Williams: It was inevitably going to end like this for Bob Huggins

Someone who worked with Bob Huggins for many years once told me that they feared Huggins would die on the basketball court, that a man who couldn’t give up either the game he loved or his notorious hard-core lifestyle would eventually succumb to both.

Fortunately, the apparent end to Huggins’ decorated college coaching career wasn’t all that tragic, but it was regrettable enough. The head coach of West Virginia men’s basketball, 69, resigned Saturday, a day after being arrested and charged with driving under the influence. The incident came just over a month after Huggins’ job was put in jeopardy when twice used an anti-gay slur in a live interview with a Cincinnati radio station, and nearly two decades after a 2004 DUI that precipitated Huggins’ equally ignominious ouster as head coach of the Cincinnati Bearcats.

A propensity for alcohol and profanity have long been a part of Huggins folklore. The man hasn’t coached in Cincinnati since 2005, but every entrenched Bearcats fan has a random Huggins story from his time in town, often about the off-color joke they heard him tell at a clubhouse or banquet or the night they witnessed close a bar In the more charitable accounts, he was an endearing part of his everyman persona. In light of recent events, he felt like an unfortunate harbinger of things to come.

Regardless, this latest misstep isn’t a plot twist. As in Morgantown, Huggins remains revered by many in Cincinnati for his 14 straight NCAA Tournament appearances, including the 1992 Final Four, and for putting an abandoned program back on the map over the course of his 16 seasons. But it’s hard to think of Huggins and the Bearcats without thinking about how it ended: a series of off-court embarrassments, including the 2004 DUI, and ultimately the banishment by then-college president Nancy Zimpher, who didn’t no attempt to hide his disdain.

Huggins recovered. He was too good a coach not to get another chance, his first for a season at kansas state and then another 16 in West Virginia, the favorite native son returning to his alma mater. Helped by his continued success on the court, another 11 NCAA Tournament berths and a second Final Four appearance in 2010, that homecoming gave Huggins some cover and security. The exhausting combination of Huggins’s profession and vices was evident. He suffered a heart attack in 2002 on a recruiting trip and collapsed on the court during a game in 2017. Yet he never slowed down. As numerous sports columnists have pointed out in recent days, he had a bar installed in his office at WVU. His reputation preceded him, but over time it became part of the enchanting legacy of his tough, winning trainer: Huggy Bear. Right up to the inevitable Shakespearean final act.

First there was the absurd and homophobic radio interview in May. What seemed to many like a dismissable offense was almost too embarrassing to be the last straw for Huggins randomly and inexplicably speaking to a controversial daytime talk show host about former rival Xavier and the Crosstown. Shootout, in an old school sports city. where Huggins hasn’t worked for 18 years, but still occupies a disconcertingly large spot. All those family circles coalesced into a bizarre Venn diagram of misfortune, but Huggins survived, getting a slap on the wrist with a three-game suspension, a $1 million pay cut, and training sessions with WVU’s LGBTQ+ Center.

The doomed postscript arrived less than six weeks later. Another DUI, this one just before 8:30 p.m. Friday night in Pittsburgh, courtesy of an SUV that blocked traffic with a flat tire and Huggins was unable to safely maneuver it off the road. According to the police report, Huggins was administered a breathalyzer test and blew a .210, more than double the legal limit in Pennsylvania.

“My recent actions do not represent the values ​​of the university or the leadership expected in this role,” Huggins said in a statement announcing his resignation. “While I have always tried to represent our university with honor, I have let all of you down, and myself.”

Public figures tend to be defined by their worst moments, but like most of us, they usually consist of much more. The mistakes Huggins made don’t negate all the good he’s accomplished, professionally and interpersonally. His 934 wins as a coach and Hall of Fame career. The civic pride he has ignited and the lifelong fans he has spawned, many of whom still fill seats at Cincinnati’s Fifth Third Arena and WVU Coliseum. All the millions of dollars and awareness Huggins helped raise for cancer treatment and research in honor of his late mother, Norma Mae. The countless lives of coaches and players, men who grew and continue to grow, were positively impacted and changed for the better.

That influence is real. It also doesn’t excuse his mistakes (the hurtful comments, the selfish and potentially damaging actions) or the demons Huggins wrestles with. TO echo others, it is possible to hope that someone will get the help they need and, at the same time, hold them accountable for bad decisions. All of this becomes Huggins’ true legacy: a pair of DUIs 20 years apart, hurtful homophobic and anti-Catholic comments on the radio, and too many additional affirming stories to dismiss those cases as unfortunate accidents or flukes.

At some point, it became unlikely that Huggins would go out on his own terms. This is how he was going to end up, a man fueled by his perpetual drive to get results on the court undone by the off-court failures that kept catching up with him, time and time again. Sad, yes, but also self-inflicted. And preventable. And predictable.

Huggins could have walked away with one of the most successful and celebrated coaching careers in college basketball history. Instead, he will be remembered for all the things that came with him.

(Photo: John E. Moore III/Getty Images)