Big 12 fines West Virginia coach Bob Huggins $10,000, reprimands him for ripping referees after loss to Kansas

Huggins slammed the officials for lack of consistency making calls after a road loss to the Jayhawks

The Big 12 Conference on Tuesday issued a public reprimand and $10,000 fine for West Virginia coach Bob Huggins, who over the weekend offered some spicy opinions on the officiating job done in his Mountaineers' 60-53 road loss to No. 3 Kansas.

"Coach Huggins' comments following the West Virginia vs. Kansas basketball game violate the Big 12 Conference's sportsmanship policy," said Commissioner Bob Bowlsby in a statement. "Because this is Coach Huggins' third such incident, a public reprimand and a fine of $10,000 is appropriate."

Huggins violated the sportsmanship policy by criticizing the consistency of the officiating, and went over the line when he referred to the trio of referees in the game as "three blind mice."

"I can't control what those three blind mice running around out there do," he said after Saturday's game. "What we would all love to see is consistency. Foul there. Foul here. I understand it's a hard job, but they do get paid pretty handsomely for it. Just be consistent."

Between the noise, the atmosphere and officiating, Allen Fieldhouse historically has been one of the toughest places to play in all of college basketball over the years. On Saturday, though, it's hard to point to any one trend as the reason for Huggins' grief. Kansas was called for 19 fouls to West Virginia's 18, and WVU got to the free-throw line 22 times to KU's 30 -- a small disparity overall.

If it's consistency Huggins wants from the officials, he's setting a good example on that front, because this isn't the first time he's left a road game against KU unhappy with officiating. In 2018, Huggins complained about calls not going his team's way and a free-throw disparity that saw his Mountaineers shoot only two shots from the charity stripe. After taking his grievance public, the league issued a public reprimand of his comments. He then vowed he would "not say anything from now on."

Given his battles with the Big 12 office over similar criticism, Huggins likely knew a reprimand and potential fine was on the table for what he said. If it's any consolation, his Mountaineers seemed to respond to his fiery comments with a 55-41 road win Monday over Oklahoma State.

West Virginia plays Texas Tech on Saturday.