Bob Huggins Officially Set for Hall of Fame Induction
West Virginia head coach Bob Huggins is now officially set for induction into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as part of the Class of 2022.
The 68-year-old head coach was announced as part of the new class in New Orleans during a televised ceremony on ESPN2. The announcement confirms the initial report on Thursday by The Athletic’s Shams Charania. The Hall of Fame also tweeted out a photo of Huggins with his Class of 2022 jersey as the broadcast began.
The induction ceremony will happen Sept. 9-10 in Springfield, Mass., the site of the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.
Huggins has been waiting a few years for this honor. He’s been part of the pool of nominees for the Hall on several occasions, but he was advanced as a finalist for the first time this year. Huggins was named a finalist by the North America committee.
Also announced as Class of 2022 inductees were NBA stars Manu Ginóbili and Tim Hardaway Sr., WNBA legend Swin Cash and long-time NBA coach George Karl. To secure induction, a finalist must receive at least 18 votes from the 24-person committee.
Huggins is one of the most decorated coaches in college basketball history. Last season, he passed Bob Knight and Roy Williams on the all-time list and now has 916 career victories.
He is one of six Division I coaches to win at least 900 games, along with Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski, Syracuse’s Jim Boeheim, Jim Calhoun, Bob Knight and Roy Williams. Krzyzewski and Boeheim are the only active coaches, with Krzyzewski set to retire after the Final Four. Calhoun retired three games into this season at St. Joseph’s College, a Division III school. Huggins needs four wins to tie Calhoun at 920 career victories.
Entering last season, Huggins was the only of the of six coaches with at least 900 career wins that wasn’t in the Hall of Fame. He is signed with the Mountaineers through after the 2026-27 season.
Huggins took Cincinnati (1992) and West Virginia (2010) to the Final Four in his long coaching career, which started his career at Division III Walsh, where he won 71 games in three seasons from 1980-83. Akron hired him, and in five seasons Huggins won 97 games and took the Zips to the NCAA Tournament.
At Cincinnati, Huggins helmed the program for 17 seasons, won 399 games, and reached the NCAA Tournament 14 games. After a season out of basketball, Huggins took the job at Kansas State in 2006 and led the Wildcats to a 23-win season before the West Virginia job opened up and he took it before the 2007-08 season.
Huggins has a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree from WVU. Huggins and Williams are the only two coaches to win at least 300 games at two different schools.
You can find Matthew Postins on Twitter @PostinsPostcard.
