Bearcat basketball

For the life of me, I cannot understand why the University of Cincinnati fired Bob Huggins. I certainly don't understand the way they did it. Huggins had some problems. Most cite his DUI arrest or player arrests or academic problems with players. Well, not only can I find those problems at other universities, I don't have to leave the state of Kentucky. A couple of years ago University of Louisville assistant coach Ralph Willard got a DUI, and a week after pleading guilty, he was the acting head coach while Rick Pitino was in Cleveland seeing a specialist. Academic problems and off court misbehavior have been an epidemic at the University of Kentucky under coach Tubby Smith. When the team is nicknamed Team Turmoil one season, you know you got problems. I would need a lot of fingers to count the number of UK players that have been in trouble with the law of late. And last year, UK was the NCAA tournament team with the worst graduation rate. Yet Pitino and Smith are not seen as running a renegade program. And Huggins certainly hasn't been as bad as John Chaney. He tried to choke an opposing coach in the 80s, broke into John Calipari's post-game press conference screaming he was going to kill him in the 90s and bragged about sending a goon onto the court to hurt someone leading to a player breaking his arm this year.

The real problem I have with it is the fact how it happened. UC was nothing from the 60s until Bob Huggins got there. UC would not have been invited to the Big East if not for him. He would routinely stay at UC even when other schools or the NBA came calling. Unfortunately for him, that loyalty was not a two way street. After 16 years of building that program, and they fire him in August while he's out of town because the school president thinks that he's the reason they aren't a top flight academic institution. Nick Lachey of all people gave the best response to that. How does Bob Huggins keep the academic departments from succeeding? If everyone else at the university does their job as well as Huggins did his, they might move up. Frankly, I think UC's president is a vindictive little bitch who fired him out of a little hissy fit. She talks about "character", and some call her courageous. For what? Waiting until he's out of town, and then firing him? After all he has done for that school's athletic department (only part that makes money), what a low-rent classless way to end his tenure.

If the DUI was the reason, why not fire him last year? Besides, I'm willing to bet they won't take tenure from a professor who gets a DUI. There have been fewer player problems and higher graduation in recent years, so if that's the reason, he's being penalized for crap that is years old. And it's not just Huggins being punished. That bitch stabbed a bunch of players in the back. The timing of it means the players have very little opportunity to transfer over it. That alone makes me suspicious of her waiting until now. Forcing the veterans to stay means a chance the team can stay successful. Because if the basketball program drops, she may have won the battle, but will lose the war.