Huggins Snubbed AGAIN
3 years 8 months ago - 3 years 8 months ago #118
by wvu4u2
Huggins Snubbed AGAIN was created by wvu4u2
Huggins' latest rejection from Hall of Fame is madness
MORGANTOWN — When people refer to March Madness they normally are speaking of the postseason conference tournaments and the NCAA Tournament that follow, but here in Morgantown, it has come to be that March Madness is the annual rejection of Bob Huggins by the Basketball Hall of Fame.For the fourth consecutive year Huggins, who goes for his 900th career victory Thursday morning in the Big 12 Conference Tournament against Oklahoma State, has been rejected without reaching the final ballot.
It just defies belief.The committee picked 14 finalists and they were:Rick Adelman, Leta Andrews, Chris Bosh, Michael Cooper, Yolanda Griffith, Tim Hardaway, Lauren Jackson, Marques Johnson, Paul Pierce, (Coach) Bill Russell, Marianne Stanley, Ben Wallace, Chris Webber and Jay Wright.You might have heard of some of them.OK, that’s an exaggeration. You heard of most of them, but I’m certain you would agree all of them do not have better credentials for the Hall of Fame than the man who sits fourth among active coaches in victories behind Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski, Syracuse’s Jim Boeheim and North Carolina’s Roy Williams.That’s three Hall of Fame coaches...and then comes Huggins.You want credentials?Let’s see...Coach K is a blue blood from Duke, Roy Williams coached at North Carolina and Kansas, Boeheim at Syracuse...all schools where coaches have 5-star players competing with each other for a chance to play at their school.Huggins started at some place called Walsh, moved up to Akron, then went to Cincinnati when they were at a low and rebuilt that program.
He moved for a year to Kansas State, then came home to West Virginia, which had recruited exactly one 5-star recruit until Oscar Tshiebwe came in two years ago for Huggins.Huggins has used straw to build a palace, while others were gilding their arenas — and reputations — in platinum and gold.He only wishes he could live on the sunny side of the street for a while, and he said so on former WVU kicker Pat McAfee’s show the other day.“I would’ve liked to, at some point in my career, been at a place where I could select, like Duke, North Carolina, the blue bloods.
They select who they want. I’d like to try it just once to see how it feels,” he told McAfee.But instead, Huggins had raided the football team at Akron and scoured the junior colleges for talent when he was starting at Cincinnati, actually creating what has become a rush over the years on junior college talent.Oh, they laughed at him at first and criticized him for this and that, whatever they could think of. But then they saw him in the Final Four and saw him coach the nation’s best team with Kenyon Martin, until Martin broke his leg in the Conference USA Tournament. Then they began following his lead.It seems they always are following is lead.For example, remember when coaches wore suits on the sideline.Huggins, soaked through with sweat one day, followed his athletic director’s advice and went to a pullover.
Now how many coaches are wearing them.“I thought this is really what coaches should do,” Huggins said as to why he stayed with it. “I’m not a banker. I’m not a financial analyst. I should wear what I want to wear.”Some have said the pandemic made coaches move in that direction, but Huggins doesn’t agree.“It was just coaches saying, we’re coaches, not businessmen,” he said.Will they stay with it after the pandemic?“Quite frankly, I don’t care,” he said. “That’s up to them. I know I’m comfortable.”But back to the Hall of Fame.To be honest, I’m fed up with the pompousness of what all sports hall of fames have become.As a kid growing up in New York City in the 1950s and 1960s I worshipped at the altar of the Baseball Hall of Fame.
It captured what sports were, open to heroes like Lou Gehrig and rogues like Babe Ruth and Ty Cobb.Now, though, they are running halls of fame without their best players, setting standards their own Congressmen and Congresswomen couldn’t meet. A hall of fame without Pete Rose, Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens isn’t true to the history of the game and the people who gave of themselves so much to play it.And so it is with Bob Huggins and the Hall of Fame.Do they fear him showing up for the induction ceremony in a pullover? They can’t be begrudging him the fact that he has not won a national championship, for they already have let in Lefty Driesell and Eddie Sutton.I’m here to tell you, Bob Huggins is a Hall of Fame coach. There is no reason to have a basketball Hall of Fame if you don’t use it to honor your greatest players and coaches.
see more at Fairmont times
- By Bob Hertzel For the Times West Virginian
MORGANTOWN — When people refer to March Madness they normally are speaking of the postseason conference tournaments and the NCAA Tournament that follow, but here in Morgantown, it has come to be that March Madness is the annual rejection of Bob Huggins by the Basketball Hall of Fame.For the fourth consecutive year Huggins, who goes for his 900th career victory Thursday morning in the Big 12 Conference Tournament against Oklahoma State, has been rejected without reaching the final ballot.
