Thanks for winning, BTW you're fired!

[Merusk]

Huggins on way out at Cincinnati
JOE KAY / Associated Press
Posted: 4 hours ago     
 
 CINCINNATI (AP) - Bob Huggins was ordered Tuesday to resign as Cincinnati's basketball coach or he'll be fired, the culmination of a power struggle with the school president.

In a letter faxed to his lawyer by the university, Huggins was given 24 hours to resign and accept a financial compensation package worth almost $3 million. If he doesn't respond by 2 p.m. Wednesday, he will be fired, the letter said
 
Bob Huggins has won more games than any other Cincinnati coach, but his tenure has also been a checkered one. (Doug Pensinger / Getty Images)

The 51-year-old coach was traveling and had not seen the letter, lawyer Richard Katz said.

Athletic director Bob Goin, one of Huggins' most loyal supporters over the years, said he backed the decision.

"It's time for the university to move on," Goin said. "We've reached an impasse."

Huggins has won more games than any other coach at Cincinnati, but his tenure also has been marked by player arrests, poor graduation rates and NCAA rules violations that landed the school on probation.

His arrest for drunken driving last year upset new school president Nancy Zimpher. Huggins was placed on unpaid leave over the summer, but returned and coached last season, the Bearcats' last before moving into the Big East.

"Character counts," Zimpher said emphatically. "Our coaches must be exemplary role models on the court and off."

By dumping their head coach less than two months before the start of practice, the school put itself at a major disadvantage heading into one of the nation's toughest basketball conferences.

Cincinnati will have an interim coach in the inaugural season and mark on its reputation that could chase away recruits. Goin wanted to take a few days before picking an interim coach.

The basketball program could feel repercussions for years, but Zimpher said Huggins' removal would help the university in the long run. She noted that the school has been improving in national academic rankings.

"The only variable that we have stagnated on is our national reputation," Zimpher said, blaming the basketball program.

Earlier in Huggins' career, the program had one of the lowest graduation rates in the nation. It improved recently, but not enough to please Zimpher, who decided to take on a strong-willed coach accustomed to having things his way.

The school declined to invoke a roll-over provision in his contract that would have left Huggins with four years on his deal, making it easier to recruit. Katz has tried unsuccessfully to get the contract extended.

"We've been discussing with them for the last six or eight weeks an extension of the contract," Katz said. "It appeared he wasn't going to be able to fulfill the remaining two years of the contract because he couldn't recruit, he was running into obstacles at the university. It would not have been appropriate for that to continue."

The letter faxed to Katz on Tuesday was signed by the school's legal counsel, Zimpher, Goin and the chairman of the board of trustees.

The letter, obtained by The Associated Press through a Freedom of Information request, offered to keep Huggins in some other job until 2008, paying him $2.77 million over that time. He could have no hand in the basketball program.

If Huggins declines the offer, he will be fired, the letter said.

"I think we would both agree that these negotiations have gone on far too long," the letter said. "Mr. Huggins has clearly expressed, through you, his desire to move in another direction."

Zimpher notified Huggins last May that he would not get his contract automatically extended, as provided for in the deal. He was given the option of leaving or continuing to coach on the two-year deal.

He held a news conference to announce he was staying rather than informing the administration privately, a move that evidently drove the wedge deeper. The ultimatum sent on Tuesday referred to the May news conference, noting the university had to issue a statement "in light of the fact that coach Huggins chose to deal with contract issues through the media."

Huggins went 399-127 in 16 seasons at Cincinnati, rebuilding it into a nationally prominent program after years in disarray. His teams made 14 consecutive appearances in the NCAA tournament, and reached the Final Four in 1992.

The program also had a history of player arrests and infractions. The program went on two years' probation in 1998 after the NCAA concluded there was a lack of institutional control.

The relationship between Huggins and Zimpher was strained after he was arrested in June 2004 for drunken driving. The police videotape of Huggins staggering during his field sobriety test was shown nationally.

Huggins pleaded no contest to driving under the influence, attended a three-day intervention program, and was suspended without pay by the university for two months.

The Bearcats failed to win a league title in their final season in Conference USA, and lost in the second round of the NCAA tournament. After the season, freshman Roy Bright was dismissed from the team because he had a gun on campus.

Assistant coach Keith LeGree was arrested and charged with drunken driving, but was acquitted during a trial. He was reinstated as an assistant coach last month.

Folks here are PISSED.  If there's anyone who supports the decision they've been pretty quiet.  As for the Athletic Director 'supporting the decision.' he's also been fired/ retiring and is going to be replaced in January. Of course he supports it, he'd probably be causing more problems for himself if he didn't.

