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Almost exactly one hour after Jim Boeheim’s Orange completed its 78-62 March Madness upset over SDSU, West Virginia put the finishing touches on Bob Huggins’ 900th career win in dismantling the overmatched No. 14 Morehead State.

Huggins joined Boeheim and four others in the 900-win club. And with the victories, Boeheim and Huggins — two inextricably linked coaches for years — have a date in the second round. 

“One of the best coaches in college basketball history, coach Huggins,” Boeheim said postgame. “And they’re a really good basketball team. I don’t know who is going to win, but whoever wins is really good.” 

West Virginia and Syracuse, former Big East rivals, have met six times with Boeheim and Huggins stalking the sidelines. The Orange are 5-1 in those contests and have won five in a row. SU has outscored WVU by 12 in the aggregate. But those records don’t matter when No. 11 Syracuse (17-9, 9-7 Atlantic Coast) meets No. 3 West Virginia (19-9, 11-6 Big 12) in the second round Sunday evening. 

And though West Virginia and Syracuse haven’t shared a court since 2012, there’s still history between the teams. 

Boeheim well-aware of his success against ‘Huggy Bear’ 

In a 2011 dustup between Boeheim and a local reporter, Huggins got caught in the crossfire. 

The gripe centered around a story written about how Boeheim has struggled in head-to-head matchups with Rick Pitino. Boeheim pushed back against this claim and pointed to his record against other great coaches — including Huggins. 

“There are some coaches in the hall of fame that I’ve beat 80% of the time,” Boeheim said. “And you’re going to look at a couple of coaches that beat me? I’ve coached against Rick Pitino when he was at Providence five times and once at Kentucky, where we were 6-0 against them. One of his teams went to the Final Four, we beat them three times … Coach Huggins is a pretty good coach. I’ve got a good record against him. He wasn’t in there, though. I guess he’s not that good a coach.”

Controversial ending to most recent matchup

With 26 seconds left, West Virginia had a chance to tie or win the game with the ball down 63-61. The game was in the Carrier Dome in 2012, and the Orange were 21-1 at the time. 

A WVU guard missed everything on a 3-point attempt, but center Deniz Kilicli cleaned up the air ball and put it back to send the game into overtime. Orange center Baye Moussa Keita challenged it at the rim and pinned the shot against the backboard. Some think it should’ve been a goaltend — if the ball hit the backboard before Keita blocked it, the shot would’ve counted for WVU. 

“Do I think it was? No. I know it was (goaltending). I saw the replay,” Huggins told reporters after the game.

Pitino, sportscaster Dick Vitale, analyst Jay Bilas and others in the college basketball world chimed in after the polarizing finish. But there was no call, and Syracuse escaped with a victory. 

Huggins name-drops Boeheim in commencement speech

Huggins was born in Morgantown, West Virginia — where he’s spent the bulk of his head coaching career — and went there for undergraduate studies. Only Boeheim, Huggins and Adolph Rupp at Kentucky have won at least 800 games at their alma mater, though not all of Huggins wins came at WVU. 

Huggins’ philosophy in life is to live in the moment. In a 2011 commencement speech to WVU’s College of Physical Activity and Sport Sciences, he said he was once riding in a pickup truck without a rearview mirror, and the metaphor stuck with him. 

“Everyone says stop and smell the roses,” Huggins said. “I can’t. I guess I was afraid that if I did, Jay Wright, Jim Calhoun and Jim Boeheim would run right by me.”

Huggins and Boeheim’s career paths aren’t so different, and him mentioning Boeheim alongside Wright and Calhoun is a sign of respect for the Orange coach. 

Gassed Syracuse outlasts WVU

A day after SU clawed past UConn in six overtimes during the 2009 Big East Tournament, it needed another overtime performance to beat the Mountaineers. 

SU led by seven at halftime after Eric Devendorf sunk a 50-foot heave at the buzzer. At one point, Huggins grew so frustrated with his team that he slammed his clipboard on the court. 

Devendorf poured in 23 points in front of a sold-out Madison Square Garden in the 74-69 Orange victory. Jonny Flynn added 15 points and nine dimes.

The Mountaineers’ last win: a 20-point drubbing 

Huggins teams have often assumed the moniker “Press Virginia,” a play on WVU’s aggressive full-court press principles. In 2008, that defense stifled SU guards Scoop Jardine and Flynn.

SU scored just 20 points in the first half in Morgantown in the 2008 matchup, the lowest output of the season. The Mountaineers ran the Orange out of the WVU Coliseum, pulling away with an 81-61 win.

“I think obviously it’s very tough to win on the road, but right now, we’re not even competing,” Boeheim said after the loss. 

In the five games since, his teams have done more than compete against WVU. They’ve won. 

Published on March 20, 2021 at 6:14 pm

Contact Danny: [email protected] | @DannyEmerman