Huggins Mellows, Adapts In Record Season – Ohio State Buckeyes
3/11/2002 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
March 11, 2002
%^$By JOE KAY
%^$AP Sports Writer%^$
%^$CINCINNATI (AP) – Four strands of white nylon net drooped from the rim,%^$waiting to be snipped in the final act of a championship celebration.%^$
%^$Giddy Cincinnati Bearcats waved to Bob Huggins, who was courtside doing a%^$radio interview after their Conference USA tournament championship. It%^$wouldn’t be right to claim this keepsake without him.%^$
%^$They saved the scissors for the gruff coach who, like his team, has done%^$extraordinary things in a season that started with a loss and culminated in%^$a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament.%^$
%^$Those were tears welling in Huggins’ eyes.%^$
%^$”It was emotional,” said guard Steve Logan, the two-time conference player%^$of the year. “There are so many things you can say about coach Huggins.”%^$
%^$The two most common descriptions involve his titles and his temper. The%^$volatile coach rages at players and referees with foot-stomping fury,%^$willing his team to play harder than the opponent.%^$
%^$He figured to wear out his voice and his heels this season, when it was left%^$to Logan and a bunch of role players to carry on the tradition of dominating%^$the conference.%^$
%^$With fans expecting the worst, Huggins has put together his best team.%^$
%^$Fifth-ranked Cincinnati (30-3) won its seventh league title, tore through%^$the conference tournament, set a school record for victories and earned the%^$school’s first No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament.%^$
%^$The overachieving team that fans have dubbed “Huggins’ Heroes” will play%^$Boston University (22-9) in the first round at Pittsburgh on Thursday.%^$
%^$”Everything these guys get, they certainly deserve, because they’ve worked%^$so hard,” Huggins said. “Logan gets so much recognition – deservedly so -%^$and they chime in with it, too. Sometimes you get a little bit of jealousy,%^$there’s none of that, absolutely none.”%^$
%^$The players say a big factor has been Huggins’ ability to change in his 13th%^$season at Cincinnati.%^$
%^$The coach who loves to press and trap decided to stick with a plain%^$man-to-man defense all season because it fit his players. Without%^$hesitation, he had them play primarily zone – something he’s never done as a%^$coach – in the conference tournament because he realized it would give them%^$an advantage.%^$
%^$”I don’t like zone because I don’t know who to blame,” Huggins said.%^$”Man-to-man, I’ve got a real good idea of who to blame when things don’t go%^$well.”%^$
%^$There’s also been a behind-the-scenes change that’s made a big difference%^$with his players. Although Huggins still rages on the sideline, he has%^$worked on building relationships with players.%^$
%^$”When I first got here, he was one way: hard and tough on the players,” said%^$Logan, a senior. “He’s calmed down on that. I think that’s helped our club.%^$He knows how to talk to guys when they’re down. It’s dealing with guys as a%^$team and as individuals.”%^$
%^$He has even cried with them.%^$
%^$Huggins got weepy before and after the Bearcats’ final regular-season game -%^$stunned players had never seen him cry before – and the tears appeared again%^$after the conference title game.%^$
%^$That’s a measure of his deep pride in a team of overachievers. It also might%^$reflect what’s going on inside Huggins as he approaches an unsettled%^$offseason.%^$
%^$Since 1995, the school has paid $130,000 a year into a deferred annuity%^$designed to keep Huggins in Cincinnati. His contract allows him to collect%^$it after this season.%^$
%^$He would like to coach in the NBA someday. West Virginia, his alma mater, is%^$in the market for a head coach.%^$
%^$Fans are keenly aware that Huggins will be tempted to leave. When he snipped%^$down the net last Saturday, the crowd chanted, “Bob Don’t Go! Bob Don’t Go!”%^$
%^$For now, Huggins is fixated on a prize that has eluded him. Cincinnati made%^$the Final Four in 1992, Huggins’ third season, and hasn’t been back.%^$
%^$With star-packed rosters, the Bearcats lost their second-round games in four%^$consecutive tournaments from 1997-2000. They finally broke out of the rut by%^$advancing to the round of 16 last year.%^$
%^$In 1997, they lost to Iowa State by a point. In 1998, West Virginia beat%^$them on a banked 3-pointer at the buzzer. Kenyon Martin broke his leg right%^$before the 2000 tournament.%^$
%^$Huggins thinks this time might be different.%^$
%^$”We haven’t been lucky,” Huggins said. “They say that all balances out, so%^$we ought to be in for a hell of a roll.”%^$
