Wren Baker reveals what role Bob Huggins played in naming replacement

West Virginia Athletics Director Wren Baker promoted Josh Eilert to interim head coach last week. Eilert is taking over for Bob Huggins, who resigned following a DUI arrest.

Prior to promoting Eilert, Baker said that he spoke with Huggins about the future of the program and who might be best to lead it. It still remains to be seen who will be the permanent head coach following the 2023-24 season.

“Coach Huggins and I had a conversation Sunday morning. And we got to express our love and appreciation for each other. It was emotional,” Baker said. “But I did ask him, ‘Is there anybody’ … I asked him both for characters and qualities that he thinks that I should be looking at. And then I asked if there were any particular names. Now that will stay confidential between he and I.”

The 69-year-old Huggins was the head coach at West Virginia from 2007-2023, leading the Mountaineers to the Final Four in 2010.

While his arrest for a DUI ultimately led to his resignation, the start of Huggins’ downfall began after he made viral headlines during a Cincinnati radio appearance in early May. Huggins called Xavier fans “Catholic f***” after describing them throwing things onto the court.

Afterwards, Huggins was suspended and his contract was amended, but he was still set to lead the Mountaineers program, prior to his arrest for DUI. While Huggins offered his opinion on who the next head coach should be, ultimately it was Baker’s choice to promote Eilert and Baker will have the final say on who the permanent head coach is.

“He told me, ‘Hey, I’ve got faith in you and go do your thing.’ I haven’t talked to him since then,” Baker said. “But he had a chance to… listen, he’s somebody who established a tremendous legacy here over a course of 16 years and he knows the program. And he knows the young men in our program. So I thought that was a valuable data point to have as well.”

Prior to coaching at West Virginia, Huggins served as the head coach at Cincinnati and Kansas State. He led the Bearcats to the Final Four in 1992. Huggins was named the Conference USA Coach of the Year three times and was named Big 12 Coach of the Year in 2015. He was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2022.

Eilert served as a grad assistant at Kansas State under Huggins, before going with him to West Virginia. He was on staff in several different roles for years, before being promoted to an assistant coach for the 2022-23 season. Now Eilert will get an opportunity as the interim head coach.