WVU men’s basketball coach Bob Huggins has been sanctioned by the Big 12 Conference for comments made regarding officiating after the Mountaineers’ loss against Kansas, the conference announced Tuesday.

In a statement, Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby says Huggins is receiving this sanction due to this incident being the third such infraction from the coach.

“Coach Huggins’ comments following the West Virginia vs. Kansas basketball game violate the Big 12 Conference’s sportsmanship policy,” Bowlsby said. “Because this is Coach Huggins’ third such incident, a public reprimand and a fine of $10,000 is appropriate.”

Huggins was noticeably unhappy with the officiating in their Saturday game, and called the officials “three blind mice.”

In addition, he expounded on the difficulty of the officials’ jobs.

“See I think the whole explanation is, and I’m not going to get in trouble for saying this because it’s not degrading anybody,” Huggins said after the loss. “You’ve got three guys out there who all see the game differently…and so, you get a call on one end from a guy who thinks he made the right call, and he probably did, and then you don’t get that same call on the other end because there’s another guy down there who didn’t think that that was a play-on, shouldn’t be called….I think that’s hard on officials.”

He continued:

“It’s a hard deal. If they wouldn’t get paid so damn much, I’d feel sorry for them. But since I know what their check is, I don’t feel a bit sorry for ’em.”

Latest Posts: