Bob Huggins: Cincinnati, other Big 12 additions have 'no idea what they're getting into'

West Virginia Mountaineers head coach Bob Huggins, who was the head coach of the Cincinnati Bearcats from 1989 to 2005, said Thursday he feels sorry for his former team and others joining the Big 12 Conference because they have "absolutely no idea what they're getting into."

"You want the honest answer?" Huggins told the Field of 68's "After Dark." "I feel sorry for them. They have absolutely no idea what they're getting into. This is - I've been in a lot of leagues. And I've been in a lot of leagues with the best coaches in America and with the best players in America. And I'm telling you right now the hardest league that I've ever coached in - ever - and the best fanbases. You go in and they may be 3-17 and they've got 14,000 people sitting there. … It's unbelievable. The fan support. How good the players are. How good the coaching is. It is such a hard, hard league. And you've got to go through it twice. And I'm gonna tell you - they're not ready for that."

UC, Houston, BYU and UCF will join the Big 12 later this year.

A clip via Twitter from @TheFieldOf68 :

Huggins addressed his future after WVU's NCAA tournament first-round loss to Maryland earlier this month by saying, "I got people who think I should stay on for quite a while, and there's people probably thinking I ought to pack it in and let some young kid come in and screw it up."

When Syracuse's Jim Boeheim stepped down, Huggins, inducted last year into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, became the winningest active Div. I head coach with 934 wins.

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This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Bob Huggins: Cincinnati, Houston, UCF, BYU aren't ready for Big 12