Inside Slant
Bob Huggins came home and showed a different side of his personality. Coaching at his alma mater in the state where he was born, Huggins dedicated himself and his team to the state, which adopted this team as it has seldom adopted any others.
The accomplishments were many in just his third year back home, topped off by winning the first Big East basketball championship ever for WVU and then advancing to the Final Four, losing to Duke, 78-57, in the national semifinal.
It was the schools' first trip to the Final Four since Jerry West led the 1959 team there, losing to California in the final. West Virginia has never won a national title.
Huggins knew what his team's run in the NCAA Tournament meant in a state where the university's athletic teams are worshipped. When asked what the reaction might be if they could have won the championship, he answered:
"They would be dancing in the street. They would probably close everything down for a day, just kind of have a big time. I don't know, unless you're from there or spent time there, you can't understand. It's everything that I think anybody would want, from the standpoint of support that we have and how much the people care."
Da'Sean Butler came on and established himself as maybe one of the three greatest players at the school, hitting six game-winning shots and becoming a 2,000-point scorer, to join Jerry West and Hot Rod Hundley as the only two in the school history.
He led the team to that Big East championship, hitting the game-winning shot, but the entire group won over the state as Huggins hoped it would.
He finished third in all-time scoring at the school behind West and Hot Rod Hundley with 2,095 points but ended his career prematurely with a sprained knee with 8:59 left against Duke.
It is folly to discount what Huggins meant to the team. Hard driving in practice, Huggins crafted from a few recruits and what inherited from John Beilein into national contender.
"When I first heard he was coming I thought, 'Oh, here we go. I'm going to Michigan,'" Butler admitted. "But I talked to a former player of his from Cincy and he told me about the man that he is and how he makes you a better player, so I'm glad I didn't leave, because now I would be doing all kinds of nothing."
Huggins toughened up the team, emphasized defense and pushed and cajoled them into believing no one could beat them ... and they almost turned that into a reality.
