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MORGANTOWN -- As Josh Eilert was being introduced as the interim basketball coach at West Virginia on Monday, a strange thought crossed my mind, which I might add is not necessarily a rare occurrence.
For some reason it flashed across my mind like one of those TV breaking news scrolls at the bottom of the screen:
West Virginia 65, Pitt 63 … Bob Huggins statue put on hold … Texas 78, Oklahoma 58 …
I don't know where it came from, but in a way it proved to be fitting for a day when honoring Bob Huggins figured to be the furthest thing from people's minds, it came up to be a topic of discussion during the press conference.
Now we knew we couldn't avoid Huggins, whose recent transgressions had thrown open the job, but we weren't thinking along those lines.
It was more in terms of whether or not Huggins would attend WVU games this year or if he would be any kind of distraction for Huggins. That figured to be addressed.
But there came a moment when it was asked if, indeed, the time could come when Huggins' would be able to be honored for all he had done at his alma mater as a player, as a coach, as an ambassador, as university fundraiser and as an angel behind efforts to create a regional cancer center here.
Could that really happen?
Eilert admitted he believed it could.
"We're going to move on," he said. "Time heals all wounds. There will be a time we take his legacy -- his 16 years here -- and we really celebrate that. He's been a huge, influential part in my life and that's not going to change."
First, though, we have to get through the present. Eilert spoke with Huggins on Sunday morning.
"He just sounded at peace," Eilert said. "He talked about the day before all the smallmouth bass he caught on the lake. He's getting some time to reflect and do some things. I know he's got a tremendous amount of remorse for what happened last month. He owns those mistakes."
If social media is any way to judge it -- and help us if that is where we have to go to figure out right from wrong -- WVU fans remain behind Huggins. While some think he should simply vaporize, far more believe he is to be forgiven over time and never forgotten.
It puts a tremendous amount of pressure on Eilert, but he has expected that since his taking the job was mentioned.
"Anybody that had to take this role was going to feel a lot of pressure," he said.
If it was an outsider, someone with no real connection to Huggins, it might have been less than a man he brought into the program and spent 16 years serving under him.
But what happens the first time Huggins walks into the Coliseum for a game?
One can only imagine the reception. Whether it should be or shouldn't be this way is for greater minds than you will find writing or reading this, but the reality is that the Coliseum will go nuts.
But what can you do? Bar him from the Coliseum? Hardly.
Athletic director Wren Baker knows that.
"I don't think I would ever say, 'Hey, you need to stay away,'" Baker said. "When you have somebody like that who the fans love and are passionate about, that's not the right course of action."
But to have a 'Bob Huggins Night' or to name the court after Huggins, which has been mentioned … well, that's not the right course of action right now.
It's Eilert's show now and he doesn't need any distractions.
"I think with Josh being the interim coach, I know he cares a lot for Josh and he won't want to do anything but support Josh and let him be the head coach and not feel like there's a legend looking over his shoulder," Baker said.
"I don't think anyone needs to have a conversation with him about that. He's coached a long time and he understands that and wants Josh to be successful. There hasn't been, nor would there be, any requirement from me for a time period like that.”