Dick Vitale makes the case for Tom Crean at West Virginia

All kinds of options are under consideration for West Virginia’s head coaching gig following the resignation of Bob Huggins after a decade and a half. Now, Dick Vitale has shared his choice for who should take over for the Mountaineers in Morgantown.

In a tweet from Sunday, Vitale suggested Tom Crean as an option for West Virginia to consider. With his experience as well as the scenario that the program is in, he believes that Crean would be a worthwhile hire, regardless of if it’s only for one season or more.

A guy with all kind of head coaching big time experience who would be super during the 1 yr @WVUhoops waiting period to make a final decision would be @TomCrean

— Dick Vitale (@DickieV) June 18, 2023

Crean has coached over 700 career games with Marquette, Indiana, and Georgia since the turn of the century. In that time, he accumulated 403 wins and led the Golden Eagles and Hoosiers to nine NCAA Tournament appearances. That included one Final Four appearance back in 2003.

However, his last shot in coaching down in Athens wasn’t nearly as successful. Over his four seasons with the Bulldogs, he posted one winning record of 14-12 in 2020-2021. In total, Georgia went 47-75 (0.385) and missed the postseason every year before UGA fired him in 2022 after they went 6-26.

In his year away from the coaching ranks, Crean returned to broadcasting as he spent the season as an analyst at ESPN. He did the same in his gap year after the Hoosiers fired him and before Georgia hired him.

Crean is a viable enough option suggested by Vitale considering his 22 seasons of coaching. That would then leave it up to West Virginia to decide if they would wish to retain him after a season considering the hand that they were dealt regarding Huggins.

Thamel reveals what’s next for West Virginia following Huggins’ resignation

Bob Huggins is out at West Virginia due to multiple incidents. Now, Pete Thamel of ESPN has all the latest on what’s next for the Mountaineers.

The now-former West Virginia men’s basketball coach tendered his resignation following DUI arrest on Saturday. That followed a past controversy involving Huggins using multiple slurs in a radio interview. While he barely survived the first incident, another irresponsible act landed Huggins out of a job.

In a hit on SportsCenter on Sunday, Thamel explained where West Virginia goes from here.

“West Virginia officials found out about Bob Huggins’ arrest early on Saturday. And it quickly became clear it would be difficult for a path for Huggins to exist to return as West Virginia’s coach,” explained Thamel. “You mentioned six weeks ago, the multiple slurs on a Cincinnati radio station. West Virginia officials received significant criticism for their path for bringing Huggins back in the wake of that incident.”

“One of the things that they did that didn’t get a lot of attention was that they changed Huggins’ contract, essentially making it a year to year deal. So, essentially, West Virginia controlled Huggins’ future from here on out. And it was widely speculated and expected that this would’ve been Bob Huggins’ last season as the head coach of West Virginia. Well that timeline sped up on Saturday. Huggins eventually, after engaging with administrators, tendered a resignation late last night. He met with his team around 9 p.m. ET, told them the news.”

“From here, West Virginia officials are going to conduct a national search. They’ll certainly acknowledge and speak with any interim candidates from the current staff. But there’s a feeling at West Virginia, with the Country Roads Collective and the same NIL muscle that allowed them to bring in one of the top portal classes this season that West Virginia’s going to be an attractive job for coaches who are now looking more and more at schools that can allow them to assemble top rosters. So a national search, and expect them to move quickly. They’re such a talented roster sitting on campus, there’s going to be an urgency to keep those players around.”