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West Virginia basketball coach Bob Huggins joined elite company Saturday when the Mountaineers dominated UMKC 112-67 for his 800th career victory.
Huggins is the 10th men's basketball coach to win at least 800 games.
Huggins' career as a head coach began in 1980 at Walsh College, but it wasn't until 1984 when he got his first crack at a Division I job with Akron. He was with the Zips for five seasons, leading the program to its first NCAA tournament appearance in 1986.
Prior to Saturday's game, Huggins said the significance of his impending accomplishment hadn't hit him.
"I don't know if it's sunk in," he said, per the Associated Press (via ESPN.com). "I really don't think about the past. I try to live in the present."
The AP noted that among coaches with at least 10 years of Division I experience Rollie Massimino joined the 800-win club Wednesday with Keiser in the NAIA. Meanwhile, North Carolina head coach Roy Williams is just seven wins from the milestone.
Huggins' greatest success as a head coach came at the University of Cincinnati, where he spent 16 seasons from 1989-2005. He led the Bearcats to the Final Four in 1992 and made the NCAA tournament in each of his last 14 years with the program.
West Virginia hired Huggins prior to the 2007-08 season. He helped return the Mountaineers into national prominence with seven NCAA tournament appearances in his first nine seasons, including a trip to the Final Four in 2010 and Sweet Sixteen runs in 2008 and 2015.
At 63 years old, Huggins figures to have several years of high-quality coaching ahead of him. While it would likely take at least another decade, 1,000 wins isn't out of the question.
After opening the season with a sloppy victory against Bryant University, Connecticut basketball is scheduled to play more challenging opponents in the Puerto Rico Tip-Off Tournament this week. Senior captain Ryan Boatright, who poured in 24 points in the season opener, will look to lead the Huskies past the College of Charleston on Thursday afternoon. If victorious, UConn will move on to play either Dayton or Texas A&M.
Should they move on to the winner’s bracket, the 17th-ranked Huskies have a chance to meet New Mexico, Boston College, George Mason, or West Virginia. Let’s explore the team’s strengths, what challenges it will face, which potential opponents pose the biggest threat to its success and, finally, what it must do in order to bring home some hardware in the early-season tournament.
The strength of this season’s Huskies squad lies in its backcourt depth. Boatright is joined by transfer Sam Cassell Jr. (son of the former NBA veteran), former five-star recruit Rodney Purvis (after he sat out last season due to NCAA rules after transferring from North Carolina State), returning players Terrence Samuel and Omar Calhoun and freshman Daniel Hamilton (who has NBA potential).
The loss of leader Shabazz Napier—who graduated and now plays for the Miami Heat—will certainly be felt, but Boatright will be leaned on heavily this season to become the next go-to scorer (especially in late-game situations). However, it will be Purvis who will make the largest impact and determine how far this team gets in March.
A former McDonald’s All-American player in high school, Purvis chose to play for Mark Gottfried at North Carolina State (where he averaged 8.3 points in 25.6 minutes per game). Apparently this was not sufficient for the highly-touted guard. He bolted after just one season, choosing to transfer to Connecticut, which was the program he didn’t choose back in 2011 when he cut his choices down to the final two schools on his list.
Purvis explained, via Dom Amore of the Hartford Courant, that N.C. State was simply not the right fit, and that he was excited about his future at the University of Connecticut. “At the end of the day, it’s about what’s best for you and your family,” Purvis noted. “My ultimate goal is to play at the next level, and I felt at UConn I will be able to show my skills and get to that level whenever the time is right.”
An extremely gifted scorer, Purvis will make his long-awaited debut on Thursday against the College of Charleston, after sitting out the first game due a suspension for playing too many summer-league games.
Rebounding, rebounding, rebounding. This is the team’s major challenge for the second straight season. Despite cutting down the nets last year, the Huskies were among the worst rebounding teams in the country. They averaged 35.4 boards per game, which ranked 149th in the NCAA. With a somewhat thin frontcourt rotation, Connecticut will rely on a pair of sophomores to dominate the glass this season.
Kentan Facey turned in a standout performance in the season opener, bringing down 11 rebounds in the victory over Bryant. He showed an ability to rebound the basketball last season in his limited time on the court, but now that he is in a starting role with more minutes available, the Huskies will rely on his length and athleticism—especially on the defensive end.
