Post by rainman on Oct 25, 2007 6:22:28 GMT -5
Huggins probably won’t be quiet on the WVU sideline
NEW YORK — They say the more things change, the more they stay the same.
You will get no argument from Bob Huggins about that. A year ago at this time he was in Manhattan — Kansas, that is — thinking how wonderful it was to get a new lease on life after the turmoil of his final years in Cincinnati.
Then, out of nowhere, John Beilein quit as West Virginia University basketball coach to take over at Michigan (“I was the most shocked guy in the world when he left,” Huggins said.) and Huggins was issued an invitation to come home, back to the city in which he was born, back to school from which he graduated.
And so it was that he found himself on this dreary, rainy Wednesday afternoon back in Manhattan — New York, that is — coaching the team he probably was supposed to be coaching all along in a league that many people was made for his fiery persona.
“There’s a lot more to do in Manhattan, Kansas,” Huggins joked when the irony of the moment was brought up to him. “I was kind of bored here last night.”
Well, unless you really can teach an old dog new tricks, that’s probably something of an exaggeration on Huggins’ part, but the truth of the matter is that Huggins and the Big East are as perfect match a match as is Huggins and West Virginia.
As Commissioner Mike Traghese pointed out so vividly in his annual opening address on Big East Media Day, the Big East is and always has been a coach’s league.
“There are six coaches in this league who have been to the Final Four,” he said. “There are two already in the Hall of Fame. My guess is there are others who will also be there.”
The two who are in the Hall of Fame are the venerable Jim Boeheim of Syracuse and the excitable Jim Calhoun of Connecticut.
Those who seem on the fast track to Springfield are Rick Pitino of Louisville and, yes, Huggins, whose career 590 victories rank 34th all time.
While Huggins stops short of saying that he always felt he belonged in the Big East, he did take note in a most pointed way that “contrary to statements that were made by some people in Cincinnati, I did have a lot to do with Cincinnati being in the Big East.”
Having been driven out of town by University of Cincinnati President Nancy Zimpher after producing a succession of winning basketball teams but suffering through embarrassing graduation rates, off-court arrests of not only his players but himself and an assistant coach.
When one thinks of the Big East, one thinks of coaches, and that is what has made the Big East the conference and television attraction that it is.
“Marquee coaches drive interest in the television networks,” Traghese noted. “Unlike the NBA, the continuity in our game is at the coaching level, not the players.”
At that was something the Big East
sold from the beginning, from little Louie Carnesecca to Rollie Massimino, from John Thompson to P.J. Carlesimo.
It always has been a league which drew its personality from the flamboyant, personable coaches who were always front and center.
And Huggins fits in perfectly with the mix, as tough as was John Thompson, as fiery as Massimino, as animated as Calhoun … sometimes snarling, but always a show within the show.
Unfortunately, if the NCAA has its way, he and other coaches like him are becoming an endangered spieces.
There are those who say it goes back to a vicious and profane outburst by Seton Hall’s Bobby Gonzalez last year in an 86-71 loss at Louisville in the regular season’s final game If that wasn’t the sole cause, it was a big part of it, but by April the rules committee had decided to strengthen and enforce its rules on sideline behavior by coaches. According to Calhoun, coaches will not be allowed on the court, out of the coaching box, to make any kind of hand gestures or to use profanity of any kind of the bench.
“The officials have been told they will not go to the NCAA if they don’t enforce it,” Calhoun said.
Calhoun, as anyone who has ever seen him coach, knows that he often covers more ground during a game than his players and drops more F-bombs than you’ll ever hear in a Triple-X rated movie.
He calls himself a “roamer” and says “that’s the way I coach.”
“Now, they’re going to watch my feet. I’d rather they watch the game,” Calhoun said as he began a long soliloquy. “In a world of computers and unhumanlike things, I like to see people act human. I like passion.
“You should have seen the coaches in this league when I came in. Rollie (Massimino), he’d get so mad they had hold him back. I always wondered what would have happened if they let him go. Jim (Boeheim), he waved his arms more than he does not. John (Thompson), he’d throw that towel over his shoulder and stomp up and down the sideline.
“Why would you want to take that away? I think it is part of the game. I’m disappointed the NCAA thinks that’s a major problem. We were 6-10 in the league last year. Tell me the advantage I got out of it.”
Huggins is not much different in his approach, although he maintains that he doesn’t often leave the coaching box.
“Big guys have to stay in the box,” he said, joking. “They notice us. The little guys get away with murder.”
Huggins, however, could run into a string of technical fouls if he lets his animated temper get the best of him.
“I do gesture,” he admitted. “Hey, I’m half Italian. We talk with our hands.”
And as for the vocal aspect of the new rules emphasis?
