Huggins leaves KSU after one year

MANHATTAN, Kan. -- After just one season at Kansas State, basketball coach Bob Huggins is leaving for West Virginia, his alma mater, Kansas State athletic director Tim Weiser announced Thursday.

"This is a tough day for the entire K-State nation," Weiser said in a short news release announcing the news. "Bob Huggins did a terrific job during his short tenure to put Kansas State back on the basketball map and we appreciate his efforts. It's a shame that he has decided not to finish the job he started here."

Weiser said that a search for Huggins' replacement would begin immediately.

Huggins has said nothing publicly since John Beilein announced Tuesday he was leaving West Virginia to become Michigan's coach.

Huggins was born in Morgantown, W.Va., although he grew up in Ohio. He played his last two collegiate seasons for the Mountaineers and holds bachelor's and master's degrees from West Virginia, where he was a graduate assistant for the 1977-78 season.

Huggins' five-year contract states he must pay the university $100,000. The contract calls for him to be paid at least $800,000 per year the first three years, $900,000 the fourth year and $1 million the fifth year.

He already had turned down one chance to go home, electing to stay at Cincinnati in 2002 when the West Virginia job came open.

That was a high-profile, high-success program, though. Huggins found national respect harder to come by in his first season in Manhattan, Kan.

Kansas State went 23-12, two wins shy of the school single-season record for victories. The Wildcats were 10-6 in the Big 12, their best finish since the conference formed in 1996.