West Virginia College mentioned it was reviewing and would later tackle the homophobic feedback that its males’s basketball coach, the Corridor of Famer Bob Huggins, made on Monday throughout a reside radio interview.
Showing on the Cincinnati station 700WLW’s “Invoice Cunningham Present,” Huggins was discussing his 16-season tenure with the College of Cincinnati and the varsity’s intracity rivalry with Xavier College. In recalling a Crosstown Shootout sport between the colleges, he twice referred to as Xavier followers a homophobic slur, saying they’d “throw rubber penises on the ground after which say they didn’t do it.”
In an announcement, West Virginia mentioned that Huggins’s remarks “had been insensitive, offensive” and didn’t symbolize its values. The varsity “doesn’t condone the usage of such language and takes such actions very severely. The scenario is beneath assessment and will probably be addressed by the college and its athletics division.”
Requested if Huggins, 69, could be permitted to proceed recruiting and dealing through the assessment, a spokesman for the lads’s basketball staff referred to the college’s assertion. Huggins didn’t reply to a textual content message asking if he had been disciplined by the college.
The summer season recruiting interval hits its peak in July. School coaches can host prospects for official and unofficial visits till Might 18 after which once more beginning Might 27. Coaches can’t exit on the recruiting path once more till mid-June.
Huggins issued an apology earlier than the college launched its assertion, saying he’d “totally settle for” any penalties for his feedback.
“Through the dialog, I used a very insensitive and abhorrent phrase that there’s merely no excuse for — and I received’t attempt to make one right here,” Huggins mentioned in an announcement. “I deeply apologize to the people I’ve offended, in addition to to the Xavier College neighborhood, the College of Cincinnati and West Virginia College.”
He didn’t make a scheduled look at a West Virginia fund-raising occasion in Wheeling, W.Va., Monday evening; his longtime assistant, Ron Everhart, appeared as a substitute.
“He had a battle and received’t be capable of attend tonight,” West Virginia’s athletic director, Wren Baker, instructed native reporters.
Huggins has coached at West Virginia since 2007. He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Corridor of Fame in 2022 and is one in every of solely six males’s coaches to build up 900 profession wins in Division I. A West Virginia alumnus, Huggins guided this system to the Remaining 4 in 2010, a feat the staff had not completed for the reason that Fifties.
