PHOENIX -- Sometimes the best analysts are in the stands. Chris Davis is a former litigation lawyer who recently moved with his wife, Lori, from West Virginia to Phoenix because it's, well, Phoenix.
In an almost-empty U.S. Airways Center, during the Mountaineers' Wednesday practice, Davis broke down his alma mater's transformation.
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| According to WVU's Joe Mazzulla, Huggins is a 'yell first and second' kind of coach. (US Presswire) |
Yeah, but what does it have to do with West Virginia basketball?
"They're killers now," Davis said. "They've kind of become that, you know?"
The Mountaineers' transformation from hug-it-out Beileins to bone-crushing Hugginses hasn't been quite that drastic, but the message has gotten across. Ask Duke, which retreated quicker in the second round than a perimeter-oriented bunch of jump shooters without any inside muscle. Which, of course, they were exposed to be.
"Yeah, we were (tougher than Duke)," backup guard Joe Mazzulla said flatly.
The stories of how much tougher have grown in the four days that have followed. Forward Joe Alexander reportedly told Duke's DeMarcus Nelson, "You shouldn't shoot it anymore."
Nelson didn't, much, going 2-for-11 in the 73-67 loss that thrust West Virginia into Thursday's West Region semifinal against Xavier.
Mazzulla whispered some sweet nothings to Duke's Greg Paulus, too, although he won't say exactly what.
"I got my point across," Mazzulla said. "He backed down."
Would those words have been uttered in the previous five seasons under former coach John Beilein? It's hard to say and even harder to argue against Beilein's Sweet 16 appearance in 2006 and NIT title in 2007. The point is, they were bound to be said with Huggins taking over.
"Coach Beilein was a teach-first, yell-second guy," Mazzulla said. "Coach Huggins is yell first and second and teach third. He'll yell at you all day and he'll do a great job teaching you."
The Killers now have a genuine personality. Man-to-man defense is a given. It's in Huggins' DNA. Alexander has blossomed into an All-Big East physical presence who had a double-double against Duke. Mazzulla came up two assists shy of a triple-double against the Blue Devils. Guard Alex Ruoff has led the Mountaineers in tournament scoring (19 per game) after averaging less than 14 during the regular season.
The legacy Huggins is building is growing by the day. How many coaches can boast of taking two teams to the tournament this season? Huggins can, in a way. After his celebrated DUI and heart attack while at Cincinnati, he got back in the game at Kansas State last season. He took a team that hadn't done anything in more than a decade and led it to 23 victories. The players he recruited and the coach he left behind (Frank Martin) led the Wildcats to their first NCAA appearance in 12 years.
K-State people were more than upset after he left after only one season. But home beckoned in Morgantown for the 1977 West Virginia grad. This run at least has distracted people from the Rich Rodriguez unpleasantness.
"The success of the basketball team has helped people get over that chapter," Davis said.
It was the team that had to be reshaped and it has been a process. The Mountaineers started out 1-2 in the Big East but won six of its last eight in the regular season to finish tied for fifth in the Big East.
Huggins' infamous treadmill became a staple. Players accused of some practice mistake have to run at 15 mph for about 45 seconds.
"They were scared to death to start with," Huggins said. "I think once they found out that it wasn't as bad as what they maybe thought it was going to be, they were fine. Then that's probably when we started using the treadmill."
Like those Marines, Huggins' players tend to find things in themselves they didn't know they had. While some players were apprehensive, Mazzulla bought in right away. He wanted to be more aggressive. The sophomore from Rhode Island grew up in a home where yelling got a point across.
"When I got hit with a screen against Duke, my dad just laughed and said, 'You better get up, that's part of the game,'" Mazzulla said. "He's not the type of guy who is going to say, 'Are you OK?' That's the same way Huggins is. Huggins will say, 'Get up, you're not hurt.' You could be bleeding but you're fine."
Way down the list of Huggins' priorities this March is to reshape his image. K-State was knocked in some circles for being the place that allowed Hugs to make his comeback. Then Kansas State's fans turned on him when he left after a season. That almost solidified that renegade image. But these Mountaineers aren't renegades, neither is their coach.
Huggins has been telling the story of how former Cincinnati star Corie Blount recently completed his degree.
"Here's a guy who was 11 years in the NBA and came back and it is never going to show up on a statistic," he said.
Not when the NCAA allows a six-year window for counting graduated players.
"I understand to make a good story, there's got to be white hats and black hats," he said. "Otherwise we never would have a cowboy movie."
That cowboy movie, for Huggins, was played out in 1992. There were three "bluebloods", as he called them -- Indiana, Duke and Michigan -- in the Final Four along with the black-hatted Bearcats.
"It didn't matter they were the most articulate, the funniest, the best interviews," Huggins said. "They were the highlight of the whole deal."
Ten years later, in 2002, he found himself in an ambulance having suffered a major heart attack. He was "shocked back to life three times" and was treated by John Calipari's cousin.
"Coach, we are not going to let you die until John beats you at least once," Huggins quoted the cousin as saying.
The two friends could now meet in the Final Four where the world will find out the toughness of the Mountaineers -- and their coach.
"If somebody misses a blockout," center Jamie Smalligan said. "he'll just say, 'I was dead on the floor for two minutes and I could block that guy out.'"