Huggins, after the game.

[HititHard]

I met Huggins by happenstance a few years ago and had a brief conversation. I happened to be wearing ISU gear and he was nothing but complimentary and my impression of him was very positive.
I can see how his on the court and press conference style ruffle some people's feathers but honesty even brutal honesty is a measure of kindness. People need to know where they stand especially when their performance is substandard.
I turned to my wife midway through the first half and said McNeil puts up absolutely zero resistance. When TJ shows IB at halftime he is going to go off in the second half. The mistakes WVU made down the stretch were absolutely unforgivable (I'd get after my 6th grade granddaughter if she got trapped in the corner or threw a lazy inbound pass under the bucket. Because she knows better.) Everything coach Huggins said was accurate and if the roles were reversed and TJ didn't say anything post game I'd be disappointed.

 

[cyfanatic]

Of the "legendary" coaches still in the business (and I don't know any of them on a personal level) I would rather play for Huggins than for Coach K. This is based solely on watching them coach on TV and reading about college basketball over the years. I might have said Izzo a couple years ago but he seems to be losing a bit of what I used to think made him so great. Izzo is still a great coach...just different than he used to be. Roy W is retired but I would play for Huggins any day over Roy!

 

[CRCySpy]

In the first minute, or so, of that postgame video with the writers. He says it was a difficult game to play because of all of the whistles and stoppages. That is like every game for WVU. He should be used to this by now. WVU games last 2.5 hours, 3 if they go to overtime.

That is his style of basketball. Every defensive possession. hand check, hand check, hand check the offense and dare the refs to call them all. A good O/U for fouls in a WVU game is 50.

 

[AuH2O]

Bruh, whenever you point a finger, there are three pointing right back at YOU.

Marge needs to nut up and take the blame for the players not doing what he said they should do. That's on him. That's why he's being paid the big bucks, to make sure he has players who follow through on his commands.

You do that job long enough you are going to have guys that don't click together as a team or with you as coach and what you want to do. Almost every year of his career he's had guys with decent talent become really good teams that play their asses off.

WVU over the years has driven me crazy watching them and their style, but I can't help but respect how guys like Jevon Carter play. I'm not a fan of the "can't call them all" approach, but the relentless effort is something to behold that I greatly appreciate it. It's probably why this may be my favorite ISU team of all time. We've got some real bulldogs on this team like Brockington, Kalscheur and Hunter that just don't quit.

 

[srjclone]

Huggy said the Cyclones went at the same player every time because "some guys don't play defense" and "they watch tape".

Which one of his players is he talking about?

The one that Zay kept torching, then immediately looking at the WVU bench with a look of "you still have this dude on me??"

 

[Mr Janny]

He has some great moments in his career, no doubt, but it's been a while since he's done a whole lot worthy of being considered an elite coach, in my opinion. Good coach? Sure. Maybe even great, considering the places he's coached . But he hasn't made it out of the sweet 16 in over a decade. And West Virginia is still a school with good basketball history in a power conference. His overall track record as a coach is very impressive, but it hasn't been quite as impressive since the 2009 season.

 

[Peter]

The old school authoritarian coach thing doesn’t work well these days. WV’s decline over the last decade proves that.

 

[Drew0311]

I for one hate coach speak. However, the reason coaches do coach speak is because if they are honest like Huggins, everyone takes it the wrong way. I don't know why everyone get's up in arms when a coach is just flat out honest and says "well I told my players to do this and they didn't". I like that much more than "our team needs to work on some things so we will get back to work". Like yeah we know you need to get back to work.

I have never disliked Huggins. He is a winner. He wins everywhere. Not a guy I would probably hang out with or be friends with but I respect his coaching abilities and his honesty.

 

[cycloneML]

His time is done.
I have no idea how he gets young men to even want to join his team with that attitude.
I'm guessing it is just the recruits' parents who knew him from the old days and talk the kids into it.

Dude go to YouTube and pull up the video of him embracing a hurt player while laying in the court. He has no trouble getting guys to play for him.

 

[jsb]

Most of you are too young to remember this but we played huggin’s cinnci team in 1999. They were ranked high that year. We were, of course, breaking in tinsley and had just lost to Drake. We played cinnci close that game and after the game Huggins just went over to Pete and Eric and talked to them on the radio for quite a while. He had nice things to say. Of course, we only lost 3 more times that year. Huggins either got fired or in trouble due to drinking.

