WVU director of athletics Wren Baker met with the media on Wednesday afternoon following the announcement to move on from men’s basketball interim HC Josh Eilert. Baker was asked about former WVU HC Bob Huggins being involved in any way for the coaching search, either as a candidate or someone to take advice from.
“I think in terms of candidates, I rather not get into any individual names. I think here’s where you can say my mindset is. I have great admiration, respect and appreciation for what coach did here. I’ve said that multiple times,” Baker said. “But I think you can be respectable of the past and still be focused on the future. Where my mindset is right now, I need to be focused on the future.”
“It doesn’t probably answer that question as directly as maybe you would’ve liked but I think you can read into that,” Baker added.
Baker isn’t lying, he has given the Basketball Hall of Fame coach a lot of praise during his short time as West Virginia’s AD. Within Baker’s first six months on the job, he had to pivot the men’s basketball program as Huggins had back-to-back episodes of embarrassing the University and program. Baker promoted then-assistant Eilert following Huggins’ DUI arrest in June, helping to smooth the transition in any way possible.
Huggins spent 16 seasons as West Virginia’s head coach, taking the Mountaineers to 11 NCAA Tournament appearances, highlighted by a Final Four run in 2010. Huggins won 345 games at WVU, while reaching 935 wins in his career to become third on the all-time wins list.
By how Baker answered that question, it sounds like a clear no that WVU will reconsider Huggins back on the job.
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