Zimmer has no respect for the athletic programs and has been trying to turn UC into a Midwest Ivy-League school for the last 2 years.  She's fired the heads of the Engineering College, the Law College and the Medical College in her 2-year tenure, and replaced the Law School head with someone much more liberal. That grates on folks and alumni in Conservative Town, USA.

Now I thought Hugs was a lousy coach in general, because his teams always fell apart at cruicial moments.  He lacked the leadership ability to keep them together and keep them focused on winning.  I can't fault him for the 'thugs' too much because Steiger (the former President) had told him to recruit fromt he inner city because that's where the talent was. (And the bonus publicity points for 'helping' inner-city youth.)

 Also, this is a pretty shitty way of going about things.  Huggs wasn't told until after she had the press conference yesterday announcing he was fired.  They also handled his drunk driving arrest pretty badly back in April, and his contract termination. The fact that Huggins was the winningest coach in UC history hasn't helped public sentiment with the university either. At least one 'big name' local sponsor has already said he's pulling his cash from the University. More are expected to follow.

[schild]

Joe Kay sucks at writing.

Bob Huggins has won more games than any other Cincinnati coach, but his tenure has also been a checkered one.

Huggins has won more games than any other coach at Cincinnati, but his tenure also has been marked by player arrests, poor graduation rates and NCAA rules violations that landed the school on probation.

Those paragraphs were 3 SENTENCES apart. I'm sorry, I couldn't let it slide. I know nothing about Huggins though, sounds like he shouldn't be treated like this though.

[Shockeye]

His players have had a number of run-ins with police. One even punched a police horse.

[WayAbvPar]

My impression has always been the Huggins is an overly intense coach who is one step ahead of the NCAA. That program has been a cesspool for years. They won just enough to keep Huggins around, but eventually all the other stuff was going to catch up. When you constantly field a team of thugs, you should expect repurcussions (when you lose...heh). Larry Coker will find that out one of these days at Miami.

[El Gallo]

One even punched a police horse.

He punched a horse?  That's classic.

[Rasix]

One even punched a police horse.

He punched a horse?  That's classic.

[Shockeye]

1. CINCINNATI
Every year without fail the Bearcats trot out a police, er, starting lineup stocked with juco transfers and miscreants. Cin City ballers have been charged with every crime in the book -- and some that aren't: Donald Little was kicked off the team in April 2002 for taping his roommate to a lawn chair, throwing weights at his head, clubbing him with a whiskey bottle and burning him with a heated coat hanger. Only then did Little stab him. The warden of this outfit? Coach Bob Huggins. Yes, Huggy Bear has taken Cincy to 12 straight NCAA tournaments; the problem is that student-athlete is not the preferred term for describing the players who have gotten the Bearcats there. Huggins's 1996 comment "Our guys have done a good job educationally" rivals any of Baghdad Bob's assertions. The team's graduation rate, according to the latest NCAA figures, is 25%. But it was Coach Bob's performance during his DUI arrest in June that cemented his Most Vile status: When Huggins staggered from his Lexus, the officer spotted vomit on the inside of the car door. At least the puke matched Huggins's sweater.

[schild]

taping his roommate to a lawn chair, throwing weights at his head, clubbing him with a whiskey bottle and burning him with a heated coat hanger.

I've been to crazier parties at Chuck E. Cheese; I fail to see the problem.

[Shockeye]

Police horse a magnet for controversy

Cody, a Cincinnati police horse, just can't seem to stay out of harm's way.

Just eight years ago, Cody, a 21-year-old quarterhorse, shared headlines with two UC basketball players.

An officer riding Cody in May 1995 said Bearcat center Art Long punched the 2,000-pound animal four times during a traffic stop in Corryville. The officer also said Long's teammate, forward Danny Fortson, was disorderly.

At trial, defense lawyers said Long was petting, not punching, the horse, and the men were stopped because they'd called the officer a derogatory name.

The jury deliberated less than two hours before acquitting both men.

[schild]

I bet punching a horse hurts less than stabbing it with spurs.

[Pococurante]

Horse just pawn in game of life.

[schild]

What's up with all the 800 year old man avatars? Did I miss a memo about something?

[Merusk]

One even punched a police horse.

He punched a horse?  That's classic.

Yep. Art Long.

I don't deny that UC has a thuggish b-ball program.  54 'incidents' with police over the last 15 years.  However, the local sports commentator cited there's been 200+ 'incidents' by NCAA players just in the last year. Seems tame percentage wise, we just get some of the bigger twats.

