West Virginia HC Bob Huggins Uses Anti-Gay Slur to Describe Xavier Fans | News, Scores, Highlights, Stats, and Rumors
Jessica Hardy
Published Mar 24, 2026
West Virginia men's basketball head coach Bob Huggins used an anti-gay slur when discussing Xavier fans during a radio appearance on Monday.
Joe Lucia of Awful Announcing transcribed part of Huggins' appearance on 700 WLW's Bill Cunningham Show in which Huggins, who used to coach Xavier's rival, the Cincinnati Bearcats, called Musketeers fans "f--s" when talking about an apparent incident during a game between the two schools:
Huggins: "Any school that can throw rubber penises on the floor and then say they didn't do it, by god they can get away with anything."
Cunningham: "I think it was transgender night wasn't it?"
Huggins: "It was a Crosstown Shootout, yeah, no, what it was, was all those f--s, those Catholic f--s I think."
Cunningham: "All right."
Huggins: "They were envious they didn't have one."
Huggins said in a statement Monday that he will "fully accept" any consequences coming his way:
WVU Men's Basketball @WVUhoops<a href="">
West Virginia also released a statement and said it is reviewing the situation:
WVU Sports @WVUSportsStatement by WVU Athletics. <a href="">
Huggins coached Cincinnati from 1989-90 through 2004-05 before moving on to Kansas State for one season in 2006-07.
The Musketeers were coached by Pete Gillen, Skip Prosser, Thad Matta and Sean Miller when Huggins was on the other sideline of the rivalry.
Xavier-Cincinnati is one of college basketball's most heated rivalries that infamously featured an on-court brawl in 2011 after Huggins was no longer the head coach of the Bearcats. Officials from both schools temporarily moved the annual game to a neutral site in the ensuing years in an effort to avoid such incidents.
Huggins has been the head coach at West Virginia since 2007.