WVU Basketball Greats Huggins, Beilein Included Among Top 25 Coaches in Last 25 Years

Sports Illustrated included two all-time great WVU basketball coaches in its recent ranking of the 25 best men’s basketball head coaches in the past 25 years.

John Beilein took the edge over Bob Huggins at No. 18, with his two Final Four appearances and 11 NCAA Tournament bids since 2001. While the article primarily credited him for his time at Michigan, leading WVU to the Elite Eight in 2005 is also among his career highlights.

Huggins clocked in at No. 24, with a resume of one Final Four and 16 NCAA Tournament appearances during that timespan.

Huggins was WVU’s head coach from 2007-23 and guided the Mountaineers to the 2010 Final Four and three more Sweet 16 appearances after that. He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2022 and is one of only six Division I men’s basketball coaches to surpass 900 wins.

Bob Huggins honored at a WVU football game after his induction into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2022. (WVSN photo by Kelsie LeRose)

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Huggins owns 935 career wins, which is third on the all-time wins list. He led both Cincinnati (1992) and WVU (2010) to an appearance in the Final Four. Huggins was named Big 12 Coach of the Year in 2015 and was elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2022.

Following the retirement of Gale Catlett and the eight days of Dan Dakich as head coach, Beilein was hired by WVU in April of 2002. Beilein went on to rebuild the basketball program, coaching West Virginia to an Elite Elight appearance in 2005, Sweet 16 in 2006 and an NIT Championship in 2007. The New York native coached the likes of Kevin Pittsnogle, Da’Sean Butler, Mike Gansey, Drew Schifino, Frank Young, Joe Alexander and other Mountaineer greats. As Beilein left WVU for the Michigan job in 2007, he created a smooth transition for Bob Huggins to take over and continue to keep West Virginia relevant as a national contender.

Courtesy of Michigan Athletics

Beilein then coached Michigan to two National Championship Game appearances in 2013 and 2018. Beilein also coached the Wolverines to nine NCAA Tournament appearances and two Big 10 Conference Tournament Championships. Beilein left Michigan in 2019 to coach the Cleveland Cavaliers, before resigning from the position just a year later.

Find more coverage of Bob Huggins, John Beilein and WVU basketball at WV Sports Now.