Most of the outrage is centered around a few different issues.
 1) The fact that if she wanted to fire him, it should have been done back in April after the drunk driving arrest.
 2) UC is going into a new conference this season that's pretty damn Hardc0re.  We're going to have an interim coach who has NEVER been in a head coaching position before as this happens.
 3) Terminating his contract back in April castrated his ability to recruit players.  Yet another reason they should have just fired him when you look at issue #2.
 4) Faxing a letter to their lawyer AFTER you have a press conference is a shitty way of firing ANYONE.
 5) Zimpher seems to think she can turn UC into an ivy-league school.   She wanted the job at Cornell but was denied it.  Public sentiment is that she's trying to prove she's 'worthy' of another school's top position by turning UC into something it's never been.  Zimpher previously has made a statement to the likes of "4 million means nothing to me." when warned that a large school booster would likely go away if Hugs were fired. This loss of revenue is going to be made-up by a) more tuition increases (UC has had a 9% or higher increase in tuition every year for the last 8 years) or b) more state funds, draining them from other colleges or programs.
 6) This one's a little more complex.  Season tickets for UC basketball (which is big around here) MUST be purchased in conjunction with UC Football tickets.  UC's football tickets were put up for sale a month earlier than usual this year and the last day of sale was, apparently, last week.  Many folks are angry because they see this as being too coincidental to NOT be calculated.

[Pococurante]

What's up with all the 800 year old man avatars? Did I miss a memo about something?

I think Slartibartifast is a lot older than that... ;)

[schild]

University of Maryland probably had more than 54 incidents in the 4 riots it had in the last 4 years, our coach is just getting raises. Throwing molotov cocktails at police horses must not be enough. Maybe it's time to start taping them to cop cars and chuck whiskey bottles at them.

[Rasix]

Are my posts being filtered or something?  First Murgos has an Egg Shen avatar (he might have been first ) and now another Mongo picture (granted Poco's is better). 

 

[WayAbvPar]

Did anyone hear that? It almost sounded like Rasix...

[Furiously]

Nope - didnt hear anything, But I think my posts being filtered or something?  First Murgos has an Egg Shen avatar (he might have been first undecided) and now another Mongo picture (granted Poco's is better). 

[HaemishM]

If I was him, I'd take the $3 million and STFU. The president sounds like a cunt of the highest order, and you should always do your best to take money from stupid people.

Of course, a 25% graduation rate is fucking obscenely bad.

[Llava]

Hey guys, you know who I miss?

Rasix.

Anyways.

I noticed and was about to post about the same crappy writing, schild.  You beat me to it.

If I was him, I'd take the $3 million and STFU

Does he still get it without resigning?  The way I read it said that they sent him this memo about resigning during a period when he was away, so of course he missed it and was fired.  It seemed to imply that the $3mil was part of the deal if he resigned.

[HaemishM]

At that point, it'd be lawsuit time or something.

[Big Gulp]

"The prize for first place?  Caddillac. 

The prize for second?  Set of steak knives. 

The prize for third?  You're fired.  Hit the bricks pal, because you are out!"

[Margalis]

How can you guys have any sympathy for this tool?

The guy was a lawbreaker, and fielded a team of lawbreakers, few of which deserved to be in any College on earth. Personally I'm all for a COLLEGE being vaguely academic in nature.

The NCAA is completely fucked. The entire notion of scholar athlete is basically gone. Honestly what they should do is create dev leagues for all the major sports, funnel people into there bypassing college entirely, let most of them bomb out, then they can either work at gas stations or get an education.

Bigtime college sports are a joke. They basically have nothing to do with college whatsoever, other than they happen to be played on college campuses.

A graduation rate of 25%? Teams like that shouldn't even be allowed in NCAA tournaments.

[Strazos]

The worst thing? These kids get free money to go to school, priority scheduling, lowed admission requirements, and a ton of other little "perks"...what a crock.

[stray]

Bottom line: College sports contribute to a lot the schools' income. The kids should get even more than scholarships, if you ask me.

Welcome to life.

Why is it a crock?

Oh wait, don't tell me. I have a vague idea.

[Strazos]

Here's just one reason: Priority scheduling. Most kids have to just hope they can get into the classes they want/need. The atheletes get whatever they want, which is bullshit.

Just for reference, I don't see the sports at my school bringing in much money at all. The College(s) of Business and Engineering probably bring in more money than all of the sports.

[Llava]

They ought to treat it like the job it is- give the kids some profit sharing, ditch the scholarships, priority scheduling, etc.  Most of them could give a shit about college classes.  The ones who DO give a shit can finance their way with the money they're making on the game (and if it's still not enough, go ahead and give them that discount colleges, like you're not fucking charging enough money).

