LAWRENCE, Kan. — He still cuts such a hulking, incredulous figure along the West Virginia bench, attacking calls the way his pressing defenders attack dribblers. Bob Huggins, even at the allegedly mellowed age of 61, doesn’t let slide any debatable whistle, and this season, the number of whistles is giving him ample cause to debate.
Yet even as the Mountaineers approach a school record for fouls committed in a season, Huggins isn’t faulting the refs.
“We’ve got to get smarter,” the coach said Saturday, minutes after Baylor beat his team 78-66 thanks in no small portion to a 33-12 edge in free throws. It was West Virginia’s largest disparity this season.
Though a harassing approach and briskness of play were bound to result in more infractions, the uptick has exceeded Huggins’ tolerance: 673 fouls that currently rank as the third-most nationally. (By contrast last year’s Mountaineers—when the freedom-of-movement officiating emphasis led to a pandemic of stoppages—committed 684 fouls in 33 games. WVU should surpass that figure by halftime Tuesday night at the Phog, most likely on a Jonathan Holton reach-in 85 feet from the basket.)
Sure, Huggins still bucks and barks and spreads his arms in disbelief, and seems contractually bound to spending portions of every timeout needling officials. Yet he readily admits his players must do their part to defend with an acceptable level of physicality.
“We make dumb fouls and the dumb fouls add up,” Huggins said. “We can’t win with (opponents making) a continual parade to the foul line—we just can’t. So we need to do a better job of keeping our hands off.”
In all of Division I, only Morehead State (23.3) commits more fouls per game than the Mountaineers (23.2), who nonetheless have won big and still have an outside shot at the Big 12 championship. (Succeeding while fouling so frequently makes WVU an outlier: The remainder of the nation’s 30 most foul-prone teams own a combined .389 winning percentage.)
West Virginia has built a 10-6 Big 12 record despite a shooting 90 fewer free throws than its opponents during conference action. Iowa State owns the best free-throw margin at plus-118 with Baylor next at plus-51.
Holton’s 97 fouls top the Big 12, as do his five disqualifications, a proclivity currently limiting the front-man on Huggins’ press to 20 minutes per game. (At K-State, Holton received a technical after only 19 seconds for playing his version of “screaming” defense on a ballhandler. In Ames, he waited 33 seconds before grabbing a Cyclone on the wing opposite the ball).
Holton has earned a grabby reputation, but teammates Devin Williams and Jaysean Paige also have fouled out three times each, tying them for third in the league.
That’s not surprising to K-State coach Bruce Weber, who claimed the Mountaineers “foul on every play.” He also suggested what many followers have been surmising: West Virginia’s path through the NCAA tournament may depend more upon the leniency of the officiating crews it draws than the bracket matchups.
On several occasions, Huggins wondered if officials were being overly vigilant against the Mountaineers’ trapping tactics, though ultimately, the players have the burden of acclimating to the whistles.
“When (opponents) are coming down and pushing, it ought to be a foul on them as well,” he said. “But we’ve got to do a better job and not get frustrated, because they’re going to miss calls. You could put 10 officials out there and they’re going to miss calls because the game’s so fast.”