Published: November 14, 2008 02:36 am      

Amid humor, Huggins calls for action on practice facility

FAIRMONT — Bob Huggins said he would “just kind of ramble, if that’s all right,” in speaking here Thursday about his newest West Virginia University basketball team.

And in his ramblings, before a combined meeting of the Fairmont Rotary, Kiwanis and Lions clubs, one could tell there were things he enjoyed, like the treadmill he uses for practice sessions. He milked the treadmill for all it was worth.

But the serious side came through as well when he spoke of the new practice facility for which no earth has yet been turned although more than $22 million has been raised.

Ramble he did, however, and with each story he told, his dry humor prompted many laughs from the dinner audience — all of whom were probably glad they had waited for Huggins’ arrival almost 40 minutes late.

A sore subject

“I came back because I love West Virginia,” Huggins said. “I love the state. I want it to be better.”

But he made it known the practice facility is kind of a sore subject with him.

“I’m out getting money for the practice facility and the way I count, we’re at about $22 and a half million,” he said, noting that $25 million is the high end.

“None of the people making these decisions ever goes out and raises any money,” he stated. “But still no earth has turned.

“The reality is, we’ve done an unbelievably wonderful job with football, and they deserve everything they’ve gotten. But the Coliseum hasn’t changed since 1970. It’s the same as it was when I went in there (as a player) in 1975,” he said, although noting that the locker rooms were renovated under John Beilein.

“We’re not very fan friendly,” he added.

“We don’t move very damn fast. To get something done, it’s always painstaking. But we’re going to get it done. I promise you that. We’re going to make it fun. And the most fun will come in watching us beat those people who have beaten us all these years.”

WVU needs to play

“We need to play somebody,” he said. “We visited Virginia two weeks ago and didn’t play very well, which was good for us. Last Saturday we played Mountain State. They wouldn’t quit, and that was good for us.

“I tell our guys,” Huggins continued, “if you’ve got somebody down, put your foot on their throat and don’t let ’em up.

“That’s what you have to do. You can’t be nice. You can’t let people up. You can’t just let people think they’re supposed to be in the game. We do that all the time.

“Da’Sean (Butler) had 38. He could have had 50. Mickey Furfari asked, ‘Do you want Da’Sean to get 38?’ I said, ‘Yes, every night.’ But that’s not going to happen. But he has really gotten better.

“It’s amazing what happens when people work,” Huggins said, presumably talking about Butler.

Huggins said a Cleveland Cavaliers representative was visiting recently and “I told him to watch Butler.”

“He can’t run. He can’t jump. He’s undersized. But just watch what he does,” Huggins said. “Then after the three-hour workout, he said, ‘He really understands how to play.’

“Besides that,” Huggins said, “he’s a wonderful guy.”

The WVU coach admitted his players “are probably the nicest guys in the world. Sometimes they are too nice.”

High expectations

Huggins said at Walsh College in Ohio, where his coaching career started, his expectations were higher than the administration’s for his team.

“The leaders called the coaches in after a 14-16 season. The president said if we keep the program right where it is, we have a job for the rest of our lives. I told the president I can’t speak for Dan (his assistant), but you’re scaring the hell out of me.”

Then he jumped to talking about his dog.

His wife wanted him to train their dog, and he trained him to run and sit. He said he did that with little trouble.

“That’s the way it is with my team,” he said. “If they don’t do what I tell them to do, they run the treadmill. If they don’t do what I tell them to do in a game, they sit. If my dog can figure it out, they can figure it out. Run and sit.

“The treadmill is a wonderful thing. You can’t cheat the treadmill. We crank that thing up to about 35 miles an hour, You have to run.

“I don’t know who invented the treadmill,” he said “but it’s a wonderful thing. It sure makes my life easier.”

Joe Alexander said the treadmill thing got real popular among the New York media types when he was there for the NBA draft.

“What’s the treadmill like?” Alexander was asked.

Huggins replied that Alexander, who has a flair for the dramatic, said “it works like being chained to the back of a car going 35 miles an hours. If you don’t hold on, you fall, and it’s going to drag you the rest of the way.”

“Where I grew up, if you did good, good things happened. If you did bad, there were ramifications for doing bad. In a lot of ways I think that’s the problem with our country today. People do bad things. These guys put these companies under and they walk away with $100 million. If I was president, I would tell them to give the money back and get your a... to jail.”

More about team

Huggins talked about his team again.

“We’re not very big,” he said. “Wellington Smith is the tallest of our holdovers. He’s no bigger than I am, and that’s about 6-4. They all tell me I’m 6-6 and I’m not quite 6-4. Which means they are not 6-4 either. When you walk into a team meeting, and (Fairmont State coach Tim) Murphy can tell you this, and you’re the tallest man in the room, that’s a bad year.”

He says Joe Mazzulla will play the point guard, Butler will play “wherever we need him” and Alex Ruoff will play the off-guard. And Wellington Smith “has got to get better.” He said Smith was the only veteran who was a factor above the basket.

Huggins is trying to find more minutes for junior Josh Sowards.

“He really shoots the ball,” the coach says, “but he hasn’t figured out you’re supposed to guard someone at the other end too. But we’re trying to help him with that.”

Huggins says that newcomers Devin Ebanks and Kevin Jones sometimes play well and sometimes don’t and freshmen Darryl “Truck” Bryant and junior college transfer Dee Proby weren’t ready yet.

Huggins vowed this new WVU team will win.

“We’ll just have to work harder than everyone else.”

E-mail John Veasey at jcveasey@timeswv.com.