West Virginia and men’s basketball coach Bob Huggins have reached an agreement allowing him to return to the program next season following his repeated use of an anti-LGBTQ slur on public radio earlier this week, per multiple reports.
Huggins will serve a three-game suspension to begin next season, will receive a $1 million salary reduction and will also be required to attend sensitivity training, according to a report from ESPN’s Pete Thamel. His contract will be amended from a multiyear agreement to a year-by-year agreement that will begin on May 10, 2023, and end on Apr. 30, 2024, per a release from the school.
In addition, West Virginia announced that the athletics department will partner with the university’s LGBTQ+ center to develop annual training sessions that will “address all aspects of inequality including homophobia, transphobia, sexism, ableism and more.” Huggins and his staff, along with all future coaching staffs in the athletic department, will be required to attend this training.
Huggins will also be required to “meet with LGBTQ+ leaders from across West Virginia with guidance from the leadership of WVU’s LGBTQ+ Center.”
On Monday, Huggins referred to Xavier fans as “Catholic f--s” on The Bill Cunningham Show on 700 WLW. The former Cincinnati coach was talking about the Bearcats’ rivalry with the Musketeers, named the Crosstown Shootout, and his use of the slur drew laughter from the show’s hosts.
Huggins and West Virginia released separate statements addressing the slur on Monday evening, and Huggins released another statement Wednesday following the news of his punishment in which he said that he “had no excuse for the language used.”
