INDIANAPOLIS – After the bell rang in West Virginia’s 84-67 victory over Morehead State in the first round of the NCAA tournament, coaches and players surrounded Bob Huggins, giving “Huggy Bear” all the bear hugs .
Huggins, 67, won his 900th career game on Friday, becoming the sixth men’s basketball coach in Division I to reach the milestone (minimum 10 seasons in Division I). He joins Mike Krzyzewski, Jim Boeheim, Jim Calhoun, Roy Williams and Bob Knight between Div. I train with 900 wins.
Huggins will face Boeheim on Sunday when West Virginia, the No. 3 seed in the Midwest region, faces seed Syracuse, who beat San Diego by 78-62 on Friday.
“I love these guys, and it’s gratifying that they can be a part of it,” Huggins said of his players. “They enjoy it a lot more than I do, but that’s pretty neat. When they have something to look back on and share with whoever they want, we hope it’s one of the positive things that happened in their athletic career. It took us three. games to finally get there “.
West Virginia dropped its last two games before the NCAA tournament, both in the state of Oklahoma, so Huggins had to wait until Friday to reach number 900. The Mountaineers opened the game in a partial 17-6 and fell in the middle of the first half before controlling the game for most of the last 13 minutes.
Miles McBride, a sophomore guard, scored a maximum of 30 points in the race on 11 of 17 shots and had six assists in 36 minutes. Three other WVU players scored in double figures, including striker Derek Culver, who overcame a tough first half to finish with 12 points, seven rebounds and three blocks.
“Being able to be here for the 900th win means a lot, so I’m very glad we did it today,” McBride said.
Huggins added, “That was his topic of conversation. It wasn’t mine, it was his, which tells you what kind of guys they are. We have really good guys.”
Now in his 39th season, Huggins first became a coach in 1980 at Walsh College, a NAIA program at the time now known as Walsh University, and won 71 games in three seasons. He then moved to Akron, making his first appearance at the NCAA tournament in 1986.
Huggins spent 16 seasons in Cincinnati, leading the Bearcats to the Final Four in 1992 and 14 consecutive appearances in the NCAA tournament. He spent a season in the state of Kansas before arriving in West Virginia, his alma mater. Huggins led WVU to the Final Four in 2010, four more Sweet Sixteen appearances and 10 trips to the NCAA tournament.
He is 900-381 as head coach with 25 appearances in the NCAA tournament and a 34-24 record in the event.