Amida Brimah, a lanky 7’0" center, showed that he was particularly effective in the defensive paint last season. His ability to redirect and block shots is noted, but he needs to improve his rebounding numbers from just 3.0 per game last season. As Charles Barkley has often quipped, rebounding is all about wanting the ball and showing tenaciousness in pursuit of it. Last season’s team lacked that ability. Wins will come easier to this year’s squad if it is hungry for the ball off of the rim.
Connecticut will struggle when defending strong, physical, productive big men in the paint. As noted, Brimah is very lanky and (despite his size) can be easily pushed around by a slightly shorter, bulkier opponent. Bob Huggins’ West Virginia Mountaineers have two of those types of forwards in Devin Williams and Jonathan Holton. Through the first two games, Williams averaged 15 points and 13 rebounds per game, while Holton averaged 10 points and 11 rebounds.
Add in productive guards Juwan Staten and Jaysean Paige, and West Virginia might have what it takes to knock off the defending national champions (should they square off at some point).
To top it off, Dom Amore of the Hartford Courant wrote an entertaining column on Wednesday that detailed the fact that Ryan Boatright committed to West Virginia and Huggins four years ago. However, when Boatright and his family found out Huggins was also recruiting guard Jabarie Hinds, they became furious. This led to Boatright decommitting and ending up at UConn. That should lead to quite an interesting narrative, should the matchup occur.
The Huskies may also have a hard time with a potential second-round opponent in Texas A&M (a team that pulled down 52 team rebounds in its season opener).
However, fully expect Connecticut to succeed in this tournament and win it all. Its backcourt depth and skill, combined with its winning culture, should give it the edge against any potential opponents in the field. Despite Connecticut's past struggles in rebounding the basketball, coach Kevin Ollie should guide this team to it’s first championship of the 2014-2015 season. Who knows—this may not be the only championship that this talented group wins.
West Virginia's balance sheet is ugly and it probably won't get any better in the near future despite joining the Big 12. What's that, you say? How can that be?
According to Register-Herald reporter Mickey Furfari, the school's athletic department is in debt close to $13 million. More:
That could have been almost $16.5 million if the WVU Foundation hadn’t seen fit to hand over to athletics a “gift” of $3.5 million.
According to the report, the department received a revenue of $80,064,869.86 and expenses also set an all-time record of $92,968,426.76.
Let's start off with some stuff that put West Virginia in the hole in the first place—a $20 million exit fee from the Big East.
West Virginia doesn't have to repay half of the $10 million loan it received from the Big 12 until 2016 but in the mean time, it also won't be receiving its full share of the Big 12's revenue. More from The West Virginia Gazette's Dave Hickman:
West Virginia, of course, won't receive any of that revenue sharing this year. The Mountaineers' share of revenue from its current league, the Big East, is expected to be in the $9 million range and that will be withheld as per the $20 million deal cut to allow WVU to leave the conference and join the Big 12 after June 30.
West Virginia was included in the Big 12's 2011-12 bookkeeping, however. That's because the school received $10 million in the form of a loan to help pay the settlement with the Big East. As reported back in February, the Big 12 gave the money to WVU with half to be repaid with interest and the other half to be forgiven.
That interest will be between 2 and 3 percent and the school will begin repaying the $5 million in annual $1 million installments in 2016, the first year WVU is fully vested in the league.
Until that time, WVU will get partial shares of Big 12 revenue sharing - a 50 percent share in 2012-13, rising to 67 percent the next year, then 85 percent and a full 100 percent in 2015-16.
Coaching salaries also contributed to the increased spending. Furfari noted some steep increases in salaries:
Despite the red ink, WVU does not plan to stop any athletic renovation projects, institute any pay freezes or cuts or lower operating expenses during the next few years.
It is interesting to note that the university gave recent pay raises to Luck, head football coach Dana Holgorsen and head men’s basketball coach Bob Huggins.
Luck’s base salary was bumped from $390,000 annually to $550,000, plus incentives.
Holgorsen, who was hired by Luck, now is to be paid $2.5 million this year. He was making $1.65 million.
Huggins’ base pay became $3 million in a new contract extension last November. He was making $2.3 million to $2.7 million, plus incentives.