“I probably won’t be quiet,” he said.
NEW YORK — They say the more things change, the more they stay the same.
You will get no argument from Bob Huggins about that. A year ago at this time he was in Manhattan — Kansas, that is — thinking how wonderful it was to get a new lease on life after the turmoil of his final years in Cincinnati.
Then, out of nowhere, John Beilein quit as West Virginia University basketball coach to take over at Michigan (“I was the most shocked guy in the world when he left,” Huggins said.) and Huggins was issued an invitation to come home, back to the city in which he was born, back to school from which he graduated.
And so it was that he found himself on this dreary, rainy Wednesday afternoon back in Manhattan — New York, that is — coaching the team he probably was supposed to be coaching all along in a league that many people was made for his fiery persona.
“There’s a lot more to do in Manhattan, Kansas,” Huggins joked when the irony of the moment was brought up to him. “I was kind of bored here last night.”
Well, unless you really can teach an old dog new tricks, that’s probably something of an exaggeration on Huggins’ part, but the truth of the matter is that Huggins and the Big East are as perfect match a match as is Huggins and West Virginia.
As Commissioner Mike Traghese pointed out so vividly in his annual opening address on Big East Media Day, the Big East is and always has been a coach’s league.
“There are six coaches in this league who have been to the Final Four,” he said. “There are two already in the Hall of Fame. My guess is there are others who will also be there.”
The two who are in the Hall of Fame are the venerable Jim Boeheim of Syracuse and the excitable Jim Calhoun of Connecticut.
Those who seem on the fast track to Springfield are Rick Pitino of Louisville and, yes, Huggins, whose career 590 victories rank 34th all time.
While Huggins stops short of saying that he always felt he belonged in the Big East, he did take note in a most pointed way that “contrary to statements that were made by some people in Cincinnati, I did have a lot to do with Cincinnati being in the Big East.”
Having been driven out of town by University of Cincinnati President Nancy Zimpher after producing a succession of winning basketball teams but suffering through embarrassing graduation rates, off-court arrests of not only his players but himself and an assistant coach.
When one thinks of the Big East, one thinks of coaches, and that is what has made the Big East the conference and television attraction that it is.
“Marquee coaches drive interest in the television networks,” Traghese noted. “Unlike the NBA, the continuity in our game is at the coaching level, not the players.”
At that was something the Big East
sold from the beginning, from little Louie Carnesecca to Rollie Massimino, from John Thompson to P.J. Carlesimo.
It always has been a league which drew its personality from the flamboyant, personable coaches who were always front and center.
And Huggins fits in perfectly with the mix, as tough as was John Thompson, as fiery as Massimino, as animated as Calhoun … sometimes snarling, but always a show within the show.
Unfortunately, if the NCAA has its way, he and other coaches like him are becoming an endangered spieces.
There are those who say it goes back to a vicious and profane outburst by Seton Hall’s Bobby Gonzalez last year in an 86-71 loss at Louisville in the regular season’s final game If that wasn’t the sole cause, it was a big part of it, but by April the rules committee had decided to strengthen and enforce its rules on sideline behavior by coaches. According to Calhoun, coaches will not be allowed on the court, out of the coaching box, to make any kind of hand gestures or to use profanity of any kind of the bench.
“The officials have been told they will not go to the NCAA if they don’t enforce it,” Calhoun said.
Calhoun, as anyone who has ever seen him coach, knows that he often covers more ground during a game than his players and drops more F-bombs than you’ll ever hear in a Triple-X rated movie.
He calls himself a “roamer” and says “that’s the way I coach.”
“Now, they’re going to watch my feet. I’d rather they watch the game,” Calhoun said as he began a long soliloquy. “In a world of computers and unhumanlike things, I like to see people act human. I like passion.
“You should have seen the coaches in this league when I came in. Rollie (Massimino), he’d get so mad they had hold him back. I always wondered what would have happened if they let him go. Jim (Boeheim), he waved his arms more than he does not. John (Thompson), he’d throw that towel over his shoulder and stomp up and down the sideline.
“Why would you want to take that away? I think it is part of the game. I’m disappointed the NCAA thinks that’s a major problem. We were 6-10 in the league last year. Tell me the advantage I got out of it.”
Huggins is not much different in his approach, although he maintains that he doesn’t often leave the coaching box.
“Big guys have to stay in the box,” he said, joking. “They notice us. The little guys get away with murder.”
Huggins, however, could run into a string of technical fouls if he lets his animated temper get the best of him.
“I do gesture,” he admitted. “Hey, I’m half Italian. We talk with our hands.”
And as for the vocal aspect of the new rules emphasis?
“I probably won’t be quiet,” he said.
