WVU Basketball

Huggins: ‘Honestly, We Probably Didn’t Do a Good Job in the Portal’

Published

2 years ago

January 25, 2022

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – During WVU head coach Bob Huggins’ weekly press conference with the media, he reflected on his staff’s approach to the transfer portal last offseason.

“Honestly, we probably didn’t do a good job in the portal,” Huggins said on Tuesday.

With West Virginia losing Miles McBride, Oscar Tshiebwe, Derek Culver, Emmitt Matthews Jr. and Jordan McCabe in a span of six months, the Mountaineers needed to attack the transfer portal and help replace some of the production those guys provided. Last spring, WVU got commitments from Malik Curry, Dimon Carrigan and Pauly Paulicap.

Curry, Carrigan and Paulicap have all come off the bench, contributing some quality minutes here and there. Curry is the third leading scorer on WVU this season with 8.7 points per contest. Carrigan and Paulicap each play an average of 10 minutes per game, putting up just 5.1 points and 6.3 rebounds per game, combined.

For Huggins, he’s not saying that he’s not satisfied with the new additions, but he wishes he went after guys in the portal that could play at WVU for multiple seasons. The 40-year coaching veteran alluded to doing so this offseason.

“I don’t think [the transfer portal] is good for your fans,” Huggins said. “I don’t think years from now our fans are going to be talking about a guy who played here for a year. I kind of favor having the guys here [for multiple years].