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Swin Cash has her jersey retired at McKeesport High School in the Neenie Cambell Gymnasium.
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Ron Cook: Basketball Hall of Fame could (and should) have heavy Western Pennsylvania presence this year

Post-Gazette

Ron Cook: Basketball Hall of Fame could (and should) have heavy Western Pennsylvania presence this year

One word perfectly describes Swin Cash, George Karl and Bob Huggins in a collective way:

Winners.

Three more words might be necessary in a fortnight:

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Hall of Famers.

Basketball’s brightest light might shine on our little corner of the world in a big way when the 2022 Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame class is announced on Final Four Saturday in New Orleans. Cash, Karl and Huggins are finalists for the first time. Each needs 18 votes from a 24-person committee to make the cut for enshrinement.

I’m thinking it’s going to be a terrific weekend for Western Pennsylvania and North-Central West Virginia.

Cash, Karl and Huggins are deserving.

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Cash’s resume is spectacular. A list of her accomplishments in basketball could fill these pages. A two-time Post-Gazette Female Athlete of the Year and Parade Magazine All-American at McKeesport High School, a two-time national champion and All-American at the University of Connecticut, a three-time champion and four-time All-Star in the WNBA and a two-time gold medalist in the Olympics. She was inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame in 2021.

I am exhausted writing that paragraph.

“You can make the argument she is the most accomplished athlete to ever come from Western Pennsylvania,” Mike White said this week. He has been covering high school sports for the Post-Gazette for 43 years.

“To hear that? Wow. A lot of athletes came through there,” Cash said during a telephone interview on Thursday. “It means a lot. To hear it said like that ... Not just best female athlete or best basketball player. Best athlete. That’s pretty powerful.

“All I ever tried to do was be the best version of myself. I wanted people to have respect for my family and for my last name. I just wanted to get an education and a better life and be able to travel. I’ve been blessed that basketball has taken me all around the world. ...

“I love McKeesport. I love Western Pennsylvania. I know some young people there might be looking at me. That matters to me. That means a lot. I always tell them, ‘Be proud of who you are and where you’re from.’”

Cash, 42, still is making big contributions to basketball. In June 2019, she was named by the NBA’s New Orleans Pelicans as vice president of basketball operations/team development, making her one of the most powerful women and African-Americans in professional sports.

“If she decides she wants to run a franchise, she absolutely will do that,” Pelicans executive vice president of basketball operations David Griffin said when he hired Cash. “There is no doubt whatsoever.”

Yes, Cash said, that’s her ultimate goal.

“Organically, that’s the next step. I’m just trying to be a sponge and learn as much as possible. I’m trying to continue to grow and build a foundation and become a better person.”

Karl, 70, was a star at Penn Hills High School and played at North Carolina under Dean Smith, but he made his greatest mark as an NBA coach during a 27-year career with six different teams. His 1,175 career wins rank sixth on the NBA’s all-time coaching list. He made it to the NBA finals with Seattle in 1996 and was the league’s coach of the year with Denver in 2012-13. All five of the coaches ahead of Karl on the wins list are in the Hall of Fame or will be when Gregg Popovich is inducted. The three coaches behind him on the list also are enshrined.

It is time for Karl.

It is way past time for Huggins, a West Virginia legend.

I can’t say it any better than Robert Morris coach Andy Toole did on Thursday. He has coached against Huggins:

“It is an absolute travesty that he isn’t in the Hall of Fame.”

That thought was seconded by Jerry West a few years ago. Perhaps you’ve heard of him. He was an iconic player from West Virginia before he became so legendary in the NBA that they made him the league logo.

“I don’t think there are five coaches in the country better than him,” West said of Huggins. “He’s equal to any of them.”

Huggins, 68, passed Bob Knight and Roy Williams on the all-time college coaches wins list this season and moved into fourth place behind Jim Calhoun, Jim Boeheim and Mike Krzyzewski with 916 wins. In a career that has spanned 40 years, his teams have made it to the NCAA tournament 25 times, although they fell short this season. He hasn’t won a national championship, but he did take Cincinnati to the Final Four in 1992 and West Virginia in 2010.

Huggins will tell you he lost his best chance at a national title with Cincinnati in 2000 when consensus player of the year Kenyon Martin broke his right league in the Conference USA tournament. Cincinnati was No. 1 in the country at the time. Martin would become the No. 1 overall pick in the 2000 NBA draft.

“We were the best team in the country,” Huggins said. “There wasn’t anyone even close.”

Maybe Illinois coach Brad Underwood broke the story about Huggins and the Hall of Fame. During his press briefing before his team’s tournament game against Chattanooga at PPG Paints Arena on Friday night, he was asked about his coaching pals Huggins and former Kansas State/South Carolina coach Frank Martin working as television studio analysts during the tournament.

“It’ll be a great tune-in, to be very honest,” Underwood said. “Hugs is down low one of the funniest human beings on the planet and Frank will chime in and play right along. It’ll be great insight. You’ve got a Hall of Famer and Frank is ... ”

Huggins isn’t a Hall of Famer quite yet.

That should change on April 2.

Ron Cook: rcook@post-gazette.com and Twitter@RonCookPG. Ron Cook can be heard on the “Cook and Joe” show weekdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on 93.7 The Fan.

First Published: March 19, 2022, 11:00 a.m.

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