ESPN's Pete Thamel reveals what's next for West Virginia men's basketball following Bob Huggins resignation

Bob Huggins is out at West Virginia due to multiple incidents, and Pete Thamel of ESPN has all the latest on what’s next for the Mountaineers.

The now-former West Virginia men’s basketball coach tendered his resignation following DUI arrest on Saturday, which followed a past controversy involving Huggins using multiple slurs in a radio interview. While he survived the first incident by the skin of his teeth, another irresponsible act landed Huggins out of a job.

In a hit on SportsCenter on Sunday, Thamel explained where West Virginia goes from here, and where the Mountaineers will look to replace Huggins.

“West Virginia officials found out about Bob Huggins’ arrest early on Saturday, and it quickly became clear it would be difficult for a path for Huggins to exist to return as West Virginia’s coach,” explained Thamel. “You mentioned six weeks ago, the multiple slurs on a Cincinnati radio station. West Virginia officials received significant criticism for their path for bringing Huggins back in the wake of that incident One of the things that they did that didn’t get a lot of attention was that they changed Huggins’ contract, essentially making it a year to year deal. So essentially West Virginia controlled Huggins’ future from here on out, and it was widely speculated and expected that this would’ve been Bob Huggins’ last season as the head coach of West Virginia. Well that timeline sped up on Saturday. Huggins eventually, after engaging with administrators, tendered a resignation late last night. He met with his team around 9 p.m. ET, told them the news.

“From here, West Virginia officials are going to conduct a national search. They’ll certainly acknowledge and speak with any interim candidates from the current staff, but there’s a feeling at West Virginia, with the Country Roads Collective and the same NIL muscle that allowed them to bring in one of the top portal classes this season, that West Virginia’s going to be an attractive job for coaches, who are now looking more and more at schools that can allow them to assemble top rosters. So a national search, and expect them to move quickly. They’re such a talented roster sitting on campus, there’s going to be an urgency to keep those players around.”

Alas, it makes sense that West Virginia would want to move quickly. As Thamel mentioned, they don’t want to mess with the solid roster they have at the moment, and distancing themselves from the Huggins’ situation would be a bonus.

Time will tell where the Mountaineers land, but Bob Huggins won’t be a part of their future, that’s for sure.