Frank Martin shares update on Bob Huggins following his offseason arrest, end of WVU tenure

Frank Martin is there for Bob Huggins. On Tuesday, the UMass basketball head coach provided an update on Huggins, who parted ways with West Virginia in June due to a pair of public controversies, including a DUI arrest.

“He is gonna get back on that saddle. He has not had a drink since that day,” Martin said. “One day he’ll speak about exactly what transpired that day. It’s not my place to put that out there. It’s a little more complicated than the story that got put out there by people that just saw the end result and it’s sad that the end of West Virginia happened the way it did.”

Huggins was ousted from his role as head coach in late June after he was arrested in the Pittsburgh area for drinking and driving. Huggins reportedly blew a .210 on a breathalyzer test and stated to the officers who pulled him over that he thought he was in Ohio.

Six weeks prior to that, Huggins had appeared on a Cincinnati radio station and, while discussing Xavier’s basketball program, Huggins used an anti-gay slur while also denigrating the fact that Xavier is a Catholic university.

Despite Huggins’ obvious mistakes, Martin has sympathized with Huggins in the past. Martin worked as an assistant under Huggins at both Cincinnati and Kansas State from 2004-07. After Huggins’ arrest, Martin wrote a heartfelt message to his friend.

“Sitting in my car and I’m miserable. My heart is bleeding and my eyes are crying. I love you @CoachHuggs you are the brother I never had,” Martin wrote on Twitter.

Bob Huggins is on the road back

Huggins reportedly entered a 12-month diversion program to resolve his drunken drunken arrest with the court. Martin claims he can already see the improvement in Huggins since the incident.

“He’s in great spirits. He’s lost weight. He’s energetic,” Martin said. “He’s good for the game, man. He’s good for people and we we’re in a moment right now where, let’s not beat around the bush, we got guys that have been caught doing some really [bad] stuff that goes against the rules. And not that what he did is not against the rules, but that was a self-inflicted kind of deal.”

Despite any controversy, Huggins was a successful head coach. The 70-year-old head coach left WVU as the third-winningest coach all-time in Division I with 935 career victories, trailing only Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski and Syracuse’s Jim Boeheim, both of whom are retired.

Martin intends on bringing Huggins to UMass’ practice.

“He’s in a great space spiritually health wise. You feel him on the phone. I’m bringing him out,” Martin said. “He’s running the practice. I’m putting him up there. They think I’m bad, wait till they deal with Hugs on the sideline.”

On3’s Andrew Graham also contributed to this article.