Wow, that was fast. Perhaps I didn’t see this coming with the start of the baseball season and the WNBA draft and all, but did anyone else figure John Beilein’s hiring at Michigan would portend this bold move on the part of the Mountaineers? From The Intelligencer’s Don Clegg.
Kansas State head coach Bob Huggins (above) has accepted an offer to replace John Beilein as head men™s basketball coach at West Virginia University.
A source close to the WVU athletic department told The Intelligencer and the Wheeling News-Register Thursday that it was œa done deal, adding that a press conference will be held Friday afternoon to formally introduce Huggins as the Mountaineers™ 21st head basketball coach.
Financial terms were not revealed.
Huggins has five years remaining on his contract at Kansas State where he is being paid $800,000 annually. His salary goes up to $900,000 in 2009-10 and reaches $1 million in 2010-11.
He is also scheduled to receive a $1 million annuity if he serves out the five-year contract. There is a $100,000 buyout if he leaves before completing the contract.
A group of worried Kansas State fans tried to put together a support rally for Huggins at the Wildcats™ Bramlage Coliseum Wednesday night but Huggins reportedly asked them to cancel it and did not attend.
Hugggins is turning his back on a very promising situation at Kansas State.
He led the Wildcats to a 23-12 record and an NIT berth in his only season at the school this winter and has signed what is thought by many to be the No. 1 recruiting class in the nation.
It™s unclear whether some ” or any ” of his recruits would follow him to Morgantown.
OJ Mayo was all set to go to Cincinatti for his newly-requisite one year before Huggy Bear got the axe; there was some speculation that Mayo would follow Huggins wherever he landed. Mayo has since committed to USC, but just finished up his final year of high school ball in… Huntington, West Virginia. Could he and Hugs have a made a sub rosa agreement for Mayo to rescind his commitment to SoCal if Huggy took the ‘Eers gig?
i think it is safe to say the recruits will follow. he had a great class coming into KSU and i don’t think it was the Manhattan nightlife that drew them to commit.
Clearly, you have NOT been to Aggieville after a stunning defeat of Kennesaw State. Kamikaze shots have never tasted sweeter.
Godspeed, Huggy Bear.
Now if only we can get rid of Rick Barnes in the Big Twelve… hmm, I think I’ll IM my buddy Mitch Barnhart right now!
I will buy the OJ Mayo hate a little more if he does go to WVU at this point–if he picked USC to launch a media blitz/world domination campaign from Los Angeles, which is what he says, than there’s no way he can go to Huntington, which isn’t even Cincinnati media-wise.
Kansas State needs to hire Delonte Hill as their coach he may be young and inexperienced but he is an ex player that has recruited most of the KState players. We need to keep this recruiting class and hiring a smart charasmatic assistant that recruited the players is the way to do it.
It takes a lot to establish a new low point for a guy who left his previous job with vomit on his shirt and pleading with a traffic cop “don’t do this to me,” but I think this just about does that. I know Huggins is a West Virginia guy — and he’ll have both a decent team to work with next year even if he doesn’t bring his recruits and, in WVU, a school that’s willing to tolerate a little bit of lawlessness on its players — but this is pretty cheesy. I, for one, plan to boycott his chain of Huggs’ Cincinnati Chili restaurants forever in protest. I was already kind of planning on that, though, so I guess I should try to come up with another statement.
Whoever gets hired at K-State is lucky, by the way. They’re already quite good, and if they keep some of their recruits, (coach to be named) is going to look pretty good himself. Jim Harrick is available.
I live in Lawrence and i am also a die hard wildcat. We feel screwed over and pretty mad, because we gave him a second chance at coaching and he just used us…i have a feeling, whenever that WVU job came around he would take it, GRANTED he said he could see himself retireing in Manhattan. I hate him now because he backstabbed us, but we find great coaches in assistants, so Huggins can suck at WVU and we’ll thrive