BOB HUGGINS
MORGANTOWN – As Josh Eilert was introduced as West Virginia’s interim basketball coach on Monday, a strange thought crossed my mind, which I might add is not necessarily a strange occurrence.
For some reason, it popped into my head like one of those TV breaking news scrolls at the bottom of the screen:
West Virginia 65, Pitt 63… Bob Huggins statue put on hold… Texas 78, Oklahoma 58…
I don’t know where it came from, but somehow it was fitting for a day when honoring Bob Huggins thought he was the furthest thing from people’s minds, was a topic of discussion during the press conference .
Now we knew we couldn’t avoid Huggins, whose recent transgressions had opened up the job, but we weren’t thinking along those lines.
It was more in terms of whether or not Huggins would attend WVU games this year or if it would be some kind of distraction for Huggins. This felt like it needed to be addressed.
But there came a time when he wondered if, indeed, the time might come when Huggins could be honored for all he had done for his alma mater as a player, as a coach, as an ambassador, as a fundraiser of university funds. and as an angel behind efforts to create a regional cancer center here.
Could this really happen?
Eilert admitted he believed he could.
“Let’s move on,” he said. “Time heals everything. There will be a time when we take his legacy — his 16 years here — and really celebrate it. He’s been an important and influential part of my life and that’s not going to change.”
First, however, we must overcome the present. Eilert spoke with Huggins on Sunday morning.
“It just sounded peaceful,” Eilert said. “He talked about the day before about all the bass he caught in the lake. He has time to reflect and do some things. I know he’s very remorseful for what happened last month. He owns those mistakes.”
If social media is any way to judge it, and it helps if that’s where we need to go to figure out right from wrong, WVU fans stand behind Huggins. While some think it should simply evaporate, many more believe it should be forgiven over time and never forgotten.
This puts enormous pressure on Eilert, but was expected to be mentioned since he took office.
“Anyone who had to take on that role was going to feel a lot of pressure,” he said.
If he was an outsider, someone with no real connection to Huggins, he might have been less than a man he brought into the program and spent 16 years serving under him.
But what happens the first time Huggins steps into the Coliseum to play?
One can only imagine the reception. Be that as it may, it’s for bigger minds than you’ll find writing or reading this, but the reality is that the Coliseum is going to go crazy.
But what can you do? Ban him from the Coliseum? Hardly
Athletic director Wren Baker knows this.
“I don’t think I would ever say, ‘Hey, you’ve got to stay away,”’ Baker said. “When you have someone like that who the fans love and are passionate about, that’s not the right way to go.”
But having a “Bob Huggins Night” or naming the court after Huggins, which has been mentioned…well, that’s not the right course of action right now.
Now it’s Eilert’s show and he needs no distractions.
“I think with Josh being the interim coach, I know he cares a lot about Josh and he’s going to want to do nothing but support Josh and let him be the head coach and not feel like there’s a legend watching over him from his shoulder.” Baker said.
“I don’t think anybody needs to have a conversation with him about it. He’s been training a long time and he understands that and he wants Josh to succeed. There hasn’t been, and there wouldn’t be, any requirement from me over a period of time like this”.
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