Published: March 10, 2008 11:43 pm            

Welcome to‘Huggs Town’

Don’t expect any cuddles here

"Huggs Town” ... sounds like a preschool where a caring staff affectionately doles out hugs as a form of positive behavior reinforcement. Or maybe a stuffed animal factory that produces cuddly teddy bears. Or maybe not.

You’ve seen the slogan on T-shirts, “Welcome to Huggs Town” they say. But what exactly is Huggs Town, and more importantly, who is in charge of the place?

Any Mountaineer basketball fan worth his weight in salt can describe the sense of uncertainty felt with the addition of the new head coach, Bob Huggins, this past basketball season.

Huggins was well-qualified for the job, averaging 25.6 wins a season over the last 15 years, but the recent desertion of the former coach had people uncertain as to what to expect. He tried to make it clear in his press conference that he came back to West Virginia because he “wanted” to be here, something recent coaches have seemed to lack in the athletic realm. Huggins was born in Morgantown and played at West Virginia University from 1975 to ’77, so he seemed like the type of guy who planned on sticking around.

“It sounds like he is going to stay, and I hope he does,” commented East Fairmont High School junior Nicole Everson, “but, sadly, contracts do not mean anything anymore.”

Nearly everything about the new coach is a dramatic change from last year — the style of play right down to his very gold shoes. All aspects of a person, including his clothing choices, determine how he will be accepted, and high school students are as much involved with Huggins’ reputation as anyone else in and around the state.

His style of play differs greatly from Beilein’s precision offense. In its place is a more “in your face” kind of basketball that takes certain players to perform.

“I like the more aggressive play,” observed varsity basketball starting guard Nick Bonnett. “It’s what basketball is now, not that Beilein’s was bad. But look at Michigan’s record this year.” The bigger, faster, stronger athletes idea sounds great, but this year’s recruits weren’t exactly made for it.

“We’ve got some decent athletes,” Huggins said. “We just don’t have as many of them as I’d like to have. But we’ve got some guys who are fairly athletic, so we’re trying to do what we’ve always done defensively. We just don’t have enough guys. I think if we had a couple more guys like the guys we have, the guys who are playing, we’d be fine. But we drop off dramatically when we get in foul trouble, size-wise.”

Despite the doubts, the Mountaineers started off 10-1 and made an appearance in the top 25. Recently, however, while the weight room and Huggins-style practices have seemed to have added some toughness to the team, shooting stats are far from stellar. In the loss to Cincinnati, the Mountaineers shot a historical low of 20 percent in an important Big East match up.

“I’m not worried about the slump,” said EFHS senior Lenae Miller, “Huggins seems very good at motivating, so they will probably bounce back from it.”

His answers to just about everything are short, sweet, and to the point. Tune in to any Bob Huggins radio broadcast throughout the week and you’ll soon discover that it is important to think about your question very carefully before calling. It’s hard to find a guy who will say what he thinks anymore; most are only brave enough to give the public what they want to hear. Not Huggins, though. He’s very straight forward about everything, but at least that doesn’t leave anyone guessing.

Perhaps the most noticeable change of all is the change from pullovers to rather showy suits, the gold one in particular. Where does someone go to purchase such a thing? And with matching shoes? Supposedly, Huggins was becoming tired of being asked why he keeps wearing pullovers so he started wearing suits. No one can deny that he’s got style. We’re just not sure what kind yet.

        

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