On Wednesday (Oct. 23) night at Mount Vernon Estates just outside of town, Ashland University's men's basketball program and the 212 Club played host to its first speaker fundraiser, "A Night With
Bob Huggins."
A Naismith Basketball Hall of Famer, Huggins is 934-414 (.693) over a four-decade career as a collegiate head men's basketball coach at then-Walsh College, Akron, Cincinnati, Kansas State and West Virginia. He is a five-time conference Coach of the Year, 11-time regular-season conference champion, 10-time conference tournament champion and has led his teams to a pair of Final Fours in 26 NCAA Tournament appearances.
"It was outstanding. It was better than what I thought it would be," said Ashland head coach
John Ellenwood. "What a way to start off the season. People were really supportive of the team, and we can't say thank you enough."
Prior to the event, where Huggins, 71, answered questions for the packed room, he spoke about his past with the Eagle men's basketball team.
"I was here a long, long, long time ago, when
Bill Musselman was still here, and they were swinging out of the ceiling, really. My dad brought me up here, and
Crazy George was here. And I got to know Crazy George when I was at Akron. It's neat. This is neat to be able to come here."
Prior to becoming a collegiate head coach in 1980, Huggins cut his teeth as a graduate assistant at West Virginia, and an assistant at Ohio State and Central Florida.
"Everybody was trying to get my dad," Huggins said of his father,
Charlie Huggins, an Ohio Basketball Hall of Famer. "He just always said, 'You need to talk to my son.' Walsh talked to me sooner than everybody else."
Bob Huggins said he turned down the NBA two or three times to stay in college basketball.
"I love working with kids," he said. "I grew up as a basketball player. My dad started that camp, so I was around kids that wanted to be basketball players, every summer. It's what I wanted to do. I wanted to stay in basketball, and then when I got into college basketball, at Akron, it really started at Walsh College, that's what I wanted to do. I made enough trips into the NBA to see that's a whole different deal. I just wanted to work with guys, and I had a great time."
Ashland men's basketball will play an exhibition game on Saturday (Oct. 26) at 6 p.m. at NCAA Division I Dayton, then will open the 2024-25 regular season on Nov. 10 at 1 p.m. at Grand Valley State.
"We're going to get challenged, and hopefully, we can get a lot better," Ellenwood said of the exhibition game. "Both teams want to stay healthy and both teams want to get better."
The Eagle men were 17-11 overall and 11-9 in the Great Midwest Athletic Conference in 2023-24, qualifying for the league tournament for a third consecutive season. Over the last decade, Ashland's men have won 195 games, earned two conference tournament titles, and reached the NCAA Division II postseason four times.
