Bob Huggins resigns at West Virginia’s men’s basketball head coach

After using a homophobic slur on the radio and getting arrested for driving while under the influence, Bob Huggins wisely called it quits as West Virginia’s men’s basketball head coach. In his resignation letter, Huggins stated that “My recent actions do not represent the values of the University or the leadership expected in this role. While I have always tried to represent our University with honor, I have let all of you – and myself – down.” Huggins went on to add that “I am solely responsible for my conduct and sincerely apologize to the University community – particularly to the student-athletes, coaches and staff in our program. I must do better, and I plan to spend the next few months focused on my health and my family so that I can be the person they deserve.”

Huggins’ first off-the-court incident occurred during a May 8th radio interview on the Bill Cunningham show. According to Huggins, who coached at Cincinnati from 1989-2005, Xavier fans tossed inappropriate toys onto the court during a Crosstown Shootout contest between the Musketeers and Bearcats. When he was asked about the situation on the air, Huggins stated that “What it was, was all those f–s, those Catholic f–s, I think, threw them.” Once that soundbite made its rounds on social media, many individuals believed that Huggins would resign immediately. Quite frankly, I expected the next ESPN notification on my phone to read “the Bob Huggins era is over in Morgantown”. To my surprise, however, Huggins Bob Huggins agreed to a $1M salary reduction, a three-game suspension and sensitivity training in order to retain his job.

A month later, Huggins was arrested for DUI, which proved to be the mistake that ultimately buried the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Famer. On June 17th, Huggins submitted his resignation letter to West Virginia University and officially ended his 16-year tenure with the Mountaineers. Was it sad day to be a diehard Mountaineer fan? Well, most likely, considering that Huggins recorded 345 wins, made a final four appearance and only missed out on the NCAA Tournament five times at West Virginia. With that said, knowing what we know now, it would be difficult to make a case for Huggins being the head man at West Virginia moving forward. Will we see Huggins on a different sideline in the foreseeable future? Well, I’m not sure, but I do know that he’s currently a free agent on the college basketball coaching market.