There's a report from Wheeling, West Virginia that Kansas State coach Bob Huggins has accepted an offer to replace new Michigan coach John Beilein as the head coach of the West Virginia Mountaineers. It seems true - you can track a plane flying from West Virginia to Manhattan, Kanasas - and raises two questions.
First up, does this make the Beilein hire look better or worse?
Huggins is no fairy tale, his players are misbehaved, undisciplined and not all that bright but they can play basketball. He recruited like Nick Nolte in Blue Chips while at Cincinnati and had a great deal of on-court success with players like Nick Van Exel, Kenyon Martin and Ruben Patterson. His teams made the NCAAs every year from 1992 to 2005 and advanced to a Final Four, two Elite Eights and a Sweet Sixteen. He resigned in August of 2005 after an arrest for driving under the influence and the school was put on probation for the spate of problems with the law in 1998.
So he's no saint. But he's a winner and he is leaving Kansas State after a season that drastically turned around fortunes in the Little Apple. He had 20 wins, the first time the Wildcats hit that number since 1989, and landed a slew of big-time recruits despite K-State's losing tradition, unattractive geographical location and second-tier status in the state and Big 12 conference. He signed former O.J. Mayo teammate Bill Walker, McDonald's All-American Michael Beasley and other players who helped the team to its first winning conference record since the Big 12 began this year and garnered accolades as best incoming class for the next campaign.
Beilein was succesful while at West Virginia but he never got the kinds of players Huggins got at Cincy or K-State and West Virginia, while it isn't UCLA, was at least as attractive a destination as either of those schools. While Beilein is a great schemer who won games on the back of his superior game plans, Huggins' teams won because of superior talent. In a talent-rich state like Michigan, a master recruiter could really have made some hay quickly, a la the Fab Five or the Flintstones that brought Tom Izzo a crown. I don't think Michigan would have done it in a million years after the embarassing scandals that came about as a result of the Steve Fisher era but it wouldn't be half as embarassing as the now likely situation that West Virginia will outperform Michigan over the next few years with Huggins drawing his customary five star recruits. Beilein will really have to hustle to beat out Izzo and other top coaches for the best instate talent. Innovative, skill-specific systems like the ones he operate tend not to be so attractive to players of a certain talent level so Beilein has much to prove in the recruiting department.
The second question is for Kansas State and the answer won't be known for a little bit. Was it worth bringing Huggins in when any astute observer knew he would jump at the first chance for a more high-profile job? The answer is yes if the talented players he brought into town decide to stay in Manhattan even after the coach leaves town. They may want to look into promoting from within - three Huggins assistants Dalonte Hill, Frank Martin and Brad Underwood were credited with different recruiting coups so perhaps holding onto one of them as the head man could convince some of the talented youngsters to stay in town. But if Huggy takes all the sweets from the larder then K-State is right back where they started and have only a NIT berth to show for their relationship with the new head Mountaineer.
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