Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 7, 1991 TAG: 9104180477
SECTION: THE METRO TOURNAMENT PAGE: 6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Jack Bogaczyk / Sportswriter
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Long
In two seasons, Huggins has righted the Bearcats' program. He started with 20 victories and an NIT bid last season as Cincinnatti moved into its 13,000-seat Shoemaker Center. Huggins brings his 17-10 team into the metro tournament in Roanoke this week, and if the Bearcats can win a couple after losing four of their last six regular-season games, they should get Cincinnatti's first NCAA bid since it won its second ot two straight Metro titles in 1977.
"Too many people think that if you do things that some consider unrealistic, then it's bad," Huggins said. "If you look at it like that, then you find yourself afraid to suceed. I don't want our guys to be afraid to succeed.
"Since I've been at Cincinnatti, I've had 100 people tell me, `You're winning to fast.' I say, `Why be afraid of success?' How can you ever attain success if you're afraid of it?"
Huggins' coaching credo seems to be: You have to be a challenger before you can be a champion. His name is synonymous with basketball success in Ohio. His father, Charles, was a coaching legend at Indian Valley South High in Gnadenhutten. Huggins' younger brothers, Harry and Larry, played at Rice and Ohio State. All of the Huggins boys played for their father.
Last season, Huggins was the Metro coach of the year after succeeding Tony Yates as the Bearcats' boss. He also was called for 15 technical fouls, a number that has been trimmed to three this season. Suffice it to say Huggins may have seen zebras more to his liking in the nationally acclaimed Cincinnatti Zoo.
"Every play for us, a year ago, was critical," Huggins said when Cincinnatti played recently at Virginia Tech. "We had no center; we had no bench. Everything for us was do-or-die. I think that had something to do with [the technicals].
"And I just don't think because you put stripes on and you put a whistle around your neck that you don't make mistakes, that you're above reproach. If they miss a call, I think they should hear about it. . . .I think a lot has to do with my size [6 feet 5]. I watch little guys that carry on 100 times worse than I am, and everybody says they're cute. I think a lot has to do with my size and some of it has to do with my age [37]."
Huggins graduated magna cum laude in 1977 from West Virginia where he had the overused "blue-collar player" tag pinned to his stastics, although he was the Mountaineers' MVP in his senior year.
"I don't know what `blue collar' is," Huggins said. "If that means you played hard, well that's a compliment. I expect people to take charges and dive on the floor for balls. We'll do that. I think that's the way the game is meant to be played."
Huggins became a college head coach at age 27, at Walsh. In his third year, he took the Canton, Ohio school to a 34-1 record and the NAIA national championship game. After one year as an assistant at Central Florida, Huggins returned to his home state as Akron's head coach. After a 12-14 debut with the Zips, Huggins guided them to four straight 20-victory seasons, years that included one NCAA berth and two NIT bids.
Huggins has coached 122 Division I victories in less than six seasons, but he said Cincinnatti fans haven't seeen "Bob Huggins basketball" yet since he inherited a program with talent but no depth, a situation exacerbated by grants-in-aid limited by NCAA probation.
"We've come up with a style to get the most out of our abilities," Huggins said. "If we were doing just what I'd like, we'd play more man [defense] and we'd play more up tempo. We're doing what we have to do to be successful. . . .I think people love to grasp onto underdogs. A year ago, with our lack of size and depth, we were looked at as overachievers.
Huggins admits it took his Bearcats some time to adjust to his style. His deep voice has tremendous range. He can be barely audible one minute, but don't relax. . .
"Nobody likes somebody pushing them every day," Huggins said. "They didn't like it in the beginning, but I think they came to appreciate it. We're going to play, whatever it takes."
Next season, Huggins' team will play in the new Great Midwest Conference, which the Bearcats' coach views as a potential boon.
"People forget Cincinnatti is the northern-most city in the Metro," Huggins said. "You get an hour above Cincinnatti and there's very little knowledge of the Metro. Those people don't know who's in the Metro. They know the Big Ten and the Mid-American Conference. Pittsburg is closer to eastern Ohio than we are. People in that part of the state know the Big East better than they know the Metro."
Huggins is a basketball coach, but he said he would like to return the Bearcats to national prominence by being a geography and history teacher.
"This is an area where basketball is very important," Huggins said. "We're within 120 miles of Lexington [Ky.], Louisville, Bloomington [Ind.] and Columbus [Ohio]. People around us take their basketball very seriously.
"We also have to use the Cincinnatti tradition. Kids don't remember that. They don't know that Cincinnatti played in the Final Four at all, much less five years in a row [1959-63] and won two national championships. Kids today don't know who [Cincinnatti great] Oscar Robertson was or Jerry West or Jerry Lucas. Their parents know, but kids don't.
"They know Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson. We've let too much time lapse since the greatness of the program for the kids to remember. So, you try to sell the city, sell the university, sell the program, sell yourself. As we start to win, it's going to get much easier, I think."
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