COLUMBUS, Ohio — When West Virginia senior guard Juwan Staten was asked about the unique sideline style of his coach, Bob Huggins, he perfectly encapsulated the reputation Huggins deservedly has earned over his 30 years as a Division I head coach.

“Why follow the same tradition as everyone else?” Staten asked. “Create your own.”

Huggins certainly has done that, breaking the mold of the typical college coach and having plenty of success doing it. He has won more than 700 games across stints with Akron, Cincinnati, Kansas State and now West Virginia, his alma mater — including making a pair of Final Fours — and has done it with a dry wit and the understanding that, unlike how it’s presented by many of his peers, he isn’t changing the world for the better in doing so.

During his press conference Saturday ahead of No. 5 West Virginia’s Midwest Region game against No. 4 Maryland on Sunday night, Huggins was as good as he ever has been. First, he mocked the NCAA for having the final game of Friday’s slate at Nationwide Arena — Dayton’s win over Providence — end after 1 a.m. local time: “Now you’ve got to remember this, it’s all for the betterment of the student-athlete,” Huggins said, trying to hide a smile. “I’ve heard that.”

He then went on to talk honestly about one potential hang-up of renewing a yearly meeting with Maryland: “We still have to generate income, so you obviously can’t play all home-and-homes. … You have to buy some people in and make some money, too.”

That’s not the kind of talk you usually hear from college coaches, who often spend plenty of time talking about all the other things that people promote about the sport — developing young people, teaching lessons, etc. — and leave out the elephant in the room: College basketball is about, more than anything else, making money and winning.

And when it comes to winning, few know how to do it better than Huggins. Though none do it quite the same way. He may be 61 years old, but Huggins is just as animated on the sidelines as he ever has been. At one point during his No. 5 Mountaineers’ win over No. 12 Buffalo on Friday, an ill-advised alley-oop attempt by his team led Huggins to turn around and slam his hands down on the scorer’s table twice, as hard as he could.

“I don’t think you’ll have to worry about that,” Huggins said with a smile when asked about the play. “I think I’ve expressed my opinion strongly enough.”

In another instance, after he was unhappy with a call by a referee during the Buffalo game, Huggins stared at him without moving for more than two minutes during a television timeout, with the referee looking at every part of the arena but back at the coach before Huggins eventually went into his huddle.

“Personally, I like it,” Staten said. “It’s something I had to get used to, because when I first got here, it was kind of throwing me off. I’d never been around a coach who is that animated. But as I’ve gotten to know him, as I’ve played for him, it kind of gets me going.”

Then there is the way Huggins dresses on the sidelines. Instead of the expensive suits most coaches wear, he wears a simple pullover — a tradition that started back at Cincinnati, when, after sweating through a suit at halftime, an equipment manager brought him a pullover to wear.

“I’m at the point in my life now, I’m on the downhill,” Huggins said, drawing laughs. “I’ve been doing this a long, long time, and I’m going to be comfortable.”

It’s easy to be comfortable when you’re being yourself, and over his 30-year career, Bob Huggins has spent most of the time being comfortable — and most of the time winning plenty of games.

The NCAA Tournament is supposed to be a series of games at neutral sites, but Lon Kruger, the coach of No. 3 Oklahoma, will be preparing the Sooners for their game Sunday night against No. 11 Dayton as if it’s a road game.

“We do,” Kruger said when asked if he looked at this as a road game, given Dayton is just 70 miles west of Columbus. “And we don’t worry about it. Fair or unfair, that doesn’t even come up. We’re playing Dayton with a crowd that’s going to be pro-Dayton. … That’s the way it is.

“We’re a lot more concerned about those guys than we are the crowd. … The crowd warrants consideration, too, but [Dayton’s] concerning because they’re a really good team.”