BIG 12 CONFERENCE BIG 12 MEN'S BASKETBALL TIPOFF MEDIA DAY

October 20, 2021

Bob Huggins

West Virginia Mountaineers

Media Day Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: We'll skip opening statements and go straight to questions.

Q. A lot of talk about the four new teams coming in eventually. A lot of unknowns with those. You have history with one of them. What are your thoughts about having Cincinnati in the same conference with you?

BOB HUGGINS: It's a great place to go. It's a great town, for one. Shoemaker Center is really a good place to play. They have a great fan base. I think they will certainly fit into what we have going here now.

It's a basketball town. They're making it a football town now, but it's a basketball town.

Q. What was it like when your program joined the Big 12? What kind of adjustments had to be made? What kind of things had to be done to get used to maybe the atmosphere, style of play, et cetera? What was that process like?

BOB HUGGINS: Well, we came from the Big East where they didn't call any fouls. When they started blowing the whistle calling fouls, we were all wondering what was going on. They didn't call any in the Big East. I think probably Jamie went through the same thing. It was more basketball and less roller derby.

I think that was the biggest thing.

Anytime you go and play in new venues, when I got to West Virginia, I already had been at Kansas State and been in the majority of the arenas and knew the majority of the coaches.

This is a great coaching league. It's a great coaching league. Don't listen to what Porter said. Those were words of encouragement that I was sharing in Hawaii with my team. I was encouraging, saying, Boys, we can play better than this. I just said it a little louder than what most people do.

We do this in a recruiting process of showing prospective student-athletes how many first-round picks we've had in this league over the years, how many first-round picks, draft picks total, how many No. 1 picks.

It's a great, great league. It's a great player's league and an even better coach's league. The guys in this league can really, really coach.

Sometimes I've been in leagues where you look down there and you think you can out-smart the guy sitting down there a little bit. I've never felt that way in this league ever.

Q. You lost guys like Miles McBride and Derek Culver. What is your team going to look like this year, and who is going to step up?

BOB HUGGINS: I wish I knew the answer to that.

Losing Derek is a big hit for us because he got hard rebounds. He just didn't get rebounds, he got hard rebounds. I don't know that we have a replacement for that.

When I signed Deuce, we didn't know if he'd ever play. He had the bad ankle. They were saying that there was a pretty good chance that he would never play again. Obviously he had a great career, and he will continue to have a great career in the NBA.

We don't get guys like that a lot. It's basically we get guys that have to work like crazy to be able to play in this league. But we'll continue to do that. I think we can make shots. I don't know if we can guard anybody and keep them from making shots, but we can make shots.

We've got three or four guys that can surround the line and shoot it extremely well. We'll go from there. I've done this 40-some years, so I've been through it a time or two.

Q. Scott Drew was talking about his next goal for the Big 12 would be to have three teams in the Final Four. Obviously that's a huge task to get to that point in the tournament three different times for the Big 12. How attainable do you think that would be in the upcoming years?

BOB HUGGINS: I think it's attainable every year. We put enough teams in the NCAA tournament that it's very conceivable that we would have three teams in the Final Four. If Scott says it, it's true. Scott doesn't lie - much (smiling).

THE MODERATOR: Further questions for Coach? I don't believe this, somebody is bound to ask Coach a question.

SCOTT DREW: I've got a question. Who is the best fisherman of the Big 12 coaches?

BOB HUGGINS: This little short guy, Scott Drew, fishes the most (laughter). I would consider myself the best.

Q. What are your thoughts on the expansion of the Big 12 and the teams that are going to be coming in that you'll be competing against?

BOB HUGGINS: I haven't really thought about it all that much. I obviously have gotten a lot of questions about Cincinnati coming in. But I really haven't thought about it all that much.

This league is so hard. I don't think y'all get how hard this league really is. It's so hard that that's about all you can think about. It just seems like we have coaches retire or move to another school, and then those ADs bring in guys that are just as good.

In a lot of leagues, I've been in leagues where you kind of look down there before the game. I told my assistant one time, we were playing this team, they had really good players, and he kept saying to me how concerned he was good how good their players were. I said, Well, if you get real nervous, look at the fat guy down in the suit there, it will make you feel better.

We just don't have that. But there are leagues like that. Guys that just go out and recruit and get really good players but don't coach 'em much. That's not the case here. They go out and get really good players and they coach them really good.

We've got guys that really are at the top of the coaching profession in this league. I mean, if you would take a poll as to the different guys in this league, what people think about them as a coach, you would be shocked at how high those guys would be rated, all the guys in this league. It's just full of great coaches.

THE MODERATOR: Time for one more question.

BOB HUGGINS: You tried to hurry 'em up, and now you're trying to shut 'em down. Make up your mind (smiling).

THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach.

BOB HUGGINS: Thank y'all.