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Bob Huggins (EX West Virginia Head Coach)

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Canton

2/15/06

Ex-coach inspires Walsh to win

Wednesday, February 15, 2006

[FONT=Verdana, Times New Roman, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]By Andy Call REPOSITORY SPORTS WRITER [/FONT]



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BOB HUGGINS​


NORTH CANTON - Bob Huggins hasn’t forgotten what to say to get a team ready for a game.
The former Walsh University men’s basketball coach was honored at halftime of Tuesday’s game against Ohio Dominican. Walsh Head Coach Jeff Young invited Huggins to speak to his team before the game began.
“I’m thinking about getting him back here to talk to them again Thursday, and maybe Saturday too,” Young said after the Cavaliers rolled to a 92-61 victory.
Huggins, who coached Walsh from 1980-83, is between jobs right now. While that may be unfortunate, both Walsh and the University of Akron have taken the opportunity to honor their former coach this winter. His career record at those two schools and Cincinnati is 567-199 with two losing seasons in 24 years, none in the last 20.
“People at Walsh and Akron have always been supportive,” Huggins said. “This was great tonight. I had a wonderful time here.”
Huggins told the crowd, “My wife, June, says all the time that our years at Walsh were the best time of our lives.”
When Huggins was hired in 1980, the Cavs had compiled losing records 14 times in the previous 16 years. Since Huggins was hired, Walsh has had 23 winning seasons in 25 years.
“You were only here three years, but you created a legacy that has lasted until today,” Walsh President Richard Jusseaume told Huggins.
North Canton Mayor David Held proclaimed Tuesday “Bob Huggins Day.” Huggins was presented a clear trophy with the slogan “Once a Cavalier, Always a Cavalier” as well as an oversized picture of his 1982-83 team that finished 34-1.
That team didn’t win the NAIA national championship, but Huggins played a key role for the 2004-05 team that did. It was Huggins who suggested to troubled post man Robert Whaley that he transfer from Cincinnati to Walsh. Whaley took that advice, turned his life in a positive direction, and was named NAIA Player of the Year while leading the Cavs to the title.
“It wouldn’t have happened without Coach Huggins,” Young said.
Whaley has moved on to the NBA’s Utah Jazz, but there’s obviously still plenty of talent in the cupboard. Walsh (22-6 overall, 13-3 American Mideast Conference) needs just one victory in its final two games to clinch the South Division title and a second consecutive berth in the NAIA national tournament.
When starting center Eder Araujo was saddled with early foul trouble Tuesday, Derek Chappell took over. The 6-foot-4 junior scored a career-high 27 points on 12-for-16 shooting.
“I don’t know what possessed me to go right at the defense like that,” Chappell said. “I do know that, if the guards hit their shots, it really opens up the middle for us.”
The guards did, of course. Corey Jones scored 16 points. Brandon Weems added 11. Point guard Jason Hicks had 12 points, 15 assists and six rebounds.
“I’ve really got to start going after more rebounds,” Hicks joked.
Araujo added 12 points in 12 minutes for Walsh, which led 21-7 after six minutes and by as many as 33 in the second half. During a nine-minute stretch of the second half, the Cavs scored via a 3-point goal or a three-point play nine consecutive times. Haze Massey led Ohio Dominican (12-14, 7-10) with 11 points. “Rob Whaley used to call Coach Huggins at 1 a.m. to tell him about our games,” Chappell recalled. “He was a like a father figure to Rob, and we all learned a lot of respect for Coach Huggins. Today was the first time for most of us to meet him, but I already knew he was a good coach who cared about his players. And we all know about his legacy here.”
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FWIW, the hot rumor or theory about Bob is that he may be going to Pitt. Arizona State will more than likely have a job opening. Jamie Dixon has western ties and he is allegedly ASU's #1 target for a coach. If he goes, then Bob may have a chance for the Pitt job. He has many Pittsburgh connections. Just a thought.
 
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Cincy

2/16/06

Huggins-NCH link speculation

Coach watches team play, and that's all

BY TOM GROESCHEN | ENQUIRER STAFF WRITER
Yes, Bob Huggins has seen O.J. Mayo play several times this season.

No, the former University of Cincinnati coach does not have a secret agreement that Mayo and fellow North College Hill star Bill Walker will join him at his next college basketball coaching job.

"There really isn't anything to say," Huggins told The Enquirer, when asked recently about Mayo and Walker. "The reality is, I just enjoy watching them play. I don't have any kind of itinerary or scheme to see guys play."

Huggins said he will not attend Saturday's game between Oak Hill Academy (Va.) and NCH at U.S. Bank Arena, with the two teams rated Nos. 1-2 nationally by USA Today. Huggins said he plans to attend the NBA All-Star Game weekend in Houston.

