Morgantown, West Virginia – Bob Huggins hosted a dinner and charity auction event this week at his old stomping grounds of Cincinnati, Ohio, where he coached the Cincinnati Bearcats for 16 years.
Huggins, 67, was asked about his future, whether he planned to retire soon, and how many more years he thinks he can continue as the head coach of the West Virginia Mountaineers.
Huggins was resolute in saying that he isn’t going anywhere anytime soon, despite this being the final season on his four year contract extension that he signed back in 2017. Huggins’ contract stipulates that he can move into five years of paid emeritus status where he would serve in some capacity in the athletic department, or he could defer that option and remain the head coach of the team.
According to Huggins, he plans to continue coaching the team for many years to come.
“As long as I feel like I can do it the right way and I can contribute,” Huggins told the Cincinnati Inquirer, “I’m going to keep going.”
When asked about Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski deciding to retire following next season and North Carolina’s Roy Williams’ decisions to retire at the end of last season, Huggins said, “I’m not nearly as old as those guys.”
Huggins, who currently has exactly 900 wins in his long and illustrious career, will likely move into 3rd on the all-time coaching wins list next season, passing UCONN’s Jim Calhoun (918 wins), Roy Williams and Indiana Hoosiers legend Bob Knight (902 wins).
The Cincinnati Inquirer asked Huggins about the possibility of one day reaching 1,000 wins and Huggins said the following: “I don’t really look at those things. I keep getting, ‘Are you going to get 1,000 wins?’ Or are you going to do this or that? I don’t really care about that stuff. I care about doing the best job that I can possibly do, giving the players the best experience that they can possibly have, and then, the joy of it is, like a father, watching them go out into the world and do the things that they do and how well they do those things. That’s what I care about. I care so much more about them that I do any record or accolade.”
Quotes from the Cincinnati Enquirer:
