Wren Baker, Josh Eilert address lasting impact of Bob Huggins at West Virginia

Through the good, the bad and the ugly, former West Virginia head coach Bob Huggins left a lasting impact on the Mountaineers program. As West Virginia athletic director Wren Baker introduced interim basketball head coach Josh Eilert to the media, the two talked about Huggins impact at the school.

“In the time I spent with Coach Huggins, we never had a cross word,” Baker said. “I’ve got immense respect for him. I’ve had a chance to work with two Hall of Famers now, Eddie Sutton and then him. Learned a lot from both of them. He certainly has done a tremendous amount for the University, for the basketball program, for cancer research and a variety of other things. My hope and intention is that on a personal level, I’ll always have a friendship and respect with Coach Huggins. But from an institutional perspective, he’s an important part of our history and we’re going to honor and recognize that in an appropriate way as we move forward.”

Huggins resigned from the school, which is also his alma mater, on June 17. The decision came one day after he was arrested for drunk driving with a BAC of 0.21%, well about the legal limit of 0.08%.

The offseason had been a rocky one for Huggins, who was previously suspended for the first three games of the upcoming season after he used a homophobic slur during a radio appearance.

“The last couple of months is I know not what he wanted to happen,” Baker said. “Certainly isn’t something that we wanted to happen. But it is what it is and time has a way of healing all wounds. I think as time goes along, there’ll be more and more focus on all of the positive things that happened here during his time. Certainly, what’s happened the last few weeks will not impact my relationship with him and I don’t think it’ll have much of an impact with the University’s relationship with him.

Eilert has worked with Huggins for nearly the past two decades, starting out as a graduate assistant at Kansas State and then following Huggins to West Virginia.

With the Mountaineers, he has served in a variety of roles, including as an assistant coach and director of basketball operations.

“The first thing I think of is the conversation I had with him on Sunday morning,” Eilert said. “He gave me a call. It was early and he just sounded at peace. He really did. The fact that they named me the head coach…I was able to carry the torch and he just sounded at peace. He talked about the day before how many small mouth bass he caught on the lake. So he’s getting some time to reflect and do some things. I know he’s got a extreme amount of remorse for what happened in the last month. He owns those mistakes and we’re gonna move on.”

Huggins leaves West Virginia with a 345–203 record and one Final Four appearance.

“Like he said, time heals all wounds,” Eilert said. “There’ll be a time that we really take his legacy and his, what, 16 years here and we really celebrate that. He’s been a huge influential part of my life and that’s not gonna change.”