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BIG 12 CONFERENCE MEN'S MEDIA DAYSOctober 17, 2012Bob HugginsKANSAS CITY, MISSOURI THE MODERATOR: We're now joined by West Virginia head coach Bob Huggins. Coach, talk about the upcoming season? COACH HUGGINS: We're excited. It's going to be a great challenge for us. I think when you have something new, I think there is a lot of excitement. I know our fans are excited about every team playing in the Big 12. So we're looking forward to the year. Q. The Big 12 has more small towns and college campus arenas, and the Big East had more big city arenas than NBA arenas. Did that make the Big 12 tougher to win on the road in the Big East or not necessarily? COACH HUGGINS: I think it is. I think teams in the Big 12 probably have the best home court advantage of any of the major leagues in the country. We played in a lot of NBA arenas. There were a lot of teams that didn't have their own arena, so it wasn't on campus. I think it makes a huge difference. Q. You hear a lot about expansion teams and universities moving around conferences in football. How does that affect basketball? You guys are new to the Big 12 this year. You don't talk about that much in regards to basketball. COACH HUGGINS: Well, I think whoever, Chuck Neinas, I guess, in charge of expansion. I think they did a great job. They picked schools‑‑ we're a lot like the other schools in the Big 12. We're the state university. We're a land grant institution. We have great facilities. I think they did a great job of getting people who were like the schools that are already in the Big 12. We're a college town, much like most of the schools in the Big 12. Q. You've had experience in the Big 12. How do you think that will help now that you're transitioning into the league? COACH HUGGINS: I don't know. I know where to go eat, but it's changed. Since I was in the Big 12 when there was a north and south division, and we played everybody in the south once, and everybody in the north twice, there were places I didn't get to go. I didn't get to go to Lubbock. I almost wanted to stay just so I could go to Lubbock the next year, you know what I mean? Now honestly I don't know. We're all‑‑ you look at the coaches in this league. Five of them having coached in the Final Four. There are great coaches in this league, but there is a wealth of experience in this league, so we all know each other. We've all coached against each other, so I don't know if it's an advantage or not. Q. If you would, could you just talk about Gary Browne? Last season he comes off the bench. Gives you quite a few minutes. He's one of your main ball distributors. Is that basically the role you're expecting of him this season or is it changing? COACH HUGGINS: Well, we finally have some guards. We were the only team in America that didn't recruit guards. I think we had when I finally got two and Mazzulla got hurt, when he came back, Truck got hurt, so we only had one guy with ball skills. I think we're fortunate now with Gary, and with Juwan Staten, and Jabarie, that we have three guys that can actually play the point. I think what Gary brings is a tremendous amount of intensity and enthusiasm. He plays so hard. I think he forces everybody else to play harder because he plays so hard. He's really worked at his game. He's shooting the ball better, handling the ball better. He's probably our best on the ball defender. So I don't worry about Gary Browne getting on the floor. He'll find a way to get on the floor. Q. Every one of your conference road games is a long trip. What is the potential impact on your team of having to take so many long trips? COACH HUGGINS: They asked me there who our rivalry in the conference was going to be, and said it's probably Iowa State. They're the closest. Only 853 air miles. So I don't know. We came out to Wichita last year and had mechanical problems on the plane and didn't get in until 4:30 in the morning, 4:30 Wichita time, 5:30 our time, then played the next day. Played a heck of a game, an overtime game. Then we had some problems getting back. We didn't get back until 5:00 a.m. and that was a Thursday night. Then we turned around and played Miami at 1:30 Saturday afternoon at home and were fortunate enough to win both of those games. Maybe I screw them up overcoaching them. They won't have to listen to me as much. I don't know. I kind of thought maybe we'd just stay the night and come back the next day. Maybe that would help. But they don't sleep anyway. After a game it takes them a while to go to sleep. They sleep better on the plane, I think. Have you ever noticed those guys sleep better sitting down than they do lying down? You put them in chair, they go right to sleep. Tell them to go to bed, and they won't ever go. Q. One thing that hasn't changed since you were in the Big 12 is that Kansas has won the title every year. How do you explain that? How amazing is that in this tough a conference? COACH HUGGINS: It's really amazing. You were talking before about home court advantages, and I don't know who has a bigger home court advantage than KU has. We went in there and lost by I think it was 106, my year at Kansas State. My 7'2" center fouled in and out seven minutes. It's hard. It's a hard deal. Bill does a great job. The job he did a year ago particularly being down the way they were down and then going to triangle and two, and things that really I don't think historically he's played a whole lot of. He just finds ways to win. When you talk about KU winning all of those, I think there is one guy really responsible, and that's Bill. He's a great coach. Of course having all those players doesn't hurt anything either, just in case you were wondering. That doesn't hurt at all either. Q. Your program is built a certain way being in the Big East. Are you going to have to make some tweaks to account for the Big 12? COACH HUGGINS: If we are, I'm not smart enough to do it. I don't think so. We're just going to play the way we play. We've had to change and adjust things over the five years I was there just because of personnel. There was like a five or six‑game stretch. I played Da'Sean Butler at point guard. Didn't want to. Didn't have any choice. I don't think so. We're going to just do the things that we do. We're going to try to go back and play a little faster. I'd actually like to see us score once in a while. We've struggled with that. But we haven't played very fast. We just couldn't play very fast. We're going to try to up the tempo and play a little faster and do maybe some of the things that we did when I was at Cincinnati than what we've done. I didn't really like playing as slow as we had to play, but I like losing less. You have to do what you have to do. Q. It being a little unusual going back to Kansas State and not seeing anybody there when you had the program there. Is it disappointing not to go up against Frank in this league? COACH HUGGINS: We played last year. Actually, Frank owes me a game, either Frank or K‑State, somebody still owes me a game. But that was‑‑ I don't know. We went for a while, and we all said we're not going to play each other. Then Andy Kennedy who is kind of like the wisest of the bunch said, "Why don't we play each other?" At least whoever loses will be happy for the other guy. We're terrible losing to some guy you don't like, you know? You're going to lose to somebody you like. So we decided to play. I've got great memories of that happening at K‑State. The people were absolutely fantastic. But you're right. It's a different administration. It's a different everything. But it's still the same people. They were absolutely wonderful to myself and my family. My wife still talks constantly about the people in Manhattan and the surrounding area. They were wonderful people. I've got great appreciation and great respect for them. I think that's a really, really hard place to play. When they start playing wall bash cannonball, and start doing whatever it is they, do I never could figure it out. It's really neat. It's a great, great atmosphere. It's fun. Our guys will have a good time playing there. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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