Cincinnati basketball coach Bob Huggins said Wednesday for the first time that his decision not to depart for West Virginia came in part because of concerns WVU wasn't yet nationally competitive.

        “I think there's certainly a lot of things that have to happen at West Virginia to get it to that point,” the UC coach said in an interview on WAJR-AM in Morgantown, W.Va.

        “To be in the upper echelon, you have to act like you're upper echelon,” Huggins said. “I'm not saying they're not committed to that. Certainly they're working to that end. But they're not there now, and I think they're aware of that.”

        Huggins reiterated that he wasn't afraid of a challenge, saying, “It's a lot of fun to start something, build it from scratch into something that's special.”

        But the Mountaineers went 8-20 this season — the worst mark in 24 seasons — including 1-15 in the Big East.

        “Your kids play like champi ons when they believe they're champions,” Huggins said. “One of the big reasons for success here (at UC) is they are treated like champions — they wear designer uniforms; we're on TV. I think sometimes we play better than what we are because of that.

        “There's a commitment on everybody's part to make it that way. I think certainly there's some things (at WVU) that need to happen that can take it to that level. I think they understand that. It's not going to happen overnight. It's taken us a long time to get to that point here.”

Little kicked off Bearcats Huggins: West Virginia not set to win UC's Logan focused on draft Martin, Nets beat Shaq-less Lakers

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