Truly a Huggy Bear

One of the best photos of the year in sports!

Another great article on Bob Huggins from Thomas Beisner. I have always had great respect for Huggins. I also went to his basketball camp and got to see Huggins in a different light, just like the entire nation did Saturday night.

If you're a West Virginia fan, things really couldn't have gone much worse for you on Saturday night. Your team got beaten on the boards and their usually stout defense suddenly disappeared, allowing Duke to shoot 53% from the field and their "Big 3" of Kyle Singler, Jon Scheyer and Nolan Smith to combine for 63 points, 17 assists and 12 rebounds. And, worst of all, your All-American senior Da'Sean Butler put up one of the worst stat lines you could have hoped for: 10 points, three rebounds and one awful knee injury.
It was that knee injury, though, which occurred about midway through the second half, that gave West Virginia something they could smile about on a night that they'd been waiting for since 1959.
Bob Huggins.
Mountaineer fans don't have to be told what a great coach they have in Morgantown. They've seen it on the court the past three years as the homegrown coaching titan has racked up 80 wins, 31 of which came this year. But, outside of West Virginia's state lines, Bob Huggins' name doesn't quite carry the same reverence.
Few coaches in the game get as much flack from fans and media as Bob Huggins (including the devilish one on the opposing sideline for this game). Some of it's because he's short with the media. Some of it is because of the physical nature of his teams. Some probably stems from his DUI arrest and, honestly, some of it is probably because the guy has more track suits than Carl Lewis. But, as his star player laid twisting in pain after his leg gave out on him, Bob Huggins was as far removed from that "monster in a track suit" reputation he's found affixed to himself.
After taking a verbal shot at the referee in defense of Butler, Huggins huddled over the senior, held his head and tried to calm him down by whispering closely. He wiped tears off of Butler's eyes and clutched him as if he was his own child. When it was time for Butler to leave the court, Bob Huggins stood, visibly shaken and teary-eyed.
It was a glimpse into a close bond that Huggins so famously develops between his players and, I'm proud to say, it's the type of kindness that I've been privileged to experience.
When I was 13, I attended the Bob Huggins Basketball Camp at the University of Cincinnati and, despite being about 6'5" and in the eighth grade, no one was mistaking me for a prospect. I was one of the kids who was there just to step on the floor at the Shoemaker Center and see Danny Fortson up close. You didn't have to pass a skills test to get into the camp and I can promise you that none of the coaches were starting a "Thomas Beisner" file.
I learned pretty quickly, though, that that didn't really matter much.
On one of my first nights at the camp, stuck without a roommate or a television, I left the dorm and wandered over to the gym, figuring that I'd just shoot around and kill some time. After messing around for awhile, I heard someone walking through the gym behind me and turned to see the man whose name was printed on my t-shirt in size-52 font. Yep, Bob Huggins was in the building. And I was terrified.
I figured this encounter would end with me either getting in trouble and getting kicked out or with Cincinnati's head coach completely ignoring the most awkward evening workout in Bearcat history and just walking away. Instead, much to my 13-year old surprise, I got an introduction and a private 20-minute instruction session with a coach who was just a few months removed from the Elite Eight and surely had something better to do at 9pm than work with a talent-less eighth-grader.
For those twenty minutes, he was a lot more "Huggy Bear" than he ever shows on TV and he helped me with mechanics on my jump shot, making me flick my wrist and bend my Osgood Schlatter knees more. Not realizing what a hopeless endeavor it was, he had me fire off jumper after jumper, observing and rebounding (when they came close to him), giving me the attentiveness one would show their own kid. He made small talk with me about my Texas high school and I think he even smiled a few times. He seemed to be enjoying working with this lanky, acne-faced teenager as much as this lanky, acne-faced teenager enjoyed working with him.
As you might expect, my basketball career didn't work out too well. Despite Huggins' best efforts that night in the Shoemaker Center, I never got a sniff of a D-1 scholarship and I never ended up in Rivals' database. I'm pretty sure that I didn't even get to meet Danny Fortson that week. But, for the past 13 years, I've carried an incredible memory and a great deal of respect for Bob Huggins that has nothing to do with his wins and losses. After watching his touching moment with Da'Sean Butler on Saturday, I think the whole nation just might too.




