Musings from the Mountains: WVU Basketball Notebook: NCAA: Boston

BOSTON – Coaching is a copycat profession but Bob Huggins takes it a little further than that.

“I steal everything I can. I watch tape and if somebody’s doing something pretty good, we’re doing it the next day,” the head coach said. “I’ve never had an original thought in my life.”

There is a connection to West Virginia’s Sweet 16 opponent Villanova on this front as well considering the fact that Huggins saw one of those things he liked when watching his team square off against Jay Wright’s. It didn’t take him long to steal, eh, apply it to his club.

“Jay was fronting ball screens against us and then we front ball screens against them because it seemed like the right thing to do,” he said.

Has Wright done the same to Huggins?

Of course, but with a twist.

“I can’t share with you any ideas I got from Huggs because they’re all off the court and I can’t talk about them,” Wright joked.

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Travel has been a discussion point for West Virginia all season. Considering the Mountaineers travel into a different time zone to play their conference opponents they seem to have a beef.

That has only carried over into the NCAA Tournament when West Virginia first had to travel all the way across the country to San Diego for the first two rounds. That’s over 2,300 miles away and the Mountaineers were stuck with the late game Sunday night forcing a return Monday.

That flight was delayed a couple hours due to maintenance on the plane.

It didn’t end there. As West Virginia had one day before they had to fly to the next stop.

Due to impending winter weather in the Boston area, the Mountaineers were forced to move their flight up a day and that also necessitated the need for an early morning practice Tuesday. That meant getting ahold of all the players to let them know that practice had been moved.

“We were scrambling around,” Huggins said.

That rescheduled flight? Well, it wasn’t smooth sailing there as an air conditioner malfunctioned and send smoke into the plane. That prompted panic but turned out to be nothing.

“People are saying Hail Mary’s and trying to think of all the bad things they did and ask for forgiveness and all of that. But it really wasn’t that bad,” Huggins said.

As for senior guard Jevon Carter?

“I slept through it,” he said.

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Does old age make a coach ‘mellow out’? Perhaps, but it’s the experience itself of coaching over the years that helps one realize how to approach situations better.

“I just think I pick and choose my spots better. How’s that?” he said.

By that Huggins simply is referring to at times earlier in his career when he let games and even plays at times take on a life or death scenario instead of looking at things big picture.

But that’s not to say he’s completely matured.

“We lost to Oklahoma State and I went home and pulled the covers over my head and stayed there for four hours because I was just like – I’ve been more distraught, but I can’t remember when,” he said.

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West Virginia hasn’t been a hotbed for one and done types.

It isn’t as if the Mountaineers don’t try to target those quality of players, but there is some method to the madness as well. The last time Huggins even had one of those type of players was in 2000 with DerMarr Johnson who was taken sixth overall by the Atlanta Hawks.

While he obviously would like to have those players on the roster, Huggins understands the situation.

“You spend a whole lot of time recruiting guys you don’t get,” he said.

The head coach even went as far as to compare it to chasing a girl that you want to marry but can’t.

“At the end of the day, she walks off with somebody else,” he said.

So instead the Mountaineers have put their sights on those players that are looking for an opportunity to play at the highest level but have a certain drive or chip on their shoulder.

A love of the game if you will.

As for the one and done situation in general, Huggins would like to see anything that would keep students in school to better prepare them for life regardless of what that would be.

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