Cincy Post article

[Herman_Momart]

Today I googled South Florida and Bobby Huggins in the same search.  Uh oh! Look at the bolded paragraph 13.  If you are truly a Bulls fan you have to consider this potentially great oppurtunity.  It has went from rumored and suggested by numerous people on this site to a reality.

What do you think.  I think instant credibility in the BE.

Herm

UC struggles wound Huggins

It isn't the sitting around that hurts most, says Bob Huggins.

It isn't the throbbing pride. It isn't the fickle friendships. It isn't the stripped opportunity to carry the University of Cincinnati's banner into the Big East. It isn't even the chance denied him to recruit the best players he ever recruited and take them where the leading teams in the new league so often go.

Were he still under contract at UC - and had it been extended beyond next year - Huggins would right now be thinking national championship with more vivid anticipation than any time since Kenyon Martin broke his leg. The possibility might not have presented itself this season; but it was coming soon, and perhaps repeatedly.

And still, that's not what hurts most. The worst pain is not in the abstract. It is not in the could-have-been.

"The hardest thing," Huggins said, "is watching them lose."

The Bearcats finally won another Big East game the other night. Andy Kennedy, Huggins' intrepid interim replacement, cranked up the defense, which, in a sad commentary, was needed to beat South Florida at home, an entrée that used to come slathered in gravy.

Until then, there had been some question as to whether another victory might be somehow summoned from the Bearcats' ravaged ranks. We all knew - all of us, that is, except Nancy Zimpher and the UC trustees - that the swoon would come soon; but not this soon. Not while several seniors remained.

What we didn't anticipate was the quickening of the decline through the unfortunate and unforeseen, such coupled items as Roy Bright and the gun, Abdul Herrera and the NCAA, DeAndre Coleman and the wanderlust, Armein Kirkland and the knee. If the current season is to be resuscitated, it will require mountains more of Kennedy's cunning, Eric Hicks' heart, James White's wherewithal and Devan Downey's derring-do. It's marginally possible and otherwise hard to watch.

"I just feel bad for AK and for the kids," Huggins added softly. "But I'm fine."

He was back home in Port Washington, Ohio, right next to Gnadenhutten. The canned coach has been using the time off to catch up with his fishing, of course, and also with his family, a mid-life regrounding that has been nice but missing something. In his houses, family has always revolved around basketball.

The empty feeling was especially achy at Thanksgiving. In Loveland, the Huggins turkey had traditionally been passed around to tall young men who were far from their mothers' mashed potatoes.

"It was the first time, really, since we were married that we didn't have some players over," said the ousted winner of 399 Cincinnati games. "My kids had never had Thanksgiving with players not there for dinner. They said, 'You know, Dad, we miss the guys.' That's all they knew."

Next Thanksgiving, there will most likely be big fellows around the table once again. Premature chatter has linked Huggins to such institutions as South Florida, Duquesne, Missouri, West Virginia, Ohio U., Marshall, UNLV and Florida International, all of which have coaches at the moment.

Whatever school he lands with will do extremely well if Huggins brings along such surpassing young talents as O.J. Mayo, Bill Walker and 7-foot Floridian Jason Bennett, whose interest in UC was terminated when the controversial coach was. If those big fellows don't follow him, Huggins will do well anyway.

He always has, although not well enough to satisfy the policymakers at Cincinnati. He isn't sure how much certain trustees - Phil Cox and Jeff Wyler, for instance - had to do with his untimely dismissal, but he knew from the moment Zimpher arrived that he was no longer in favor.

The infamous result was what many have described as a power struggle. Huggins' clout on campus was legendary. Zimpher's will - some have called it her ego - quickly took on similar proportions.

It appeared, after Huggins' DUI incident in 2004, that she had given him a temporary pass; but what was really temporary was Huggins' contract. His rollover wasn't renewed. For a basketball coach, a rollover is like a reputation; or a cell phone. He can't recruit without it.

