The funniest mental image in college basketball is not gangly Roy Hibbert standing confidently at the top of the key, game-winning three-point shot in hand and that Michael Jordan poster look in his eye. Nor is it the thought of the boisterous Dick Vitale, recovering from vocal cord surgery in a hospital bed somewhere, watching Duke play on television and trying to scream, “COACH K IS AWESOME, BABY!!!” but sounding like a seal with emphysema. It is the thought of West Virginia Head Coach Bob Huggins, curled up alone in a log cabin on a cold winter’s night, nothing but his television and the pleasant banter of Jay Bilas on Big Monday. Apparently, that is how Huggy Bear spent the winter months of 2005, during his one-year hiatus from the coaching ranks between his resignation at Cincinnati and taking the head coaching job at Kansas State. “The great thing about not having anything to do for that year was that I was a college basketball fan,” Huggins revealed at Big East Media Days in New York this past October. “I would build a fire in my cabin and sit there in front of my big screen and watch college basketball.” Huggins has always been a basketball fanatic, but that is only one term used to describe the slick-backed, silk-slacked West Virginia coach. A smirking Rick Pitino, head coach of Big East rival Louisville, described Huggins as a “colorful character” and “a personality” before mentioning that the Mountaineers’ head man could also be a “terrific recruiter” and a “great coach.” West Virginia forward Wellington Smith chose “real funny,” while teammate Joe Alexander settled on “real mellow.” No matter who you talk to, they will gladly agree that the 54-year-old Huggins is a one-of-a-kind coach. Ever since he burst onto the national scene in 1989 as rookie head coach of the Cincinnati Bearcats, Huggins has been challenging Bobby Knight as college hoops’ most interesting – and polarizing – character. On one hand, his career resume is an impressive accumulation of accolades: four coach of the year awards, eleven regular season titles, eight conference tournament crowns, two Elite Eight appearances and a trip to the Final Four. But then there is the dark side: a citation while at Cincinnati from the NCAA for lack of institutional control, a massive heart attack at the age of 49 and a trip to the emergency room for triple bypass surgery and don’t forget about an arrest for driving under the influence that led to his resignation as coach of the Bearcats. He has developed some of the college hoops’ greatest talents – Nick Van Exel, Danny Fortson, Kenyon Martin, DerMarr Johnson, Ruben Patterson – but will never be remembered for cultivating an atmosphere of admirability for his players (each of the aforementioned stars ran afoul of the law while with the Bearcats or shortly after leaving the program). Huggins looks like he just stepped off the set of Goodfellas, and he is about as entertaining. At October’s media gathering at Madison Square Garden, Huggins held the crowd of 30 reporters while Syracuse’s Jim Boeheim, UConn’s Jim Calhoun and Pitino looked on in envious solitude, like wallflowers at a middle school dance. When a long-time Cincinnati beat reporter approached, Huggins jumped right on him. “You got a haircut! You look clean cut!” Huggins exclaimed. “I’m trying to look like you,” the reporter responded, voice dripping with sarcasm. “Try harder.” When asked how his new charges in Morgantown had responded to his, ahem, unique coaching methods, it was Huggy Bear’s turn to be sardonic. “They love me,” Huggins said, “Just like everybody else does.” Someone asked if his heart attack spooked him into stepping down. “Do you think I need recharging?” asked Huggins, who was back in the gym two weeks after going under the knife. “I thought I was fine. I didn’t think my battery was running low.” He expressed no remorse for his one-and-done career at Kansas State, no misgivings for luring blue chip recruits Bill Walker and Michael Beasley before bolting for his alma mater. “I honestly planned to retire [at Kansas State],” Huggins said. “Then [West Virginia Athletic Director] Eddie [Pastilong] called me and asked me if I was ready to come home. I said, `Yeah, I’m ready to come home.’ This is the only place I would have left for.” Huggins has fared well so far in Morgantown, given that none of the players former WVU coach John Beilein recruited fit well in Huggins high-pressure defensive scheme. The Mountaineers cracked the top 25 early in the season and defeated Marquette on Jan. 6, but also dropped heartbreakers to overrated Tennessee and mediocre Oklahoma. His new players have noticed somewhat of a change in the tempo of practice since the reserved Beilein departed for Michigan. Harlan Goode is a senior in the College. He can be reached at goodethehoya.com. The Goode Worde appears every Friday in HOYA SPORTS.