As West Virginia University starts its national search for a new basketball coach, megadonor Ken Kendrick says there is no way on earth he would support former Coach Bob Huggins.
Huggins submitted a resignation letter last June following an arrest for driving under the influence. Just weeks earlier, Huggins was suspended and faced a $1 million salary reduction after using disparaging remarks about gay and Catholic people on a Cincinnati radio program.
In July, Huggins demanded his own reinstatement, later publicly denied some of the circumstances of his drunken driving arrest, continued to attend WVU basketball games and was perpetually rumored to be interested in returning to the Mountaineer sideline.
“I just want to coach,” Huggins has said.
Today, following a season helmed by interim Coach Josh Eilert, WVU announced a national search will commence.
Huggins, 70, should not bother freshening up his LinkedIn profile, said Kendrick, a WVU graduate, principal owner of the Arizona Diamondbacks and co-founder of Country Roads Trust, which is the name, image and likeness collective supporting the Mountaineers.
“I think WVU, in their handling of the Bob Huggins debacle, probably were too lenient with him. Had he worked for me, he would have not had a job after he engaged in this vituperative series of homophobic remarks back in the spring and then was retained under very difficult circumstances and then lost his job as a result of a drunken stupor, I will call it,” Kendrick said.
“It’s the second time he lost his job because of drunkenness. It may not be remembered by many, but it is by me. He was let go by Cincinnati for exactly the same reason. So I think he has no place in the lives of young men who deserve quality leadership. So I would be one who would wonder about the mental capacity of any leader of any university who would consider hiring him for a coaching position.”
Huggins, who was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2022, was a player for WVU from 1975 to 1977 and then returned as head coach from 2007 to 2023, racking up 345 coaching wins. His overall coaching record is 935-414. His 2010 Mountaineer team made the Final Four, and another Mountaineer squad made the Elite Eight.
After his arrest last summer, Huggins entered into a 12-month alcohol diversion program.
Kendrick would be a “hard no” on his return.
“Instead of being in the hall of fame, he should be in the hall of shame, to be blunt,” Kendrick said. “Alcoholism is a disease, and he’s had that disease for a long time.
“But his future with WVU sports is totally at an end. And anyone who would think he should be considered — I’d really question whether they ought to seek some counseling.”