Huggins Believes NBA has Negative Trickle-Down Effect
Morgantown, WV – West Virginia head coach Bob Huggins is not shy in sharing his opinion when it comes to the current state college basketball is in. He again voiced his opinion Friday before Saturday’s matchup versus Kansas State.
This time, it wasn't about officiating but how the game is evolving more like the NBA after a lengthy conversation about college players, more specifically his players, not knowing how to pass the ball and that's why there is an increase in ball screens.
“I think we’re screwing the game up,” said Huggins. “We’re so into scoring the ball. It’s the NBA trickling down because we’re so misinformed. The guys who make the decisions above us are so totally misinformed.”
“They think that because the NBA has increased scoring, it increased their viewership. That’s not what increased their viewership. What increased their viewership is they stopped pitting one game against another."
"You don’t ever have two NBA games on at the same time, where you may have five or six college games on at the same time. So, why are our numbers down? Because there’s so many games going on. So, you flip over and it's North Carolina State and Virginia, well I don’t want to watch that. So, now, you flip it over 'oh jeez, there’s Louisville, North Carolina - I’ll watch that one'. You have such a choice and there’s only so many viewers for either. But those people think that the ‘NBA’s got it going on.’ They’ve got it right. They don’t have it right, I mean, they have it right in terms of not pitting one game against another. We are."
“Then, all of a sudden, these people say oh we got to score more. So, now we lower the clock more. The lower you make the clock the more bad shots you’re going to see. The more turnovers you’re going to see. So, what do you have? You ball screen. What do they do in the NBA? They, ball screen.”
“Our game has changed so drastically,” continued Huggins. “And here’s the other thing that puzzles me, so every time I see a preview for the Final Four, they show Georgetown and Villanova. The never shot the freaking ball. They never shot it, but that’s one of the all-time great games.”
“The NBA is about the best players. They want the best players to win. I mean, if we want the best players to win then we need to change our recruiting strategies.”
Huggins makes a lot of valid points. It should be common knowledge that the talent level is far superior in the NBA than the NCAA, but if it’s not, here are some glaring numbers.
There are 30 NBA teams compared to 350 division one basketball programs. Each program is allotted 13 scholarships which equates to 4,550 players. Now, while all these players won’t declare for the draft (233 underclassmen initially entered the NBA draft, including 58 international players), the talent pool is vast before adding international players. There are only two rounds in the NBA, so that is 60 players drafted each year.
The ratings get a bit tricky. The ratings were up 5% last season in college basketball, but it is believed that Duke’s freshman Zion Williamson is the reason why considering the ratings dropped the previous season. While the NBA’s numbers were increasing significantly the past few seasons, they are currently down and that could be for a few different reasons. (Enter your political talking point here.)
The point is, the NBA should not be dictating how the college game is played and the rules leaning towards more of the NBA style, which in my opinion, has made college basketball hard to watch and they already have a big influence on the continuing change of when players can declare for the NBA Draft.
As far as recruiting talented players, I don’t think Huggins has necessarily changed his recruiting tactics, but the level of talent he has brought in recently has changed. Since joining the Big 12, West Virginia has landed six ESPN Top 100 players and four have come in the last two years.
Devin Williams (2013)
Esa Ahmad (2015)
Derek Culver, Jordan McCabe (2018)
Oscar Tshiebwe, Jalen Bridges (2019)
While this is the latest recruiting success, this isn’t unprecedented territory for Huggins, while at West Virginia. He brought in two ESPN Top 100 players in Kevin Jones and Darryl “Truck” Bryant in 2008.
The following year, he brought in three; Deniz Kilicli, Dan Jennings and Dalton Pepper. Aaric Murray was apart of the recruiting class but committed to LaSalle before later becoming a Mountaineer and ending his career at Texas Southern.
Then in 2010, he signed Noah Cottrill, who never saw the floor. Only Kilicli finished his career at West Virginia and it took a heavy toll on the program, finishing 13-19 and 6-12 in its first year in the Big 12 Conference.
Huggins then went after hard-nosed players with the likes of Gary Browne, Juwan Staten, and the following year with Jevon Carter, Tarik Philip, and Daxter Miles Jr. to bring back the blue-collar ethic the state prides itself on.
Currently, it seems Huggins is circling some of the high school’s best players again with another Top 100 player, Isaiah Cottrell, signing in November and although Esa Ahmad didn’t end his career as we expected, it’s still to be determined on the recent batch of recruits. Nonetheless, they are currently sitting at 17-4, and maybe, Huggins noticed the trend and has already adapted.
West Virginia (17-4, 5-3) is back in action, Wednesday, February 5, inside the WVU Coliseum at 7:00 pm on ESPN2 as they host the Iowa State Cyclones (9-12, 2-6)
