After a difficult, tough-to-digest loss at Kansas State, Bob Huggins likely woke up with the game running through his mind. The missed opportunities, the mistakes, what he could have done or said differently, every bad moment being replayed on loop in his head.
Bob Huggins is a winner. For a winner, losing hurts and the pleasure of victory tends to be very fleeting. In other words, there is much more pain in losing than there is pleasure in winning.
Following the game, Huggins, mentally exhausted from a difficult loss, tried to explain how he was feeling, saying, “You can’t explain to them that you can’t get this back. It’s gone. Gone forever. A great opportunity…gone.”
Huggins was referring to the Mountaineers’ chances to move into the Top 10 in the AP Poll, to move to 4-1 in the Big 12, to get a tough road win in conference, to continue to increase their NET ranking, to win a very winnable game.
When looking back on this season later in life, Bob Huggins will remember this loss and it will hurt. The win in Cleveland against the then #2 ranked Ohio State Buckeyes, winning the Cancun Challenge early in the season, and any other outstanding win that the Mountaineers will have this year will be far less memorable for Huggins than the loss at Kansas State.
While the players will be able to put the loss behind them quickly and move onto the home game against the Texas Longhorns, the loss at Kansas State will stick with Bob Huggins for a very, very long time.