It just defies belief.The committee picked 14 finalists and they were:Rick Adelman, Leta Andrews, Chris Bosh, Michael Cooper, Yolanda Griffith, Tim Hardaway, Lauren Jackson, Marques Johnson, Paul Pierce, (Coach) Bill Russell, Marianne Stanley, Ben Wallace, Chris Webber and Jay Wright.You might have heard of some of them.OK, that’s an exaggeration. You heard of most of them, but I’m certain you would agree all of them do not have better credentials for the Hall of Fame than the man who sits fourth among active coaches in victories behind Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski, Syracuse’s Jim Boeheim and North Carolina’s Roy Williams.That’s three Hall of Fame coaches...and then comes Huggins.You want credentials?Let’s see...Coach K is a blue blood from Duke, Roy Williams coached at North Carolina and Kansas, Boeheim at Syracuse...all schools where coaches have 5-star players competing with each other for a chance to play at their school.Huggins started at some place called Walsh, moved up to Akron, then went to Cincinnati when they were at a low and rebuilt that program.
He moved for a year to Kansas State, then came home to West Virginia, which had recruited exactly one 5-star recruit until Oscar Tshiebwe came in two years ago for Huggins.Huggins has used straw to build a palace, while others were gilding their arenas — and reputations — in platinum and gold.He only wishes he could live on the sunny side of the street for a while, and he said so on former WVU kicker Pat McAfee’s show the other day.“I would’ve liked to, at some point in my career, been at a place where I could select, like Duke, North Carolina, the blue bloods.
They select who they want. I’d like to try it just once to see how it feels,” he told McAfee.But instead, Huggins had raided the football team at Akron and scoured the junior colleges for talent when he was starting at Cincinnati, actually creating what has become a rush over the years on junior college talent.Oh, they laughed at him at first and criticized him for this and that, whatever they could think of. But then they saw him in the Final Four and saw him coach the nation’s best team with Kenyon Martin, until Martin broke his leg in the Conference USA Tournament. Then they began following his lead.It seems they always are following is lead.For example, remember when coaches wore suits on the sideline.Huggins, soaked through with sweat one day, followed his athletic director’s advice and went to a pullover.
Now how many coaches are wearing them.“I thought this is really what coaches should do,” Huggins said as to why he stayed with it. “I’m not a banker. I’m not a financial analyst. I should wear what I want to wear.”Some have said the pandemic made coaches move in that direction, but Huggins doesn’t agree.“It was just coaches saying, we’re coaches, not businessmen,” he said.Will they stay with it after the pandemic?“Quite frankly, I don’t care,” he said. “That’s up to them. I know I’m comfortable.”But back to the Hall of Fame.To be honest, I’m fed up with the pompousness of what all sports hall of fames have become.As a kid growing up in New York City in the 1950s and 1960s I worshipped at the altar of the Baseball Hall of Fame.
It captured what sports were, open to heroes like Lou Gehrig and rogues like Babe Ruth and Ty Cobb.Now, though, they are running halls of fame without their best players, setting standards their own Congressmen and Congresswomen couldn’t meet. A hall of fame without Pete Rose, Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens isn’t true to the history of the game and the people who gave of themselves so much to play it.And so it is with Bob Huggins and the Hall of Fame.Do they fear him showing up for the induction ceremony in a pullover? They can’t be begrudging him the fact that he has not won a national championship, for they already have let in Lefty Driesell and Eddie Sutton.I’m here to tell you, Bob Huggins is a Hall of Fame coach. There is no reason to have a basketball Hall of Fame if you don’t use it to honor your greatest players and coaches.
see more at Fairmont times
Last edit: 3 years 8 months ago by wvu4u2.
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