Social Media Reaction to Bob Huggins, Hall of Fame
Even before West Virginia head coach Bob Huggins was officially named a member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame Class of 2022 on Saturday, there was plenty of reaction.
News of his selection leaked on Thursday, thanks to a report by The Athletic’s Shams Charania.
That led to plenty of reaction from West Virginia administrators, players and fans, and those reactions continued on Saturday when Huggins was officially named a Hall of Famer, with the ceremony set for Sept. 9-10 in Springfield, Mass.
Former Mountaineers guard Miles McBride, who is having a great season in the G League, hit Twitter on Thursday shortly after the news broke.
Gabe Osabuohein, who just wrapped up his West Virginia career, expressed the same sentiment — it’s about time.
The 68-year-old Huggins has been part of the pool of nominees for five years, but he was advanced as a finalist for the first time this year.
This Mountaineers fan went with a throwback photo of Huggins from his early days as a head coach.
Blue and Gold Nation tweeted out a video of Huggins’ colleagues making their case for Huggins to join the other Division I coaches with at least 900 career wins — Mike Krzyzewski, Jim Boeheim, Jim Calhoun, Bob Knight and Roy Williams.
Another Mountaineers fan showed off a photo of Huggs in his Mountaineer gold suit. He’s one of two coaches to win at least 300 games at two schools. Williams is the other.
Players who are transferring out of the program like forward Jalen Bridges took a moment to show their respect for Huggins.
One of Huggins’ most famous players from his days as head coach at Cincinnati extended his congratulations, too.
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. He has 916 career wins entering next season.
You can find Matthew Postins on Twitter @PostinsPostcard.
