@thesportsontap: In the 2010 Final Four, Da'Sean Butler's left knee gave out. His coach walked onto the floor, got down over him, took his head in his hands and stayed there. Here is what Butler was saying. "Coach, I'm sorry I couldn't get you your first national championship." He was not apologizing for the knee. West Virginia was down fifteen. He was apologizing for the game. Here is what Bob Huggins said back. "Don't be sorry. I love ya." Understand who that is. Other coaches called him terrifying. He grew up in Port Washington, Ohio, and went to Indian Valley South High School in Gnadenhutten. Eight years earlier, Huggins collapsed at the curb at the Pittsburgh airport. He was 49, with an artery 90 percent blocked. They put a device in his chest to keep his heart in rhythm. That device has gone off twice. The second time, he coached the second half. So he had that in his chest, and he got down on the floor anyway, and he stayed down there. Butler tore his ACL. Miami drafted him and let him go in October, before he played a regular season game. Knee surgery finished him in 2012. Then Huggins hired him. Graduate assistant at West Virginia. Da'Sean Butler is an assistant coach for the Boston Celtics now. The head coach there is Joe Mazzulla, who was on that same floor in Indianapolis. Now the record. In May 2023 Huggins used an anti-gay slur twice on a Cincinnati radio show and was suspended and docked a million dollars. Five weeks later he was arrested for driving under the influence in Pittsburgh, and that ended his career. He had been arrested for the same thing in 2004. And of the 95 players he coached or recruited at Cincinnati, 27 got a degree. None of that is undone by one minute in Indianapolis. One minute in Indianapolis is not undone by any of that either. On Wednesday his family said he is living with a progressive cognitive condition that has begun to affect his memory. They did not name it, and they asked for privacy. Friday night he goes into Cincinnati's hall of fame, and he is going.

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Thursday 22 October 2026 23:41:35 GMT