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MORGANTOWN -- Bob Huggins isn't known for his charm, but the big man who sits on the West Virginia ben-- eh, stool can turn it on when he wants to, and nowhere does he turn it on more than in recruiting.
Huggins has never had the advantages of recruiting as a coach of a blue-blood school. He was at Akron and Cincinnati and Kansas State and now West Virginia, but he's gotten his kind of players and weaved them into becoming the winningest active coach in college basketball.
The past few years have been lean -- just one 20-win season in the last five -- but Huggins took steps last year as he put together a 19-win season, and he now can point to professionals like Jevon Carter and Deuce McBride as alumni in the NBA.
He feels he has the makings of a big-time team next season despite losing Erik Stevenson, Emmitt Matthews Jr. and Kedy Johnson but knows he has to fill those holes by turning on that charm.
And so the Huggins smile was out on Tuesday when he landed a big fish out of the transfer portal in Arizona guard Kerr Kriisa, a heavily recruited point guard to replace Johnson.
It appears that other than those three starters, Huggins is keeping the best of what's left. Tre Mitchell, Joe Toussaint, Seth Wilson, James Okonkwo, Mo Wague, Josiah Harris, Kobe Johnson and Patrick Suemnick are expected back, and it's most likely that Jimmy Bell Jr. will also return, giving Huggins great depth inside.
He did have to find a way to replace Johnson, though, for he was the engine who ran the offense and a top defender, and Kriisa fills that bill.
There were times last year when WVU was turning the ball over at an alarming rate and times when the offense just didn't move the ball, but Kriisa is a fix for that and should team well with Toussaint at the point, just as Johnson did last year.
Kriisa led the Pac-12 in assists per game at 5.2, and that is crucial. Kriisa was a four-star recruit in 2020 and was signed by someone who knows a bit about playing point guard, Sean Miller, himself one of the best back in his playing days.
But Miller left Arizona last year. Kriisa went on forward without him, starting 70 games over the past three years after getting late clearance to play his freshman year. Over the past two years, he averaged 10 points and five assists as Arizona went 61-11.
Huggins is still recruiting in the portal and probably will add a wing before long.