WVU Basketball

Bob Huggins-coached teams have a long history of being knocked out of the NCAA tournament by higher-seeded teams.

Well, the West Virginia coach has an idea that could stop that from happening: get rid of Cinderellas entirely. 

Huggins suggested major conference teams extract themselves from the NCAA tournament and create an event of their own while speaking Wednesday at Big 12 media day. 

"They're doing it in football," Huggins said, per Myron Medcalf of ESPN. "Why wouldn't they do it? The presidents and athletic directors that have all the juice, why wouldn't they do it? Makes no sense why they wouldn't do it. I think it's more 'Why wouldn't they?' than 'Why would they?' And then, the other people, they can have their own tournament."

Let's start out with the fact that Huggins' basic premise is flawed. The College Football Playoff is currently considering expansion that would make it more likely—not less so—that a non-Power Five school makes the tournament. Expanding the playoffs would offer non-power schools their best shot at competing for a national title in decades.

Furthermore, the gap between major conference teams in football is exponentially higher than in basketball. Division 1 college football teams can give out 85 scholarships, compared with 13 basketball scholarships. There is also the matter of the NBA's one-and-done rule making things more difficult for higher-level basketball programs. Alabama football can hoard a never-ending assembly line of 5-star recruits that have been in Nick Saban's system years before getting significant playing time. John Calipari has a whole new starting five every season at Kentucky.

The most experienced teams in March tend to be mid-majors that can strike fear into talented-but-young major programs. Huggins-coached teams have been knocked out in the first weekend of the NCAA tournament 16 times in his 25 appearances. Since becoming a "major conference" coach at West Virginia, Huggins has lost in the first weekend to a non-power team on three occasions.

This certainly isn't an argument about competitive balance. 

Huggins' argument seems to be about money: "Those Cinderella schools are putting 200 people, at best, in their gym. We're putting 14,000."

College basketball makes the overwhelming majority of its money via the NCAA Tournament, in large part because fans love its novelty and television networks value three weeks' worth of highly watched television. Stripping it down and creating something that is unlikely to attract as many fans—particularly casuals who adore Cinderellas—seems more likely to lose the schools money, rather than creating some financial bonanza. 

West Virginia men's basketball head coach Bob Huggins has agreed to a two-year contract extension that will keep him in Morgantown through the 2023-24 season. The school announced the news Friday.

Huggins also has the option to continue coaching or lengthen his relationship with WVU through June 30, 2027.

Huggins will receive an annualized salary of $4.2 million for each of his remaining seasons as head coach, and all of the revenue will be generated by the athletics department ($250,000 in base pay, rest in supplemental pay). In addition, Huggins can earn annual performance incentives.

He will also get Emeritus status within the athletic department after he finishes as head coach, per the program's official website:

Huggins could defer his term of Emeritus status and continue to serve as head coach beyond the 2023-24 season with an annual mutual agreement between Huggins and the director of athletics on or before May 1, 2023, and each subsequent May 1 thereafter. His Emeritus status would continue for not less than two fiscal years through at least June 30, 2027. If Huggins continues to coach beyond June 30, 2027, he will have a minimum of two fiscal years of Emeritus status.

The 67-year-old Huggins has 900 head-coaching wins on his resume. He's been with West Virginia since 2007-08 and has led the Mountaineers to the NCAA tournament in all but three of his seasons. Huggins led West Virginia to the Final Four in 2010.

Huggins was previously a head coach at Walsh College (1980-83), Akron (1984-89), Cincinnati (1989-05) and Kansas State (2006-07).

He notably led Cincinnati to the NCAA tournament from 1991-92 to 2004-05, guiding the Bearcats to the Final Four in 1992.

Last year's Mountaineers team went 19-10. It earned a No. 3 seed in the NCAA tournament before losing to No. 11 Syracuse in the round of 32. West Virginia's first-round win over No. 14 Morehead State was the 900th of Huggins' career.

West Virginia's Miles McBride hit a runner with 5.9 seconds left to push the No. 11 West Virginia Mountaineers over the No. 10 Texas Tech Red Raiders 88-87 on Monday.

Texas Tech standout Mac McClung dropped 24 of his season-high 30 points in the second half, but he missed a potential game-winner at the buzzer.

McBride picked up 24 points, but he had to do some heavy lifting after West Virginia lost a 10-point lead late in the first half, failing to score in the last 3:51. The Red Raiders built a 73-61 lead on McClung's jumper with 7:53 to play, but McBride outscored Texas Tech 17-14 to help the Mountaineers finish on a 27-14 run.

The sophomore hit seven of his 12 shots from the field, including three of four from three and seven of eight from the line, adding six assists to lead both teams. McClung went 11-of-21 from the field, including four of eight from deep, and hit all but one of his five free throws.

Texas Tech shot 46.6 percent overall and made nine of 22 threes (40.9 percent). West Virginia committed 12 turnovers to the Red Raiders' two but shot 57.7 percent from the field and an impressive 63.2 percent (12-of-19) from beyond the arc.

Both teams will be back in action Saturday. Texas Tech will travel to LSU, while the Mountaineers will host Florida.

The West Virginia men's basketball team will be without one of its starters for the rest of the year with forward Oscar Tshiebwe stepping away from the program for personal reasons, per Jeff Borzello of ESPN.

Mountaineers head coach Bob Huggins said Friday there was no chance he returns this season, and it didn't catch him by surprise, via Anjelica Trinone of Gold and Blue Nation.

"Oscar has our full support, and we certainly wish him the best during this time," Huggins said.

