West Virginia basketball HC arrested and charged with DUI

A rough offseason for Bob Huggins took an uglier turn Friday evening when the West Virginia head coach was arrested and charged by Pittsburgh police with DUI.

A police report was provided to Metro News and details his arrest.

After he got a flat tire, Huggins stopped his car "in the middle of the road blocking traffic." Upon seeing this, "Officers directed the male driver on how best to move off the road so they could help with the flat tire. When they observed him having difficulty maneuvering the SUV ... they activated their lights to pull him over."

Once he pulled over, officers "asked him to exit the vehicle and perform standard field sobriety tests, which he failed."

Per Metro News, he was released and has a preliminary hearing scheduled for a later, unspecified date.

Thankfully, Huggins' careless, potentially dangerous actions didn't produce a worse outcome.   

Per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, "32 people in the United States are killed every day in crashes involving an alcohol-impaired driver-this is one death every 45 minutes.

The police report doesn't indicate whether Huggins was drunk or if was experiencing the side effects of medication. That, too, is discussed by the CDC. "Drug-impaired driving is also an important public health problem; however, less is known about the harmful effects of drug-impaired driving compared to alcohol-impaired driving because of data limitations."

Regardless, this is a conversation West Virginia officials likely wish it wasn't a part of. It's also the second strike against Huggins this offseason after he went on a Cincinnati radio show on May 8 and made the same homophobic remark twice.

After reviewing that incident, West Virginia announced his punishment, including a three-game suspension, a $1 million reduction in salary and required sensitivity training. The program also amended his contract from a multiyear deal to one that will be evaluated year-to-year.

With his DUI arrest, he might not make it past this offseason.

The university could have avoided being associated with his most recent incident had it fired him after his radio show comments. He might not be as lucky this time, but it again comes down to whether the promising roster he's built this offseason is more important than the distraction he's causing.

Winning covers plenty of problems, but with Huggins leading the program, those wins this upcoming season will only be a reminder that nothing else matters.