 

[Gossamer]

Bruh, whenever you point a finger, there are three pointing right back at YOU.

Marge needs to nut up and take the blame for the players not doing what he said they should do. That's on him. That's why he's being paid the big bucks, to make sure he has players who follow through on his commands.

we're not bruhs...and you're wrong, he can only coach...he's not a player, so if he did in fact tell someone to do something and they didn't do it, then it's ok to call them out.

 

[Neptune78]

The one that Zay kept torching, then immediately looking at the WVU bench with a look of "you still have this dude on me??"

McNeil was not good, but then again, IZB tourched a number of guys WV put on him.

 

[moores2]

In the first in bounds play that led to a trap and TO, you could see the WVU player who called the TO visibly upset about something (both hands on head, looking shocked) and this must be what he was upset about. Couldn’t believe they let us trap them on the corner off an inbounds

He was saying that he didn't call timeout. Ref might have jumped the gun thinking he did.

 

[Bestaluckcy]

In the first minute, or so, of that postgame video with the writers. He says it was a difficult game to play because of all of the whistles and stoppages. That is like every game for WVU. He should be used to this by now. WVU games last 2.5 hours, 3 if they go to overtime.

That is his style of basketball. Every defensive possession. hand check, hand check, hand check the offense and dare the refs to call them all. A good O/U for fouls in a WVU game is 50.

Huggins wants to play last nights style without the whistles and stoppages. In other words he wants the refs to blatantly disregard the rules, which then works to WVU favor. Glad at least some of it was called. Not my brand of basketball. Don’t think it plays well against great teams like KU either.

 

[8bitnes]

Man he just looks defeated and tired out in this interview

Three games in five days. Saturday at home, Monday at fort worth, Wednesday at Ames. That's a rough stretch for professionals, rougher for college students, and especially tough on people in poor health

 

[BillBrasky4Cy]

I like Huggins too. For the most part over the years his players have loved him. Guess what, you talk about doing basic stuff and you don't do it, that's why you lost. Not sure you need to say it any other way.

You have to appreciate his approach. He doesn't typically land a bunch of highly recruited kids. He has a type and if you aren't willing to put in the work don't even consider playing for him.

 

[8bitnes]

He’s frustrated, they have blown some leads lately.

Frankly it seems less throwing guys under the bus than saying they didn’t work hard enough.

4 halftime leads in a row and another earlier in the season

 

[MushroomPinball]

Most of you are too young to remember this but we played huggin’s cinnci team in 1999. They were ranked high that year. We were, of course, breaking in tinsley and had just lost to Drake. We played cinnci close that game and after the game Huggins just went over to Pete and Eric and talked to them on the radio for quite a while. He had nice things to say. Of course, we only lost 3 more times that year. Huggins either got fired or in trouble due to drinking.

We talk a lot about Georges breaking his foot in 2014, but that Cincinnati team would have gone further in the tournament had Kenyon Martin not gotten injured in the conference tournament.

 

[Cyclonepride]

I didn't record the game but my wife said at the beginning of the game they interviewed him and he has some really good things to say about TJ?

The announcers said that Huggins told them that TJ would be in a Final Four, that's just young and hasn't been around long enough to do that

 

[Cloneon]

Here are additional post game comments from Huggins that I posted in another thread last night:

"We didn't do what I asked them to do twice. I told them not to run the corner and get trapped. They never did anything I've asked them to do. I've tried to cover and cover and cover for guys. I'm tired of...My guys before were afraid of not doing what I asked them to do because they knew they would never play again."

"When you compete that hard, you ought to win. When you call a timeout to tell them what to do, you ought to win."

"I don't know what to say. The truth of the matter is, you let your team down by not doing of the right thing. You let the thousands of Mountaineer fans down that wanted to see us win."

"We come out of the huddle with do you know what you're doing? Do you know where you're supposed to be? It's frustrating."

"We don't do what we're asked to do. We have guys who have their own agendas."

To be fair ( living in WV, I get the news from everyone around me) the Huggie we're used to seeing has been behind his players the whole year by taking the blame himself. This is the first I've heard him chastise his players. Actually, he's not chastising all of them, but is generalizing to save embarrassing a few.