That probably won't stop some of the sellout crowd of 16,500 from eyeballing the upper levels of U.S. Bank Arena, swearing they have seen Huggins in a luxury box.

That's the kind of year it has been for Huggins, who has been rumored to be the next coach at West Virginia, Marshall, UNLV, Missouri and now Indiana. Among others.

Many self-anointed college basketball experts, from well-known Web sites to the guy next door, also have proclaimed Mayo and Walker - two of the nation's top-five rated juniors - will follow Huggins wherever the former UC coach next works.

A quote from Mayo helped begin the speculation in August, when Huggins left UC in an acrimonious split with university president Nancy Zimpher.

"I'll still consider them on the top five of my list," Mayo said of the Bearcats.

"But it would make it a little more difficult for me to choose UC, because you'd have a new coach and new relationship, whereas me and Coach Huggins have had a relationship since seventh grade."

Huggins was one of the first college coaches to zero in on Mayo, who first gained celebrity status as a seventh-grader playing varsity basketball in Ashland, Ky.

Huggins might get another college job for the 2006-07 season, but Mayo and Walker will have one more year of high school. Don't forget Keenan Ellis, the 6-foot-11 NCH junior who also might be part of the Mayo-Walker future situation.

Dwaine Barnes, the AAU coach for Mayo and Walker and a driving force behind their success, declines public comment about this and most other topics. Barnes, though, has indicated that Mayo and Walker probably won't make a decision on their basketball futures until after the Ohio state tournament of their senior year, which would be March 2007.

NBA rules stipulate that players must be at least a year out of high school before entering the league. That means Mayo and Walker (and Ellis) might play at least one year of college ball. Their many options also include playing overseas for a year before entering the NBA.

Mayo and Walker won't talk about any of that. They also are not supposed to talk about Oak Hill Academy, under an NCH edict that began last week.

NCH coach Jamie Mahaffey told The Enquirer that he and the players' families decided to keep the Big Three - Mayo, Walker, Ellis - off limits to pregame Oak Hill questions so the players can focus on what is billed as the probable national championship game.

Huggins won't be there, but he has seen plenty of NCH games this season. He attended the Canton McKinley game (at Ohio State) and the Taft game (at Xavier) last month, among others. He also might watch some NCH postseason tournament games, as the Trojans defend their Ohio Division III state title.

"I just think it's great to go watch people like them play," Huggins said of Walker and Mayo. "I just like to see people play with the enthusiasm they do, and their skill level."

Huggins hasn't been the only famous face at NCH games.

University of Kentucky coach Tubby Smith was at the NCH-St. Xavier game at Fairfield in December. Xavier coach Sean Miller was at the Taft-NCH game at Cintas Center last month. More college coaches, including UC assistant Frank Martin, will be at the NCH-Oak Hill game.

But of course, Huggins supposedly already has Mayo and Walker locked up.
"It's just so much rumor," said Alex Meacham, who played for Huggins at UC from 1997-99 and now is a local AAU coach. "Nobody knows what O.J. and Bill will do. I talked to Huggs a couple of weeks ago, and I know you just can't ask him those kind of questions about his future.

"The one thing I've taken from talking to him is that he loves the Midwest, and I think he wants to stay around here. Nobody really knows what he's doing but him, and I don't think even he knows right now."

E-mail [email protected]
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StadiumDorm said:
Please. It's obvious to anyone that Huggins is using his connections with Mayo/Walker to gain leverage for a new job.
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This may be, but I doubt it. Huggins likes the high school game, his daugther use to play with My Cousin when they were in school together and he was at every game unless UC had a game that day.

People want to say what a jerk he is and stuff, but in reality he is one of the nicest guys you will ever meet. He works his ass off in the cincy community doing charity events all the time. he has even continued that work this year dispite not being the coach at UC anymore.

Would he recruit Mayo/Walker where ever he gets a job? Hell Yes. but I would assume that the NCAA would also watch the situation very carefully since it is being publicized so much.
 
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buckeyefool said:
This may be, but I doubt it. Huggins likes the high school game, his daugther use to play with My Cousin when they were in school together and he was at every game unless UC had a game that day.
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He went to every one of his daughter's games that he could? Somehow that doesn't surprise me.

But to be attending quite a few NCH games over the season means that he's either really bored or he's recruiting and gaining leverage for a new job. Me thinks the latter. It's common sense to think that a coach looking for a job, that has connections to the top two recruits for 2007, would want to use it for leverage. So to me it's quite obvious. Huggy Bear can beat around the bush all he wants about it, but that's what is going on.
 
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