A small range of responses to the Daily Mail’s suggestion last week Bob Huggins might be/have been a candidate, if only in name, for WVU’s AD position:

– “You’re crazy!”
– “Where’d you get that?”
– “You need to tell me where you got that.”

I’m not sure how to reply to any of those, but enough people have spoken it and heard about it that it’s at least worthy of discussion and deliberation. ESPN relents to Jack Bogaczyk’s point it might not be the right timing and/or fit for WVU and Huggins, but feels free to wonder “Is Bob Huggins athletic director material?“

Ah, but it’s interesting to think about, isn’t it? Obviously Huggins has had history with clashing with a university president who told reporters after his ousting that “character counts.” He had a renegade reputation coaching Cincinnati teams that played the role of the bad guys.

Flash forward to now, and the windbreaker fits a little more snugly at West Virginia, his alma mater. One of the lasting images of the Mountaineers’ run to the Final Four this year was of Huggins consoling a fallen Da’Sean Butler.

My answer to ESPN’s question: Absolutely. In an ideal time and place, he’d be the face of the athletic department, he’d be a grand slam for fundraising and, with his Rolodex, he’d be able to put the right people in the right places to manage properly.

And whatever contributed to the “renegade reputation” is not, we are made to believe by his three years here, what he is today … and ESPN does make that point.

If things lined up properly and Huggins could be something of an athletic department ambassador overseeing the people who do that day-to-day operations, why couldn’t it work?

The hang-up, I suppose, is Huggins has a lot of coaching left in him.

I’m out for the rest of today and I’ll return tomorrow afternoon, though a morning and afternoon post may pop up in my absense. If something arises, throw up the bat signal.