Bob Huggins Gets Big Transfer Portal Win For West Virginia Basketball Despite No Longer Being Head Coach

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Bob Huggins is no longer the head basketball coach at West Virginia University. That didn't stop him from landing a big-time commitment for the Mountaineers over the weekend.

Huggins, a Basketball Hall of Famer, coached 548 games at West Virginia from April 5, 2007 to June 17, 2023. The 69-year-old legend stepped down from his role as coach following an alleged DUI earlier this month.

As is typically the case amid a coaching turnover, a group of Mountaineers hit the transfer portal in wake of Huggins' resignation. Tre Mitchell, Mohamed Wague, Kerr Kriisa and Joe Toussaint all put there names into the portal, but left the door open for a return.

Not long thereafter, following what sounded like a messy behind-the-scenes process, West Virginia announced that it would not be holding a national search for its next head coach. The program decided to go the interim route and promoted longtime Huggins assistant Josh Eilert from within for 2023/24.

Eilert was considered one of the top options for the job regardless of whether the school went external or stayed internal with the search. Players love him, and he knows the system.

Bob Huggins is still influencing WVU hoops.

West Virginia ultimately decided that having Eilert lead the program, for this season at least, was the best way to keep the current roster together. It was right, to some extent!

Kriisa, a four-star recruit in the Class of 2020, began his career at Arizona.

He transferred to play for Huggins back in April, and then hit the portal — again — last week.

Now, he isn't going anywhere. Kriisa announced his return on Sunday afternoon.

Within his caption, Kriisa wrote "this one is for Huggs."

If that note wasn't telling enough, multiple reports out of Morgantown said that Huggins was a huge factor in Kriisa's decision to stay and play for Eilert. Details of exactly what that means (ie: phone calls, FaceTimes, some sort of in-person meeting) are unclear.

However, despite the fact that Bob Huggins is not the head coach of West Virginia basketball, he was able to re-land one of the nation's top transfers from a distance. Chalk it up as another recruiting win for Huggy Bear!