Coach Huggins

If you add everything up - allegations of shady recruiting practices, national perception of a rogue program, embarrassing DUI, annual criminal activity by players and a grotesque string of early exits in the NCAA tournament - the firing of Bobby Huggins should not come as a surprise.

Timing is the dirty little word that has the UC basketball community up in arms. Most boosters probably feel hoodwinked - their beloved captain of the Bearcat Armada was clipped days after their booster money was collected for the 2005-06 season. Recruiting has likely grinded to a halt, with the prize pig, homegrown OJ Mayo, becoming a mere dream. Now the program must limp apologetically into the Big East where they will be exposed under the bright lights of big time college basketball.

I underestimated the disdain UC president Nancy Zimpher has for Huggins. It's the only reason to explain the move - she simply could not stomach one more season of Huggins brooding around campus. Maybe she thought he was bigger than the school and wanted to reestablish the power structure. My problem is this: she had already won. Huggins was coaching the team on her terms. He was a lame duck, given two years to prove that he deserved to be the coach at Cincinnati. Huggins is UC Basketball - a 13-year veteran that rescued the program from obscurity. He is one of the biggest names in college basketball and was now told that he had to re-apply for his job.

And he agreed! Would Pitino agree to such terms? Zimpher had broken Huggins in public and he accepted her new deal with his tail between his legs.

With Huggins campaigning for his job on the court, Zimpher could have conducted a coaching search off of it. If Huggins fell flat on his face in the Big East (a distinct possibility), no one would have howled at his release. Recruiting would have held serve, Mayo could have been locked up and at the very least, the team could have arrived in the Big East (the most important move in the history of UC athletics) with a cloak of solidarity.

I'm going to miss Huggins. College basketball has become a collection of one-night stands, with players leaving their teams before they bother to take off their coats. The one constant that you could set you watch to was Coach Bob Huggins, patrolling the UC sideline with a ubiquitous scowl. His post-game interviews were comic genius, as he shared grunts and blunt answers with Chuck Mayshok. He was tough and so was the team, but I always thought I saw a glint of childish mischief behind his dead eyes. Now he is gone and leaves behind a program without a soul.

However, as the rule of the fan goes, we cheer for the uniform, not the men inside. If the Bearcats win 20 and advance to the Sweet 16, it will be all smiles and high-fives in Bearcat Kingdom. Huggins will just be a name on a banner, a statistical footnote in the media guide, a subject of pub chatter:

'remember that crazy coach we used to have that looked like a mob boss and stomped his feet like an 6-year old?' He will live on and so will Bearcat basketball.

I'm going to miss him anyway.