Huggins displays lovable side few believed exists
mike freeman www.sportsline.com
INDIANAPOLIS -- If you hated Bob Huggins before, you can't now. The emotion should be physically impossible unless your heart is made of titanium. Or you don't have one.
In the second half of Duke's rumble over West Virginia it was Huggins who initiated what has to be the most moving scene of this year's NCAA tournament. It's actually one of the more touching visuals the tournament has ever witnessed.
When Da'Sean Butler collapsed to the floor after his knee buckled, Huggins moved onto the court to comfort his star player. What happened next was an amazing piece of imagery. Huggins wrapped his arms around the head of Butler to comfort him as the stadium went quiet.
The embrace by Huggins was caught by cameras and in one fell swoop it likely changed the image of Huggins forever.
While Huggins is still the grumpy, Tony Soprano sweatsuit-wearing, foul-mouthed hard charger, his sincere embrace of Butler also demonstrated the side of Huggins his players always talk about but few people seem to actually believe.
There's a soft side to Huggins. That's what the embrace of Butler demonstrated. He isn't just a careerist. He cares about the players, and in a college basketball world that's become far too cold and corporate it was a nice thing to see.
Butler remembers apologizing to Huggins for being injured and Huggins saying back to him: "Don't be sorry. I love you."
Both men seemed to know at the time that the injury was extremely serious. They were right. CBSSports.com's Gary Parrish confirmed that Butler experienced a torn ACL, a sprained MCL and two bone bruises in that left knee. Thus the injury didn't just impact Butler for the game; it's going to impact his NBA Draft status as well.
"Well, you know, I started coaching Da'Sean when he was a sophomore," Huggins remembered. "Joe Alexander had the breakout year. They told me he was very happy kind of being Joe's sidekick, you know. Everybody trying to stop Joe, enabling him to be able to do things. And then his junior year, I think the first exhibition game, he got 36 or 38, and he was in the locker room apologizing that he shot the ball too much, he didn't get his teammates involved. I was like, 'Come here, man, I need to talk to you. If we're going to have any chance, you're going to have to score the ball for us.'

"You know, he's done it. I didn't think he was as assertive today as what, you know, he has been. If you can be too good a guy, he's too good a guy. He really is concerned about everybody else and getting his teammates involved. And he doesn't want to hurt the team in any way. But, I mean, when you're the third leading scorer anywhere behind Jerry West and Hot Rod Huntley, you've had a heck of a career. And he's done it with class, he's done it with dignity."

Huggins has a heart the size of West Virginia.

Join Our College Bracket Pick Em Contest for Free

shortcut click here

Please join us in our march madness brackets for free. Go to yahoo.com and go to fantasy and click on tournament pick em and then join group, put in this group id
Group ID #81227 and the password is justbs

Last 3 NCAA College Basketball Champs Won their Conference Tourney's

Good article on how important the conference tournaments are from www.nbcsports.com's Ken Davis

League tourney title a boost to winning it all
Last 3 champs all won conference tournaments, but it's not required

