Huggy Bear Bob sent to roam the wild

University of Cincinnati president Nancy Zimpher was brought an end to an era of NCAA appearances, 25 win seasons, Student-Athelete arrests, and embarrassing drunken episodes by coach Bob Huggins tuesday, giving him 24 hours to accept a buyout or be fired. In sixteen season with the Bearcars, Huggins owns a 399-127 record, was named conference USA coach of the decade (90's), lead U Cin to the final four in 1992, and has put 10 players in the NBA, most natably Kenyon Martin. Impressive resume, no doubt. But the more interesting numbers for the Bearcats always are off the court.

I always joke that it is a good year for the University of Cincinnati if NCAA tourney victories outnumbered player infractions, arrests and suspensions. In recent years, that has been harder to accomplish, with Cincinni often upset in the first or second round despite racking up 25-29 wins in the regular season. Last night Dick Vitale was commending Huggins on graduating 11 of his last 17 players. Bragging? Of course this is in comparison to years of recruiting the most embarrassing scandal-as-athletes the NCAA has seen. Dontonio Wingfield did time for assaulting two cops responding to a call that he was allegedly beating his girlfriend, Donald Little assaulted and allegedly tortured his roommate, Shawn Myrick did time for sexual battery to name a few. Then there is the unforgetable Art Long (famed police horse puncher), the assistant coach (assistant coach???) charged with unethical conduct for "knowingly" violating NCAA rules and providing "false and misleading" testimony to investigators, and the whole program put on probation for 2 years.

Then there was the June 2004 police videotape of Huggins staggering during his field sobriety test that was shown nationally. Huggins pleaded no contest to driving under the influence, attended a three-day intervention program, and was suspended without pay by the university for two months. Problems continued this off-season when freshman Roy Bright was dismissed from the team because he had a gun on campus and Assistant coach Keith LeGree also was arrested and charged with drunken driving. In May, Nancy Zimpher, despite only being at her post for 2 years, notified Huggins that his contract would no longer receive the automatic roll-over it had for years: a power-play that caused university alumni to go into a tizzy, threatening to cancel donations. Zimpher stuck to her guns and upped the ante, offering Huggins a 3 million dollar buyout or immediate termination.

I really hope people stop defending Huggins. The kind of values he espouses have no place in collegiate basketball. His players play like thugz on and off the court and if he was any good as a couch on the court, he would consistently get out of the first weekend of the NCAA tournament and stop losing to teams like Tulsa and West VIrginia, or rather any team from a major conference. This year marks the debut of the Bearcats in the Big East, a 16 team powerhouse that should compete with the ACC all season as the strongest conference. It's a good time to make a change, and I respect Zimpher for doing what is best for the school in the long run, rather than just cater to the alumni.