The sophomore is averaging 8.5 points and 7.8 rebounds in 10 games to begin the 2020-21 season.

Tshiebwe was even better as a freshman, averaging 11.2 points, 9.3 rebounds and 1.0 blocks per game while leading the team in all three categories. He was selected to the Big 12 All-Freshman team and was named second-team all-conference.

The production was enough for him to consider declaring for the 2020 NBA draft, but he withdrew his name and returned to school.

The Congo native has seen a smaller role this season, ranking fifth on the team in scoring.

It has worked for West Virginia, which is currently ranked ninth in the country and is 8-2 going into Saturday's game against Oklahoma. Missing Tshiebwe is significant, however, with depth becoming an even bigger factor after losing highly touted freshman Isaiah Cottrell to a torn Achilles.

Derek Culver will take on a bigger role in the post with Gabe Osabuohien potentially getting more playing time.

West Virginia will replace Tennessee in the men's basketball Jimmy V Classic on Dec. 2 after the Volunteers had a COVID-19 breakout at the school, per Jeff Borzello of ESPN, which included a positive test result for head coach Rick Barnes.

The No. 15 Mountaineers will face preseason No. 1 Gonzaga. 

The other game in the Jimmy V Classic will see No. 2 Baylor take on No. 8 Illinois that same day.

West Virginia will open its season on Wednesday night against South Dakota State at the Bad Boy Mowers Crossover Classic in South Dakota. As for Gonzaga swapping out Tennessee with West Virginia, the Bulldogs will still face a difficult stretch to start the season, with four top-15 teams—No. 6 Kansas, West Virginia, Baylor and No. 5 Iowa—on deck.

"It's kind of what we've always tried to do here," Gonzaga head coach Mark Few said regarding the tough early slate. "This year, it becomes even more special, seeking out these high-profile games, trying to make it as special as I can for my players. Games they're really excited to play."

Tennessee, meanwhile, became the latest team to have to cancel or postpone an early-season game due to the coronavirus in what has already become a tumultuous start to the 2020-21 season.

The Volunteers also canceled scheduled games against Charlotte and VCU this week. A Dec. 4 game against Notre Dame that was being discussed as a potential matchup has also been canned.

The team said in a statement: "Barring additional setbacks, the program aims to return to action on Saturday, Dec. 5, with its first game currently set for Dec. 12 against Cincinnati at Thompson-Boling Arena. Head coach Rick Barnes, who has been diagnosed with the virus and is in isolation at his home, is experiencing very mild symptoms but is generally feeling well."

The Big 12 conference fined West Virginia head coach Bob Huggins $10,000 for his comments about the officials after last Saturday's loss to Kansas, per the Associated Press. 

"I can't control what those three blind mice running around out there do," Huggins said after the 60-53 loss.

"Coach Huggins' comments following the West Virginia vs. Kansas basketball game violate the Big 12 Conference's sportsmanship policy," Commissioner Bob Bowlsby said in a statement. "Because this is Coach Huggins' third such incident, a public reprimand and a fine of $10,000 is appropriate."

Fouls were called relatively evenly during the game, with Kansas called for 19 fouls and West Virginia whistled 18 times.

Though the Jayhawks held a 30-22 edge in free-throw attempts, six of those came in the final minute as they attempted to hold onto the lead.

Despite the numbers, Huggins wasn't happy with the officiating after the game.

"What we all would love to see is consistency," he said, per Chris Anderson of 247Sports. "Foul there. Foul here. I understand it's a hard job, but they do get paid pretty handsomely for it. Just be consistent. What's a foul here is a foul there."

Huggins has turned things around for the Mountaineers in 2019-20, leading the team to a 12-2 start to the season to put the team No. 17 in the latest AP poll. It comes after a disappointing 15-21 season in 2018-19, ending a stretch of four straight years in the NCAA tournament.

No. 16 West Virginia led late at Allen Fieldhouse as head coach Bob Huggins searched for his first win in the historic building. History just wasn't on his side Saturday as the Mountaineers fell 60-53 to the No. 3 Kansas Jayhawks.

Neither were the officials, according to the coach. 

Huggins blasted the referees in his team's Big 12 opener, telling reporters he "can't control what those three blind mice running around out there do."

West Virginia finished with 18 fouls, while Kansas was called for 19. 

Huggins didn't point to specific calls postgame, and he didn't use the officiating to absolve his team from blowing a 10-point first-half lead—rather it was the consistency of the fouls that drew his ire. 

"You got one guy who thinks it's a foul, but another guy that doesn't think it's a foul," Huggins said in his press conference after the loss. "So you say, 'Why are you calling it this way on one end and another way on the other end,' and he says, 'I'm not.' And he's not lying. That's the difficult part, I think."

This isn't the first time Huggins has been critical of the officiating at Allen Fieldhouse. He was publicly reprimanded by the Big 12 for complaining about the referees in 2018 and may get a similar punishment, if not an additional fine, for Saturday's comments.

Making his points more interesting is how much fouling played into WVU's game plan. The Mountaineers were extremely cautious of letting Udoka Azubuike get the ball around the rim and routinely put him on the line, where his free-throw percentage hovers around 30 percent.

It didn't have the desired effect. The senior center went 5-of-10 at the line to go with a perfect 6-of-6 from the field. Azubuike tied for a game-high 17 points and grabbed 11 rebounds.

Overall, Kansas shot 30 free throws, while West Virginia attempted 22. 

The Jayhawks will travel to Morgantown for a rematch February 12.