On the way to the 2008 national championship, Kansas defeated Texas 84-74 to capture the Big 12 tournament championship. The Jayhawks celebrated the addition of another trophy for the Allen Fieldhouse display case, but that one victory accomplished much more than that. It avenged an important regular-season loss to the Longhorns and gave Kansas the No. 1 seed in the NCAA Midwest Regional.
Beyond that, it helped establish the reputation of junior guard Mario Chalmers as a clutch performer in big-time games. Chalmers hit eight three-pointers and scored a career-high 30 points that day against Texas.
“It’s the greatest game of my college career,” Chalmers said.
That self-assessment would later require amendment. Chalmers, of course, hit the three-pointer that forced overtime against Memphis in the national championship game. But the Jayhawks walked away from that Big 12 tournament trusting Chalmers a little more and feeling much more confident as a team. Perhaps they would have gone on to win the national title even if they had lost to Texas, but history will record the moment as the seventh consecutive victory in a 13-game winning streak.
NCAA tournament history was made in 2008 when all four No. 1 seeds reached the Final Four in San Antonio. And like Kansas, Memphis, UCLA and North Carolina also advanced to the final weekend after winning their conference tournaments.
That’s pretty impressive stuff. It also reflects the perfect symmetry of last year’s tournament. Those four teams were the best of the best. They proved it in their own neighborhoods and were rewarded with top seeds. Then they proved it under the toughest circumstances of all, surviving those first four steps on the way to the Final Four.
Along the way, at least for one year, they also quieted the argument that winning a conference tournament may not be the best idea. That theory is based on the belief that exerting so much energy over a three- or four-day period isn’t worth it in terms of the big picture.
Some say a coach can’t have the best of both worlds. He can’t push his team to win the three-day sprint and then hope to have enough left to successfully execute the six-game marathon required of national champions.
The last three title teams, Kansas and Florida, along with Connecticut in 2004, did win their conference tournaments. But UNC in 2005 and Syracuse in 2003 and Maryland in 2002 did not.
And as some conferences grow larger, the task has become even more demanding for teams that don’t qualify for the luxury of a bye (or in today’s Big East a double-bye).
In 2006, Syracuse opened the Big East tournament as the No. 9 seed but became the first team from that conference to win four consecutive games and the automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.
“That was really unbelievable,” Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim said. “Outside of winning the national championship [in 2003], there’s never been a better stretch of basketball for me. To beat the teams we had to beat and do it four days in a row was an unbelievable experience.”
But the strain of four consecutive days on the court took its toll. Gerry McNamara had played magnificent — if not magical — basketball leading the Orange through the Big East games but injuries caught up with him the next week and Syracuse was eliminated in the first round of the NCAA Tournament by Texas A&M 66-58.
The cynics would say that proved their point. But this is college basketball. There are no absolute truths and certainly no formulas that are proven successful 100 percent of the time.
What worked last year may not function at all this season. North Carolina was once viewed as invincible, with the potential to go undefeated. We now know that won’t happen. It appears there are eight or nine teams capable of winning the national championship. Based on recent history, the winner will likely be a No. 1 or No. 2 seed, but without a dominant team, this field is wide open.
And heading into Championship Week, it’s highly doubtful you will find any coach or any player who admits he wants to lose, get some rest and then move on to the NCAA Tournament.
No one thinks that way. There’s really nothing quite like the experience of being king of your own neighborhood, especially when that title earns you an automatic bid to the main event.
There’s plenty of time for rest after April 6.

The Latest Bubble Watch of who is in and who is out in College Basketball

College Basketball Bubble Watch
Bubble watch: Calculating at-large possibilities
It's Championship Week. There's no reason to dawdle. Let's get straight to the updated look at the at-large picture.
Here are the teams that are "locks" or "should be in"s from the six biggest conferences:

ACC: Duke, North Carolina, Clemson, Miami
Big East: Georgetown, UConn, Louisville, Notre Dame, Pitt, Marquette, West Virginia
Big Ten: Wisconsin, Indiana, Purdue, Michigan State
Big 12: Kansas, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas State, Baylor
Pac-10: UCLA, Stanford, Washington State, USC
SEC: Tennessee, Vanderbilt, Mississippi State

Assuming there are no surprise automatic-bid winners from these leagues, that means 21 of the 34 at-large bids are accounted for, leaving 13 up for grabs.
Next, three leagues are in very good shape to get two teams in:

WCC: Gonzaga, Saint Mary's
Missouri Valley: Drake, Illinois State
Mountain West: BYU and (right now) UNLV

That would leave 10 at-large bids. That number could drop, though, if any of the following teams don't win their conference tournaments:
C-USA: Memphis (lock)
Horizon: Butler (lock)
Sun Belt: South Alabama (should be in)
MAC: Kent State (should be in)
A-10: Xavier (lock)
CAA: VCU (bubble candidate)
SoCon: Davidson (bubble candidate)

The most likely scenario right now is that seven or eight bids will remain, assuming two or three of those teams won't win their respective conference tourneys.
From the remaining teams, Arizona, Arizona State, UMass, Arkansas, Texas A&M and Kentucky look to be best-positioned right now, but most of those teams face extremely important quarterfinal games in their conference tourneys, so that picture could change in a hurry.
If all those teams do hang on to their current position, that leaves a maximum of four bids -- and more likely just one or two -- for the following group of teams (listed in alphabetical order): Dayton, Florida, Houston, Maryland, Mississippi, New Mexico, Ohio State, Oregon, Saint Joe's, Syracuse, Temple, UAB, Villanova, Virginia Tech, Western Kentucky. Davidson and VCU also are possibilities.
As always, the records listed are Division I only, per NCAA Tournament selection guidelines.
to read more click here

