Bob Huggins will hold his job as West Virginia’s head males’s basketball coach, the college mentioned Wednesday, however will likely be suspended for 3 video games and obtain a pay reduce after he used an anti-gay slur twice and taunted Catholic throughout an interview with a radio station in Cincinnati this week.
The college mentioned it’ll rework Huggins’ contract and cut back his annual wage by $1 million, down from $4.15 million. He should endure sensitivity coaching and can miss the primary three video games of the 2023-24 season.
In a joint assertion, the college’s president and athletic director mentioned Huggins, the winningest energetic coach in Division I males’s basketball, could be fired instantly if he made any related offensive feedback sooner or later.
Throughout an interview Monday with Cincinnati radio station 700 WLW, Huggins described followers at Xavier College, a Jesuit establishment, utilizing a homophobic slur and selling faith on the faculty. Whereas discussing his 16-season tenure on the College of Cincinnati and the varsity’s intracity rivalry with Xavier, Huggins twice directed a homophobic slur at Xavier followers, referring to those that “throw rubber penises on the ground, after which say that they do not. do.”
Huggins, 69, issued an apology as a part of the college’s assertion, saying he deeply regrets his feedback and the damage they’ve brought about.
“I’ve no excuse for the language I used, and I take full accountability,” he mentioned in a press release Wednesday. “I’ll observe the actions outlined by the college and athletic leaders to study from this incident. I’ve had many conversations with colleagues and associates that I respect and admire drastically during the last 24 hours , and I do know very nicely the ache I’ve brought about.
Along with the pay reduce, Huggins will make a private donation to Xavier to help its Heart for Religion and Justice and its Heart for Range and Inclusion, though the quantity of the donation was not specified. He additionally received to satisfy with LGBTQ leaders from throughout the state of West Virginia.
In August 2021, Huggins signed a contract extension by the 2023-24 season making him one of many highest paid coaches in faculty basketball. In response to his earlier contract, Huggins would have had choices to teach “or lengthen his relationship” with the college by June 2027. In Wednesday’s announcement, the college mentioned Huggins’ present contract will likely be amended by one year- 12 months settlement to run out. on April 30, 2024.
The college assertion mentioned the $1 million reduce from Huggins’ wage will likely be used to help the LGBTQ heart, psychological well being counseling heart and different organizations.
“Whereas the college has by no means and can by no means condone the language used on Monday, we’ll use this chance to teach how the informal use of inflammatory language and implicit bias impacts our tradition, our neighborhood and to our well being and well-being,” the assertion mentioned.
Huggins has coached at West Virginia since 2007. He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Corridor of Fame in 2022 and is certainly one of solely six males’s coaches to amass 900 profession wins in Division I.
