West Virginia's Bob Huggins blasts NCAA in pregame press conference
West Virginia coach Bob Huggins ripped the NCAA Saturday in advance of his team's NCAA tournament game Sunday against Maryland, according to a report from CSN Baltimore.
Huggins took objection to late tip-off times for teams at the tournament's Columbus, Ohio, sub-regional site.
West Virginia will square off against Maryland Sunday at approximately 8:40 p.m. EST, following Oklahoma and Dayton's Round of 32 matchup at 6:10 p.m. EST. If the game between Oklahoma and Dayton runs longer than its allotted time window, which Huggins suspects it could, it could push the tip-off time of West Virginia's game even later.
NCAA tournament games are scheduled in approximately two and a half hour windows largely for television purposes.
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On Friday, Oklahoma's game against Albany went longer than scheduled, leading to the final game of the night in Columbus tipping off around 11 p.m. local time.
“Now you've got to remember this, it's all for the betterment of the student-athlete,” Huggins told reporters sarcastically, referring to the NCAA tournament.
More, from the report:
"Yeah, my opinion is it's not good. It's not good for anybody, I don't think," he said. "Not good for the players. Not good for the fans. I'll probably get in trouble for saying that. But I wish we could start earlier. Long day as it is sitting around being nervous."
Huggins later reiterated his point.
"You've got all these games to cram on TV. And it's going to happen," Huggins went on to say. "And one game runs over a little bit.
“But I'm just -- it just tickles me to death that we're doing this for the student-athletes. It's all for the betterment of the student-athlete.”
Whichever team wins the game between West Virginia and Maryland might have a tougher task to face than a late start time: They'll have to tackle the top-seeded Kentucky Wildcats, who dispatched Cincinnati on Saturday.
- Will Green
