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Former Duquesne head coach Everhart gets job at WVU
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Ron Everhart
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Ron Everhart is heading home.
The former Duquesne men's basketball coach was hired Monday as an assistant by his old friend, West Virginia's Bob Huggins.
Everhart said it is a move he had wanted to make before. It will mark the first time in nearly two decades he will not be a head coach.
"Right now, I'm very, very excited to be right where I am. This is something I've always wanted to do," said Everhart, a Fairmont, W.Va. native. "I've been a head coach for 18 years. I've had a good run. Right now I just want to help a guy who's helped me."
Duquesne dismissed Everhart March 23 after a 16-15 season and first-round loss in the Atlantic 10 playoffs.
The week he was fired began with news of three players announcing plans to transfer. Within days, a biting letter about the basketball program from university president Charles Dougherty to board members was leaked to the public, and by that Friday Everhart was fired.
It ended a six-year run in which he was widely credited with lifting the Dukes from the Atlantic 10 cellar while seeing the program through traumatic on-campus shootings of five players two months before his first season.
Everhart said any lingering regrets on how things ended were far from his mind by Monday. "After the way things have worked out, there's not one regret. Not one disappointment."
He said that, as of right now, he has no designs on becoming a head coach again and hopes the fit on Huggins' staff will last.
"I think the thing that's always impressed me with [Huggins] is the fact that he cares about his kids so much and they love him so much."
Everhart replaces Jerrod Calhoun, who left in April to coach at Fairmont State.
"We are really excited to bring Ronnie home," Huggins said. "I have always admired the way Ronnie has coached his teams from McNeese State to Northeastern to Duquesne, and the quality of players he has always been able to attract."
Huggins, who speaks with Everhart regularly, said he began discussing the possibility of the job seriously with Everhart about a week ago and finalized the deal on Monday.
First Published May 15, 2012 12:00 am
