23):
compete that hard defensively for so long. M What did Javon Carter mean to
the program. What did he meanto you personally? Now we're we're coming
off of some a couple of roughyears, and uh, Dickie Simpkins called
me and said, I think wegot the guy you need to look at.
(44:45):
And when I'd never forget, it'seight o'clock in the morning at Disney
the Furthest Court. You can youcan be on. I go over there
at day o'clock in the morning towatch this guy and he's he's got a
one man press going on and andjust playing so hard and trying to guard
and just trying to win. AndI called our guys, I said,
(45:08):
this is this is this is oneof the guys we need to get right
here. And we're fortunate enough tobe able to recruit him. And his
work ethic is his legendary. Imean, he just he puts in And
I've been blessed. I've been blessedwith guys that have had an incredible drive
to be the best and incredible driveto be UM special and his is every
(45:37):
bit as good or better than anybodyI've ever had. You talk about that
um in terms of finding guys thatare that special, and you also mentioned
before that guys that love the game. Is this something coach that you and
your staff can pick up on justjust in watching them play for a few
(46:00):
minutes, or do you need tospend time with them, you know,
um talking to people around them,you know, to go back to those
qualities that that you're looking for,not just as great players, but they
seem to all be these great menit you know what, how much time
do you really need with them inorder to see their love of the game
(46:21):
and to see what kind of peoplethat they are. Because in our business,
I know it's going to be hardfor you to relive, but people
do negative recruit in our business,and people do kind of sometimes not not
do everything by the book. Andso it used to really bother me.
(46:45):
And then I figured out finally thatit really helps me because when they go
in and say, you know thatyou're gonna they're gonna practice you so hard,
and you know everything is going tobe so so disciplined and all this
and that, and and so youknow, the guys who don't really want
(47:06):
that, the guys who really don'twant to come in and work, the
guys who really don't want to getas as good as they can possibly be,
They go somewhere else. And sothese guys that are you know,
they think they're hurting us by negativerecruits, they're really helping us, you
know. They kind of they kindof narrow the field force which helps us
(47:29):
considerable. That's fascinating. They're almostpushing them towards your program in a way,
the guys you want, so absolutely, UM, coach, just a
couple more questions for you. Alot of young coaches. UM, sure,
we'll be listening. UM, I'mcurious to any advice that you'd give
(47:50):
a young coach that's um first startingoff in this profession. You know,
it's more than exus and those obviously, It's it's dealing with people, and
it's it's being able to relate topeople, to be able to deal with
people to to a degree, tryto judge, you know, what kind
(48:12):
of what kind of person you knowthat you're really recruiting that you're bringing into
your family. UM, it's alot of things, you know, and
and it's it's you gotta you know, you're you're probably in most cases DPR
guy on campus. You're the guythat they want to hear from. Um,
(48:36):
you're the guy that they all Iwant to see. It's it's a
whole lot more than walking out therefor you know, an hour and a
half and doing some layup drills andlaving. It's uh, it's a full
time job. It's a full timejob, but it's it's also one of
the most rewarding jobs I think thatyou could ever have. How much do
(48:59):
you need to reach out throughout thejourney to other coaches and pick their brains
and learn about what they're doing.And who have you reached out to throughout
the years as you've grown as acoach. I've been blessed because I could,
I could call my dad and didI know, particularly early on,
(49:25):
there's a guy at a high schoolcoach named Dad McCluskey at Farrell, Pennsylvania
who was very close with my dad, who when I was at watch,
i'd go, I'd go pick himup and I'd bring he was having a
hard time to see and then Icould get him, bring him to practice.
You'd watch practice, we'd sit andtalk after practice, get a BikeE
(49:49):
to eat, and I take themhome. And those two guys probably had
the most influencing and everything that we'vedone over the years, I'm not been
blessed I mean that for some reason, the older guys have kind of like
me. Al McGuire was phenomenal withme Abelem and Jerry Tarkanian, Pete Noell
(50:13):
coach Iva. You know, thoseguys have been phenomenal to me for and
and it's it really isn't so muchcoaching all the time. It's just you
know, it's about it's about.It's coaching, but it's not on the
floor coaching, just things that letyou sit and talk about. And then
(50:37):
ed Janka because he ran all theNike clinics, and to be able to
sit in a room with Jimmy vor Louis Carnaseka and Diggert Felps and so
forth and so on as a youngguy and just kind of sit over in
a corner and listen and learn wasphenomenal for me. You know. So
(50:59):
I was able to go in thereon on a Friday and you know,
stay through Sunday, and and Ihave an opportunity to be around the really
the greats that have ever coached thisgame. So I've been blessed. It's
really remarkable. Um. Last questionfor your coach, Um, anyone who's
(51:22):
watched you are on media day,has seen some pretty eclectic outfits, some
outrageous stuff. Um, and they'veall been been great. What's been the
inspiration behind some of your attire?On media day, Bill self, Um,
(51:44):
every every well I wore. Iwore my pull over the first year,
and everybody had a suit and tieon. And I told I was
joking around with him. I said, I'm gonna have to change my attire.
I guess you guys are gonna dresslike you're called the church. And
and so I said, I thinkI'm gonna wearing my letter jacket or my
(52:04):
letter sweater from what I played atWest VIRGINNY. And he'll laugh, I'll
never do that. And so thenext year I wore the letter sweater.
And then it just kind of gotto be kind of a fun thing to
dress a little different dress, dresslike President b one time. Um,
it's kind of neat with the pantswithout the pants to shoes. But both
(52:30):
old dull coach. I know you'veyou've always been a little bit different.
But in terms of the coaching community, the people within it so many respect
you. And when I'd reached outto a few coaches telling them that i'd
be I'd be speaking to you almostevery single one said he's the best.
I mean, that's how they alldescribed you. So um, you are
(52:52):
certainly well respected within the community andum and I really can't thank you enough
for jumping on with me today.Thank you a lot. I appreciate it,
huge, huge thanks to coach BobHuggins, a remarkable coach, one
of the winnings coaches in college basketball, and more than that, a guy
(53:12):
who has really shaped a lot ofyoung men and and and really done tremendous
things that throughout his career, butobviously most notably at Cincinnati and West Virginia.
So I can't appreciate you. Can'tthank Bob Huggins enough for the time
and for the candor today. Again, I'm Adam Stanko. You can catch
(53:34):
me on Twitter at nay Smith Lives. You can catch our podcast at forty
year Coach on Twitter as well,and make sure to subscribe and give us
a review. Tell us what youthink of the podcast. We'd appreciate that.
And of course we also have awebsite forty yearcoach dot com. Check
out our website and it's super helpfulresource to anyone that wants to be involved
(54:00):
in the in the coaching community,or people that already are, so we
appreciate it. UM, thank youso much for listening, and catch you
next time.
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