Huggins Ties Dean Smith for Sixth in All-Time Wins
On Tuesday night, West Virginia halted its three-game losing streak with a 65-47 win over Oklahoma State. The win just wasn't another ordinary victory for the Mountaineers. Instead, it was a milestone win for head coach Bob Huggins, who notched his 879th career win tying Dean Smith.
Huggins doesn't really care much for the all-time list, as much as he cares about winning games to stay in the hunt for a Big 12 title, but in his postgame press conference, he spoke on his relationship with the late legendary North Carolina head coach.
"Well, I got to do Michael Jordan's fantasy camp and of course, coach [Dean Smith] was there. I got to spend a lot of time with him. Quality guy, class guy, fun guy. He was more fun than I thought he would be just kind of watching him from afar," Huggins said.
"I've always enjoyed being around coaches. When I first got to be on the Nike circuit as a clinician, I was at the University of Akron and you go in there and speak one time for forty-five minutes and I went in there on Friday at noon man. I'm in there helping them set up the room and listening to all the guys that are in there. You know, Dean Smith's there and obviously, Roy's [Williams] there and [Jerry] Tarkanian and Abe Lemons and Louie Carnesecca and Jim Valvano and I was in heaven man. I was just sitting there trying to take everything in. I'm very fortunate to be in the generation that I'm in, that I was able to spend tons of quality time with Al McGuire (former Marquette head coach) and guys like that. Those are people that I admired, those are people that I learned a lot from, those are people that taught me a lot and taught me a lot about this business. When people keep asking me: What do you think about being whatever or having this many (wins)? I don't pay any attention, they're my friends. What do I care?"
When asked what it was like to coach against Dean Smith Huggins replied, "You know, I didn't really worry about Dean, I worried about the guys he had on his team. We were starting four freshmen as I remember and they had guys. Later on, we played them in a deal they did in Charlotte and that's when he had Rasheed [Wallace] and [Jerry] Stackhouse and [Jeff] McInnis and I never gave Dean one thought. I mean, I'm worried about how do we guard these guys."
Huggins is also within reach of swapping spots with current North Carolina head coach Roy Williams, who currently has 881 wins. Prior to last year's abysmal season for the Mountaineers, Huggins was ahead of Williams but was passed when West Virginia failed to have a winning record and finished the season with a 15-21 record. Expect Huggins and Williams to be going back and forth until they both decide to hang up the clipboard.
