Beilein vs Huggie Bear

Submitted by Ratt on
Simple question. Would your rather have Beilein or Huggins?

bcsblue

March 12th, 2010 at 2:13 PM ^

Stop. Just STOP. Who would you rather have Huggie bear or Frank Martin. KSU has had a better season than WVU. SO clearly KSU is much better off having John Huggins leave and hiring Martin. Give me a break. Thats not even taking into account that Huggins graduated 0 ZERO players at Cincinnati. Stop.

jblaze

March 12th, 2010 at 2:24 PM ^

but I don't have all of the info. Why is Higgins sleazy? In the past 3 years: Huggins: 73-27 overall and 34-20 in the Big East. Beilein: 42-47 overall and 18-28 in the Big Ten. I know it's only 3 years and things change (like I pray they will for RR) but those numbers don't lie.

jblaze

March 12th, 2010 at 2:56 PM ^

but Beilein was only .500 at WVU in 5 years in the Big East and is 0.375 in the B10 at Michigan. That's not good by any standard. It's a moot point, as Beilein was just awarded an extension :( EDIT: 2 other quick points about graduation rate (again, I don't know if this applies to Huggins or not) 1) Graduation rate is deceiving, because some of his players could have been 1,2, or 3 and dones, since they were high level NBA prospects (they didn't necessarily drop out of school and work at a gas station). 2) it's easier to graduate kids with no NBA future since this is it for them (e.g. most of the Michigan team, with the exceptions of Harris and Sims, who aren't supposed to be All-Stars, but may have decent NBA careers).

DetroitBlue

March 12th, 2010 at 3:18 PM ^

I know that Beilein isn't really lighting the world on fire, and there may be other coaches who would run the program ethically and have the same or greater success. In my humble opinion, Huggins is not one of those coaches. Also, you bring up good points about the graduation rate issue, but other than Kenyon Martin and Jason Maxiel, I can't really think of any NBA early entry types. I could be missing a couple guys, but a university has 13 scholarships to give out (I think, this number could be wrong). So even if there were 4 other guys who didn't graduate because they left for the NBA early, that brings the total to a whopping 6 for his entire career at Cinci. Even if you don't fault him for those 6 players not graduating, what about everyone else? He was there for 15 years or so (not bothering to look this up, but it's close), and his total graduation rate was around 25-30%. During the mid to late 90s, it was 0. I don't care how many wins the guy may bring in. If he, or someone like him coaches at Michigan, that's the day I stop being a fan.

The Shredder

March 12th, 2010 at 2:17 PM ^

Why even ask such a dumb fucking question? Was Huggins one the guys we were going after when we hired Coach B? NO!! So stop melting down and deal with it.

Ratt

March 12th, 2010 at 2:37 PM ^

Huggins has taken WV further than Beilien did. Beilien might turn out fine once he gets the program built up. I am just get a little worried that WV is better without Beilien.

M-Wolverine

March 12th, 2010 at 2:48 PM ^

You think a WV team that might sneak into a #1 seed is further away than Beilein's lucky to get to the 8 team is from a N.C.? Or Michigan is? I don't want a cheater, but let's not make stuff up here.

In reply to by M-Wolverine

BigBlue02

March 12th, 2010 at 2:51 PM ^

I am saying that Beilein took WV to an elite eight, Huggins has not. Unless you are predicting the future, then no, Huggins has not taken WV further than Beilein.

M-Wolverine

March 12th, 2010 at 3:03 PM ^

He's taken them to 2nd place in the Big East, which Beilein never did. And 5th place, which he did better than once. He's also going to take them to more NCAA Tournaments than Beilein, as of Sunday, guaranteed. Not counting everything that's still "possible" this year. (You could also say JB never took WV to 6/7 in the nation...which might go up). You didn't say Beilein has taken them further in the Tournament (which is silly, because only one of the two HAS coached in a Final Four), but said they were further AWAY from a National Championship. And while that Pittsnoggle team might have been 1 game away from going to the Final Four, they were miles away from being a National Championship team. This team is #6. They are closer. If they got there, they'd at least have a shot.

BigBlue02

March 12th, 2010 at 3:27 PM ^

You win a national championship by winning the NCAA tournament. To date, Huggins has not taken West Virginia as close to a national title as Beilein and nothing in your post suggest otherwise. Where you are ranked at the end of the season means nothing as Huggins had quite a few Bearcat teams that took a huge dump in the first and second round (like his 1st seed Cinci team or his 4th seed Cinci team that was knocked out before the 16). You say that Pittsnoggle team was miles away from being a National Championship team - how do you know WV won't exit in the 2nd round this year and also be miles away from a national title? You don't. This is why I said Huggins has yet to take them closer to a national title than Beilein. You could also argue that the only reason Huggy bear is doing so well is because Beilein took a crap WV basketball program and made them nationally relevant again.

BigBlue02

March 12th, 2010 at 4:05 PM ^

Because WV has been to seven sweet 16s and two elite 8's, with the last ones before Beilein became coach happening in 1959. To reiterate, he took them to their first elite 8 in nearly 50 years.

stankoniaks

March 12th, 2010 at 2:42 PM ^

I think Huggins is a very good recruiter and I like his offense and his physical style of basketball. I think his teams are generally tough, and he seems to get the most out of his teams during the regular season. However, I also remember a lot of choke jobs by his Cincy squads especially later in his tenure at UC. I remember it almost became an annual thing that his teams would choke in March. You also forget how attrocious his graduation rates were. Zero percent in the late 90s?!