MORGANTOWN, West Virginia — Former West Virginia forward John Flowers had some “tipsy thoughts” last night, and as much as it pains me to say it, Flowers absolutely nailed this one. Flowers, who played for Bob Huggins at WVU and was part of the Mountaineers’ historic 2010 Final Four team, posted the following message on X: “Tipsy thoughts but I pray for Coach Huggs all the time that he goes out on the right note, and mends things with WVU before it’s too late … that shit sits heavy on my heart #Bestvirginia.” Listen, Flowers and I don’t always see eye-to-eye. In fact, there have been plenty of times over the years when I’ve read something Flowers said and wondered whether those thoughts were tipsy even when he hadn’t been drinking. He’s certainly not the first person I’d call if I needed help splitting the atom. But in this particular case, he’s 100% right.
West Virginia is the Best Virginia because we take care of our own… we don’t turn our backs on people who need help #BESTVIRGINIA
— john flowers (@jflow41) August 16, 2026
It’s time for West Virginia University and Bob Huggins to find a way to put the past behind them. Nobody is asking WVU to pretend that what happened in 2023 didn’t happen. Huggins made serious mistakes, and his legendary coaching career came to an ugly and abrupt end following a DUI arrest in Pittsburgh. That came after another controversy earlier that year involving comments he made during a radio appearance. Those things happened. They are part of Huggins’ story, and honoring him doesn’t require WVU or its fans to erase them or pretend they weren’t serious. But those mistakes also shouldn’t erase everything Huggins accomplished during the previous four decades.
Bob Huggins won 935 games as a college basketball head coach. Think about that number for a second. Nine hundred and thirty-five wins. He took his teams to 26 NCAA Tournaments, reached two Final Fours and was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2022. He is one of the winningest coaches in the history of college basketball, and whether people like the way his career ended or not, nothing that happened in 2023 changes what he accomplished on the basketball court.
More importantly for West Virginia fans, Huggins came home. He returned to his alma mater in 2007 and spent 16 seasons coaching the Mountaineers, winning 345 games at WVU. He led West Virginia to 11 NCAA Tournament appearances, five Sweet 16s, the 2010 Big East Tournament championship and, of course, the 2010 Final Four. That 2010 team gave this state one of the greatest rides in the history of West Virginia athletics. Huggins wasn’t some coach who came to Morgantown, collected a paycheck for a few years and moved on to the next job. He was born in Morgantown, played at WVU, graduated from WVU and eventually came back home after becoming one of the biggest names in the sport. There aren’t many people who have meant more to West Virginia basketball than Bob Huggins.
That’s what has always made the way this ended so difficult. Since Huggins’ departure, WVU has understandably kept its distance from its former head coach. But we’re now more than three years removed from what happened. At some point, there has to be room for forgiveness. Forgiving Huggins doesn’t mean approving of what he did, and it certainly doesn’t mean pretending it never happened. It simply means recognizing that a person’s worst moments don’t have to completely erase decades of good ones.
And that’s where Flowers’ message really hit home for me. He said he hopes Huggins and WVU can mend things “before it’s too late.” That’s really what this comes down to. Huggins is getting older, and none of us know how much time we have. Is West Virginia really going to wait until he’s gone before finally celebrating what he meant to this basketball program? Are we going to wait until then to play the tribute video, talk about the 2010 Final Four team, celebrate the hundreds of victories and tell everyone how much Huggins meant to WVU basketball? If you’re eventually going to honor the man anyway, why not do it while he’s still here to experience it?
Bring Bob Huggins back to the Coliseum. Let him walk onto that floor again. Let 14,000 West Virginians stand up and give him the ovation he earned over decades of representing this state and this University. Put together the tribute video. Find a way to permanently recognize what he accomplished at WVU. Let Huggins know that while people haven’t forgotten his mistakes, they also haven’t forgotten everything he did before them.
Again, I don’t find myself agreeing with John Flowers all that often. He’s given me plenty of reasons over the years to question whether deep thinking is really his thing, and I’m probably not calling him anytime soon if I need help with my taxes or filling out a Mensa application. But Flowers understands something here that WVU should understand as well. Bob Huggins screwed up. Badly. He paid an enormous price for those mistakes. His coaching career ended overnight, and the final chapter of one of the greatest coaching careers in college basketball history became something nobody wanted it to be.
But that doesn’t have to be the final chapter of Bob Huggins’ relationship with West Virginia University. Huggins is a Hall of Famer, one of the winningest coaches the sport has ever seen and one of the most important figures in the history of WVU basketball. It’s time to forgive, move forward and give him the recognition he deserves while he’s still here to receive it. For once, John Flowers and I completely agree.