HERE ARE THE TEAMS THAT ARE AT THE TOP OF THE BUBBLE AS OF NOW!
Leading contenders ...
Arkansas
Record
20-10, 9-7 SEC
Pros
An RPI and SOS hovering around the top 40. 5-4 vs. RPI top 50, 8-6 vs. RPI top 100. Wins of note: Vanderbilt, Baylor, Mississippi, Mississippi State and VCU.
Cons
A 5-9 record on the road -- lost last five road games. Four losses to teams outside the RPI top 100.
Outlook
The black eye on the Razorbacks' resumé is their inability to win away from home. But when compared to what else is out there they should garner a bid. At least one win in the SEC tourney should clinch it.
Last game
def. Auburn 77-64
Remaining schedule
March 13-16 -- SEC Tournament
Kentucky
Record
18-12, 12-4 SEC
Pros
An SOS in the top 15. An RPI hovering around the top 50. Winners of 11 of their past 13 to reach 12 wins in SEC play. Wins of note: Tennessee, Vanderbilt, Arkansas, Mississippi and Florida.
Cons
All their top victories came at home. A dismal out-of-conference mark that included losses to San Diego and Gardner-Webb. A 4-7 record vs. the RPI top 50 and 5-9 against the top 100.
Outlook
Their only losses in the past 13 are at Vandy and at Tennessee. They're in the exact opposite boat as Mississippi, which dominated out of conference and struggled in the SEC. The selection committee may take into consideration they were adjusting to a new coach early in the season and some injury issues.
Last game
def. Florida 75-70
Remaining schedule
March 13-16 -- SEC Tournament
Baylor
Record
21-9, 9-7 Big 12
Pros
Won four of past five games. An RPI and SOS ranked solidly in the top 40. Wins of note: Notre Dame, Texas A&M, Kansas State and swept Texas Tech.
Cons
A non-conference SOS in the triple-digits. Stretch in which they lost six of seven Big 12 games. A 3-8 mark vs. the RPI top 50.
Outlook
The Bears seemed to have found their footing again after that little rough patch. Their record against the RPI top 50 isn't pretty, but there aren't many bubble teams who fare much better in that department. If they can get at least one win in the Big 12 tourney, they should feel pretty good about their chances of garnering a bid.
Last game
def. Texas Tech 86-73
Remaining schedule
March 13-16 -- Big 12 Tournament
Kansas State
Record
20-10, 10-6 Big 12
Pros
An SOS that ranks in the top 25. An RPI just outside the top 40. Finished third in Big 12. Wins of note: Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas A&M.
Cons
A 5-8 mark away from home. A 6-9 mark vs. the RPI top 100. Lost five of last eight games.
Outlook
They've won their last two following a four-game losing streak, but the victories came vs. Big 12 cellar dwellers Colorado and Iowa State. They're in an OK position for a bid, but they'd do themselves well to pick up a couple wins in the Big 12 tourney.
Last game
def. Iowa State 73-69
Remaining schedule
March 13-16 -- Big 12 Tournament

Ohio State
Record
19-12, 10-8 Big Ten
Pros
Strong non-conference and overall schedule. An RPI just inside the top 50. Wins of note: Michigan State, Purdue, Syracuse and Florida.
Cons
A 3-9 record vs. teams in the RPI top 50. Losses at Iowa and Michigan.
Outlook
The Buckeyes have likely played their way into the Dance with back-to-back victories vs. Top 25 teams following a four-game losing streak. Their schedule is among the toughest in the nation, but it didn't help that up until the last week they had basically lost all of those tough games on top of losses to Iowa and Michigan.
Last game
def. Michigan State 63-54
Remaining schedule
March 13-16 -- Big Ten Tournament
Massachusetts
Record
21-9, 10-6 Atlantic 10
Pros
Hovering around the top 40 in the RPI. Six-game win streak. Wins of note: Dayton, Syracuse, Houston and swept Rhode Island.
Cons
A so-so SOS. They were struggling in conference play for a time -- losing five of seven -- but current win streak has pushed their conference record well above .500. Swept by Saint Joseph's.
Outlook
They're definitely winning at the right time, but not safe just yet. A lot could still depend how the A-10 tourney plays out. For instance, how would a third loss to Saint Joseph's impact them?
Last game
def. G. Washington 67-63
Remaining schedule
March 12-15 -- A-10 Tournament
TO READ MORE ON THE CONTENDERS CLICK HERE