Huggins wanted more years. Zimpher preferred fewer. In the end, which was late August, her agenda became the program's cross to bear under the boards and across the open floors of the Big East.

"People keep writing about a power struggle," reflected Huggins from the quiet of eastern Ohio. "For the record, there was no power struggle. I'm intelligent enough to know where the power was.

"They have the right to do whatever it is they want to do. She's the president. She runs the school. I never had any doubt about that."

By offering Huggins a buyout, which was settled at a comfy $3.1 million, the university was able to describe the parting of ways as mutual. Huggins, who kept coming back to UC after job offers and heart attacks, sees it differently.

"It was take the buyout or be fired," he stated. "You have until a certain time this day. How can you say it was whatever?

"I said numerous times that I wanted to retire in Cincinnati. I wanted to build the best program there is, I wanted it to last, and I wanted to retire there."

That was not about to happen on Zimpher's watch. Meanwhile, there was a subtle receding of the support previously lent Huggins by Bob Goin, the recently retired athletic director. The Conference USA Coach of the Decade figured that Goin would keep him apprised of what was going on over their heads. In the end, he pointedly noted, "Ken Broo (of Channel 5) was the one who told me I'd been fired."

Nearly six months later, Huggins remains at odds with the why of it all. The winning had continued. The DUI was in the past. The graduation rate was on the upswing.

"A good friend of mine said to me the other day, 'Are we to believe that 10 guys can bring down the academic standing of the university, even if all that stuff (about graduation rates) is true?' Which," said Huggins, "it was not."

That much is a tired debate. There's no disputing that there were serious image issues during Huggins' 16 seasons at UC, the last 14 of which ended in the NCAA tournament. There's no denying that it is Zimpher's executive prerogative to have the university represented by agents of her ideals.

The problem was how it came down. The problem was when it came down. The problem was the mess that was sure to become the UC basketball program, which now proceeds in front of empty seats previously occupied by admirers of the coach who built it.

On Tuesday, Aug. 23, the day the deed was done, Zimpher said, "This is exactly the right time to assess where we want to go and who we want to become. There's no good time, but when you're entering a challenge like the Big East, that's a real good time for assessment and for raising the bar."

Having played the reassessed Bearcats, Connecticut would enthusiastically endorse the president's position. Syracuse would give it a slap on the back. Georgetown is grateful.

"I watch all the games," said Huggins. "It's hard."

[The Sheriff]

What a genuine good guy... I pray to God he leads us into the future starting this offseason!

[Dmince]

OJ Mayo in a Bulls Uniform is an incredible thought.

[SkypointBull]

What a genuine good guy...

Not sure about that. But his boy Neal vouches for him.

[Jewbull]

I finally can get a good night sleep  ;D

[SkypointBull]

I would imagine you would see alot of Huggs at the Tyrone Hooters. Just my guess.

[Bull Matrix]

It would be unfair to Coach McCullum to hire Huggins after this year IMO. Maybe, USF can think Huggins if McCullum does not turn it around next season. Sure, Huggins would bring instant excitement to USF basketball just like Knight did to Texas Tech. I just dont see it happening after this season. Maybe next season if Huggins is still available.

PS You just remember that McCullum beat Huggins last season in the C-USA tourny. I would hate to have USF get rid of a potential good coach in McCullum. Hard choice for any AD if you ask me.

[Herman_Momart]

If he even hints he would come here.  You grab him.  It would be an honor to have him coach this university.  You must not realize how sick OJ Mayo is.  I dont know anything about the recruit from Jville but 7'0" , sounds good to me.  

herm

[CoralSpringsBull]

Imagine the money USF will have to spend. We will have to pay the remainder of our current coach's contract and pay big bucks to lure Huggins here. It won't happen.

[___ Eats It]

Yeah, let's not pull a UCF and sacrifice the entire athletic budget for one guy, who would probably use USF as a chance to improve his image and then bolt for greener pastures after a few years anyway...