There's some little stuff that adds to the debt—like settling with Florida State for $500,000 after the scheduled series was canceled. There's also some bigger stuff in the future that will impact the school's ability to lower its debt—this season (and in 2015) the Mountaineers only host four conference games in Morgantown.
Now for some good news.
The Big 12, as a whole, looks very lucrative for its members—while West Virginia will face some tough years ahead, it'll still end up with deeper pockets in a few years.
While the Big 12 did finish finish fifth in Forbes' ten most valuable conferences, it should be noted that the Big 12's per-school payout is higher than all conference teams. Because the Big 12 only has 10 schools to divide up a $262 million pot, while its pot is smaller than the Big Ten's $310 million, the payout is larger. From Forbes:
By contrast, the ACC and Big 12 each signed new TV deals within the last year that pay more per member school than the SEC’s ($17 million and $20 million, respectively, compared to $15 million). In fact, the Big 12 jumps to the top of the list when measured in terms of per-school income from television, bowls and the NCAA tournament. You might be hard pressed to find someone who thinks that either the ACC or Big 12 is truly more valuable than the SEC, but the two conferences are currently paid as if that’s the case.
Hickman notes that the expected payout share from the Big East to West Virginia would have been around $9 million had it not left the conference—that payout will instead be held to go toward paying the school's exit fee. But had West Virginia been fully vested as a Big 12 member, it would have received around a $26.2 million share of the conference's revenue.
West Virginia's new home in the Big 12 is a money pit at the moment but it will also incur another higher cost which will add to its debt—bigger travel expenses.
We should expect to see local FCS and lower-tiered FBS teams consistently pop up on its non-conference schedule in the near future—the exception will be a scheduled opening weekend contest against Alabama (in Atlanta) in 2014.
William & Mary (FCS), Georgia State (Sun Belt), Liberty (FCS) and Towson (FCS) are all slated as future Mountaineer opponents and while most football fans roll their eyes over cupcake schedules, they might want to bite their tongues and at least give the school a golf clap for showing some fiscal responsibility.
Those games (including beer sales revenue) should bring in at least $2 million per game. So while West Virginia is floating in debt, its future looks bright with the Big 12 staying at its current 10-school membership.
If the conference expands, the pot will be bigger but the payouts per school will diminish. And if that happens without a new television deal in place, we may have to revisit the ledger books at West Virginia.
The second-ranked Kansas Jayhawks (18-1) appear to be nearly flawless. They rebound well, have good interior defense, shoot well and get up and down the floor quickly. Their lone loss this season came against a ranked Michigan State team.
By three.
Although it may appear to be an uphill battle, the West Virginia Mountaineers (9-10) are upset-minded as the Jayhawks invade Morgantown tonight. The Mountaineers have a duo of players who could cause major problems for the heavily favored Jayhawks.
West Virginia more than likely won't have any success moving the ball inside and trying to score on the interior. Jayhawk seven-footer Jeff Withey is averaging over four blocks a game and won't be allowing any Mountaineer movement near the hoop. The Mountaineers will likely be using outside shooting as their "sling" to bring down the Goliath in Kansas.
Eron Harris is one of West Virginia's leaders from the perimeter.
Harris, a true freshman out of the Hoosier state, is shooting 42 percent from beyond the arc this season and 46 percent from the floor. When he makes his outside shots, the Kansas defense will be forced to spread out and will open the interior for better WVU shots. This will be crucial for West Virginia to succeed in tonight's Big 12 matchup.
Sophomore guard Juwan Staten, the team's leader in assists, also needs to have a huge game in order for West Virginia to be able to compete with and beat the Jayhawks.
Staten is currently averaging 3.1 assists per game and his ability to find the open man will be crucial in order to soften the stifling Jayhawks defense. Although he's in a shooting and scoring slump, is still one of the team's co-leaders in points per game. Driving and dishing will be a must for him and the Mountaineers in their attempt to knock off one of the most dominant programs in the nation.
Coming off of an embarrassing 14 point loss in Stillwater against Oklahoma State, and having lost four of their last five, tonight's game is a great chance for Bob Huggins' squad to redeem themselves and get back on track in Big 12 play. West Virginia has lost four games by a combined 10 points; it's been a season of near-misses for Morgantown's Mountaineers. A win tonight against a formidable foe would certainly help ease the pain of West Virginia's regular season.
