Bob Huggins officially inducted into Hall of Fame

It’s now official: West Virginia head coach Bob Huggins has been inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, per a tweet from the Hall of Fame, confirming a previous report that he’d be included in the Class of 2022.

Congratulations to #22HoopClass honoree Bob Huggins, who led teams to 25 NCAA Tournament Appearances, 2 NCAA Final Fours and over 900+ career wins. pic.twitter.com/Ad6oOvbJVq

— Basketball HOF (@Hoophall) April 2, 2022

Huggins, 68, has been coaching in the college ranks since 1977, when he first landed a job at West Virginia, his alma mater, and he was first named West Virginia’s head coach in 2007. The former Ohio (1972-73) and West Virginia (1975-77) point guard has served as an assistant at West Virginia, Ohio State and UCF, while holding the head-coaching title at Walsh, Akron, Cincinnati, Kansas State and now West Virginia. Huggins has amassed a 916-399 overall record in his coaching career, along with a 34-25 record in the NCAA Tournament.

Huggins has twice won the NCAA Tournament region in which his program was placed, while also capturing an OVC regular-season and tournament title, four Great Midwest Tournament titles, a Big East Tournament title, eight Conference-USA regular-season titles and four Conference-USA Tournament titles. He was named the C-USA Coach of the Decade, after receiving Coach of the Year honors three consecutive seasons, in addition to an OVC Coach of the Year award and a Big 12 Coach of the Year award.

“This is something that you cherish,” Huggins said on an ESPN2 broadcast, per West Virginia Metro News. “It’s kind of like the kid at Christmas waiting for mom to say, ‘OK, you can open up your presents.’”

Huggins joins a loaded 2022 induction class that includes Swin Cash, Manu Ginobli, George Karl, Lindsay Whalen, Hugh Evans, Marianne Stanley, Del Harris, Theresa Shank-Grentz and three posthumous honorees in Lou Hudson, Larry Costello and Radivoj Korac.

Huggins has coached in two Final Fours — with Cincinnati in 1992 and with West Virginia in 2010. He also has three Conference USA Coach of the Year awards and won Big 12 Coach of the Year in 2015. Through his lengthy career as a head coach, Huggins has a 916-399 record, including a 34-25 mark in the NCAA Tournament, and has coached in 12 postseasons.

This past year was a rough go for West Virginia, though. The Mountaineers went 16-17 overall and 4-14 in Big 12 action to miss out on the postseason for the first time since 2013, not counting 2020 when postseason tournaments were canceled due to COVID-19.

Huggins — along with the rest of the 2022 Hall of Fame induction class — will be honored from Sept. 9-10 at the Mohegan Sun Casino in Uncasville, Connecticut, not too far from the Hall of Fame’s location in Springfield, Massachusetts.