Huggins has Mountaineers playing well
While top-ranked Baylor and third-ranked Kansas are getting most of the publicity in the Big 12, West Virginia is ranked 12th and playing really good basketball.
Bob Huggins and his 12th-ranked team are 16-3 overall and in third place in the conference.
WVU is playing physical and suffocating defense, and is controlling the paint behind 6-10 sophomore Derek Culver and 6-9 freshman Oscar Tshiebwe.
The Mountaineers are forcing a turnover on almost 25 percent of their opponents鈥� possessions after six conference games.
Third place may be WVU鈥檚 ceiling in the conference because of how talented Baylor and Kansas are, but time will tell.
The Mountaineers are two weeks, and four games, away from facing the Bears and Jayhawks. WVU hosts Kansas on Feb. 12, before heading to Baylor three days later.
Then, on March 7, WVU hosts Baylor to close the regular season.
The Mountaineers have the potential to make a solid run in the Big 12 tournament and could make some noise in March Madness.
How far can Huggins move up the win list? Huggins earned his 876th career win on Saturday when WVU defeated Missouri.
The win tied Huggins for seventh place all-time with Adolph Rupp, and the question is, how far up the all-time wins list can the 66-year old Huggins land? With his next win, Huggins will be in sixth. In front of him in fifth place is Dean Smith with 879 career wins.
Current UNC coach Roy Williams is fourth with 880 wins, and with the Tar Heels struggling, could Huggins catch him this year?
Bob Knight is third with 902 career wins, Jim Boeheim is second with 959 wins and counting, while Mike Krzyzewski leads the way with 1,148 wins heading into Duke鈥檚 game Tuesday night against Pitt.
Huggins, and Williams for that matter, should catch Knight unless they choose to retire after this season. If Boeheim decided to retire, it would take Huggins about 90 more wins to catch him for second place all-time.
As far as Krzyzewski? Coach K is 272 wins ahead of Huggins and even if Coach K never won another game, it would take Huggins more than a decade to catch him.
Huggins is 876-363 seasons as a head coach in 38 seasons with stops at Walsh College (1980-83), Akron (1984-89), Cincinnati (1989-2005), Kansas State (2006-07), and WVU.
(While Walsh is not a Division I school, the NCAA honors all wins by coaches who coach at least 10 seasons at the D-I level.)
Huggins has led teams to nine Sweet Sixteen appearances, four Elite Eight spots and two Final Fours with Cincinnati (1992) and West Virginia (2010).
Crazy Stats of the Week
Everyone always talks about the Duke and North Carolina rivalry in college basketball being one of, if not, the top rivalries in all of sports.
However, fans in the Raleigh/Durham-Chapel Hill triangle area know that North Carolina State should be thrown into the mix, as well.
UNC defeated N.C. State Monday night for the 31st time in 35 head-to-head match-ups with Williams as the head coach of the Tar Heels.
Rivalries are supposed to be more even than that, and Williams鈥� record against the Wolfpack is outstanding.
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