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Bob Huggins details process of West Virginia's final shot attempt

On3 imageby:Andrew Graham•03/16/23•

AndrewEdGraham

West Virginia is headed home from the NCAA Tournament after a 67-65 loss to Maryland in the Round of 64 on Thursday, even after the Mountaineers got a fairly good shot at the end of regulation. In his postgame press conference, head coach Bob Huggins thought it was about as good a look as one could expect.

Kedrian Johnson took a potential game-winning 3 with a bit more than a second left on the clock, all while pretty open — but from well beyond the line. Huggins wasn’t upset that they didn’t work the ball in closer, lest they not get a look at all.

“Four seconds to go. Four seconds to go, I wanted him to get it on the run, which he did. I wanted him to get it on the run to where he could get as close as he can get. It’s four seconds. You can’t look at a clock. You can’t look at a clock to see how much time’s left. He shot it before the time expired, which was great effort on his part,” Huggins said. “I mean, missed by an inch. What are you going to do?”

It was a difficult loss to swallow at a time where Huggins could be at an inflection point in his career. He’s been a head coach for 41 seasons, 16 at West Virginia. After the loss, the 69 year old was asked about his future and what it might hold.

“You know the only thing I’ve thought about in the last whatever month and a half was getting these guys to a point where they could come here,” Huggins told reporters. “Erik [Stevenson], for instance, had never played in an NCAA Tournament. We want to get those guys to an NCAA Tournament and experience the NCAA Tournament. Unfortunately, ours isn’t is going to be very long, but at least he got to play in one.

“I don’t know. It’s like anything else, you know. You probably got people who enjoy reading what you write, and there’s people who say I wouldn’t read a damn thing he writes. I got the same situation going on. I got people who think I should stay on for quite a while, and there’s people probably thinking I ought to pack it in and let some young kid come in and screw it up.”