Bob Huggins feels 'sorry' for new Big 12 teams entering stacked conference
The Big 12 was one of the best conferences in college basketball this season. You don’t have to tell that twice to West Virginia head basketball coach Bob Huggins. On Thursday evening in an interview with “The Field of 68”, they asked Huggins his thoughts on the Big 12 adding the Houston Cougars, one of the most impressive programs in college basketball the past few years. Per usual, Huggins didn’t hold back and he gave some very candid answers.
Check out the interview below.
“You want my honest answer? I feel sorry for them. They have no idea what they’re getting into…I’m telling you, the hardest league that I’ve ever coached in was this past Big 12,” Huggins said on the podcast with college basketball insider Jeff Goodman.
It’s maybe a bit of a surprising statement, but once you realize just how good the Big 12 was this past season, it makes perfect sense. The Cougars are jumping from the American Athletic Conference to the Big 12, a huge jump in competition. The only team that gave them problems in the AAC this year were the Memphis Tigers. Houston finished with an impressive overall record of 33-4 this year, including 17-1 in the AAC. Since the 2017-2018 season, Houston has firmly cemented themselves as the class of the AAC under Kelvin Sampson.
The past three seasons, Houston has only lost seven regular season games in the AAC and they’ve won two of the last three AAC Tournament Championships.
The Big 12 is loaded with impressive teams
It’s not to say Houston won’t win the Big 12 Championship in the future, but the path to the Big 12 Championship will certainly be drastically more difficult than the road to the AAC crown. Any talk of a Big 12 Championship would have to start with the Kansas Jayhawks, who have been the class of the conference for quite some time. More recently, the Cougars will have to deal with the Texas Longhorns, who have won two of the last three Big 12 Tournament crowns. There has been some chatter in recent days that Gonzaga could join the Big 12, which would add yet another high-level basketball program to the fold for the Big 12 conference, making it an even stronger force in the college basketball realm.
We haven’t even mentioned the Baylor Bears, who won the national title in the 2020-2021 season under Scott Drew, and they’ve become one of the best teams in college basketball over the years under his watch. Baylor put together one of the most historically dominant college basketball teams of all-time when they won the national crown in 2021. They humiliated Gonzaga in the national title game to the tune of an 86-70 beatdown that was never remotely close. The Bears finished with an impressive 28-2 overall record that year, cementing their place as one of the best teams in college basketball history.
Not only will Houston have to figure out how to adjust to life in the Big 12, but BYU, UCF, and Cincinnati will also have to figure out how to adjust to life in their new conference, starting this fall. We’ll have to see if Gonzaga or any other teams are added in the future as well with conference realignment constantly resurfacing from time to time. It’ll be interesting to see how it all plays out over the next few years.