Huggins talks Big 12 hoops
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MORGANTOWN -- OK, nobody asks for the middle seat on an airplane, and most likely there wasn't one as you suspect West Virginia basketball coach Bob Huggins and Baylor coach Scott Drew were flying back from the Hall of Fame induction ceremonies in Springfield, Mass.
But let's pretend somehow, they were forced back into the coach section (an aside, shouldn't coaches really have to fly in the coach section?), like $4 or $5 million a year doesn't go quite as far as it used to. Wouldn't it be nice to sit there and hear their conversation?
Well, Drew let the cat out of the bag at Big 12 Men's Basketball Media Day on Wednesday and it was what you might expect it to be -- just how good the league they play in is.
"Coming back from New York with Coach Huggins was a great opportunity to just talk about the Big 12 and the success we've had," Drew said. "It's truly remarkable -- three straight years, different teams in the championship game. First conference to ever have that since 2002, 60% of the league being in Final Fours, more than any league.
"I know coaches, we all feel our leagues are the best, but the statistics behind it -- the NET, RP, six of the last nine years, the top-ranked league.
Huggins admits it caught him by surprise when he first got to the Big 12, first for a year with Kansas State, then the last 16 years now with his alma mater.
Being interviewed on ESPN+ at media day, Huggins said to his old coaching buddy Fran Fraschilla, who now does Big 12 games on television: "You didn't know it, I didn't know it until we got here. Then it was 'Wow!'
Kansas was national champion last year, Drew's Baylor team the season before.
The talent just seems to get deeper and deeper each season.
"I think if you take a look at the NBA draft picks over the years, it's incredible the amount of No. 1 picks, the first pick in the draft … there's great players in the league. And there's been great coaching in the league. How do you get better coaches than we've had in this league?"
Think about it … Huggins, Drew, Bill Self at Kansas, Chris Beard, Jamie Dixon and so many more moving in and out, including Bob Knight.
"Players want to play against the best, coaches want to coach against the best," Drew said. "When I first came into the league, I learned so much from coaches that were in the Big 12, from Eddie Sutton to Rick Barnes to Bobby Knight.
"Each and every night you get better going against Big 12 coaches. They're great coaches and they run great programs. So, it makes you improve each and every year."
"There's no easy out," Huggins added. "The guys that coach here -- and we show it to recruits all the time, the number of people from this league that have gone and not just played in the NBA but starred in the NBA. You don't do that unless you're a really good player. Players and coaches have made it a great league."
Huggins, of course, has been a coaching "groupie" his whole life and he has formed relationships with his peers, built not only on personalities, but upon respect.
Last year, when the NCAA Tournament was coming along, Huggins said that Self should go win a national and if he didn't get the job done, they should fire him. He was jesting, yes, but he also hit the jackpot picking Kansas.
"Bill and I are very good friends. I make light of him and we both laugh and go on," Huggins said, trying explain his humor and respect last year. "I thought he had a terrific team. I think he had a team (previously) that may have had a better starting five. I don't think he had a better (complete) team ever. They played so well together. They competed like crazy.
"And he did a great job of coaching, as he always does. But I really like his team. Of course, they whacked us twice, but I still liked them. I actually, for some reason, still like him," Huggins said.
You'll get no argument from Self.
"I think it's hard to say you're the best if you don't actually produce when it counts the most," he began. "And so, we've been like in the RPI or the NET, like the top team in the country six of the last seven years … and five of those years we didn't have anything to show for it at the end of the day and I think that means a lot.
"I know with us personally; we've had a large number of very good teams that basically were in the game and had a possibility of winning a national championship and didn't get it done. And we were able to do so this year and, of course, Baylor was able to do it last year. And, I think, Texas Tech was a jump shot away from doing it the previous year.
"I think those type of finishes are what elevates a league to be thought of, to be really, really good in the regular season, but win national titles and you can be thought of as the best overall."
The conference is so good that even the officials agree with the coaches about its strength. It's about time they agreed on something.
"This is the best basketball top to bottom without a doubt," said Curtis Shaw, the Big 12' head of officials. "When you talk to referees, you're going to hear them say it's the hardest league in the country to referee because every night they are going to be highly competitive. Anybody can win. And we've got such an array of talented players and coaches. Our coaching staffs from one through 10 are unparalleled."