Bob Huggins and West Virginia University have traded blows since his resignation this summer.
Huggins and his legal team had a back-and-forth with lawyers representing WVU after they claimed he never resigned and called for him to be reinstated.
In a letter sent from David Campbell to West Virginia University on July 7, Huggins’ attorney wrote:
“Coach Huggins never signed a resignation letter and never communicated a resignation to anyone at WVU. Accordingly, the WVU public comments are not only false, but appear to be an after-the-fact attempt to remedy WVU’s breach of the Employment Agreement.“
“Coach Huggins has voluntarily sought rehabilitation following the incident in order to leave no doubt that he is fully capable of returning to his duties as WVU Head Basketball Coach. This rehabilitation was not ordered by the Court or any other entity. Rather, to demonstrate his commitment to the WVU basketball program, he took the step of entering the program on a voluntary nature. Coach Huggins will be released from the program soon and we will provide you with a full release for Coach Huggins to return to his active duties as Head Basketball Coach at WVU.”
On Wednesday, West Virginia University Director of Athletics Wren Baker met with the media to recap what has been a busy summer across the Big 12 and WVU.
Baker was asked about the legal back-and-forth between both parties, saying he is not in control of how this situation ends.
“I have a lot of admiration and respect for coach and what he accomplished here. I’ve said this before he and I have never had a bad word,” Baker said.
“I wish that the transition could have happened differently. My guess is that he does as well. He’s a Mountaineer. Sometimes in families there’s disagreements and there’s hard feelings and sometimes people get over those and sometimes they don’t. My hope is that some point we can all look back on this and move past it,” Baker added.
When it comes to moving past it, Baker said he does not know when that might be the case, but says there has not been any official word saying things are settled or still unsettled with regard to Huggins asking to be brough back.
“I don’t know terms of an end game. I’m not in control really on either side of that, so I don’t know if there is one or if we’re near it or where we’re at on that journey,” Baker said. “I’ll just say that I appreciate the contributions that he made to the basketball program. That that appreciation has not changed as we went through this.
“As far as I know no nobody has sent me anything saying, hey this is fully resolved but I haven’t seen anything else to say it’s not either.”