But whatever, I don't really care about this.  Only post-12th grade schools I went to had no teams (or, if they did, gave them little to no attention/funding) and I give precisely 0% of one shit about sports.  I think the whole thing is absurd, to be honest.

[Margalis]

Bottom line: College sports contribute to a lot the schools' income. The kids should get even more than scholarships, if you ask me.

Schools are not in the business of making money. Schools are not corporations.

They bring in money - much of which is spent on athletics, lawsuits, Coach's salaries, creating entire courses for idiot jocks, etc. You know what's funny? Most really good colleges DON'T have really good sports teams. The idea that sports teams generate a lot of money which can be re-invested back into the school is not borne out by reality. In fact, there is a pretty inverse relationship between sports and academics.

If you find a school that has consistently good basketball and football programs, odds are 99-1 it's pretty medicore academically.

The number 1 recipie for being a good school academically is to make your school focused on academics. That's not rocket science. (Or even "rocks for jocks")

[stray]

I'm not arguing which is better for academics. I'm just responding to Strazos' post about them getting scholarships being a crock.

My only point was: Many people are making fat wads of money out of the whole deal. Some of it might as well trickle down to the ones doing the most work.....And a scholarship isn't a bad payoff at all. Giving them an education (which many of them use) is a positive thing in the long run.

[Merusk]

The graduation rate of 25% is a bullshit number.  He doesn't have a good one, but it's not that low.   A lot of players transfer to UC and then transfer out again in a year or two. Those count against him.  Players like Nic VanExel who go on to the pros and refuse to come back to UC also count against him.  This is one of those 'lies, damned lies and statistics' things.

Again, I don't partiuclarly care for the guy, but some of the stuff slung-around is spin and bullshit.  Plus, it's a really shitty way of firing anyone and should have been done previously rather than waiting until AFTER all the sports boosters had bought their tickets.

Bottom line: College sports contribute to a lot the schools' income. The kids should get even more than scholarships, if you ask me.

Schools are not in the business of making money. Schools are not corporations.

Hi, welcome to reality. Colleges ARE businesses these days.  Education comes second at best at 90% of them. That's why so many fight so hard for research grants and patents, or focus on sports.  UC has a LOT of income from both right now.  It also just went through a much-needed 12 year revamp of the campus, the results of which you can see in this month's Architectural Record.  While sports didn't pay for all of it, it certainly contributed more than private donations from anything outside of fraternaties.  It's one thing to be MIT and have all those high-paid grads and high-technology patents, and be able to ignore sports income and quite another to be a UC and do so.  $4 million in a single sports donor.  That's not small bucks, despite what the current UC President says.

It's not the way it should be, but frats shouldn't be about parties either, and justice should be applied equally to the rich and the poor.

[Roac]

Bottom line: College sports contribute to a lot the schools' income. The kids should get even more than scholarships, if you ask me.

College athletes do get more than just scholarships; they get paid.  No no, they don't get a "paycheck".  What they do get is in certain situations, if their scholarships are larger than their tuition, they are able to cash out the scholarship money.  And yes, it can be worked so that any scholarship that can't get cashed out is applied to tuition first.  As mentioned they can also get priority scheduling, free tutoring, access to athlete-only dorms or meal areas, lower academic requirements, and so on. 

What's slightly more frustrating is that recently there have been some lawsuits against discrimination, so schools are forced to have as many women's sports as men's sports.  The problem with that is that there is generally a higher demand for male sports in terms of willing athletes.  At least it was at my school anyhow, as evident by the number of student athlete clubs (as opposed to school-sponsored sports).  This leaves a number of women who have never even been in an organized sport before to sign up, because there is free scholarship money.  I tutored (among other people) a female equestrian in college, who'd never seen a horse before.  The way she explained it they pretty much offered her money to join, so she said OK.  Why would they do that?  To get equal enrolement in both genders.  There was no male equestrian team however, because that would have unballanced the mix (football, basketball, soccar, and baseball eat up a lot of the slots for male sports, and are of course HIGHLY compeditive). 

Both my wife and I have worked at the university we graduated from, and we're both pretty sick of how colleges organize sports, because it's all about the money.  The real rub from that is that it hurts what should be the top priority of any college; education.  Learning is a distant second to money. 

[Sky]

It's not just the colleges. Our local school built a $7M football field about ten years ago, despite the school literally falling apart around it. Then they decided to do something about the academic building...but it was too late to save, so they built the new school outside of the city, so all kids (not just country kids) are now bussed in. And bussed back into the city to play sports on the $7M turf (which is starting to show its age...).

[Yegolev]

What's up with all the 800 year old man avatars? Did I miss a memo about something?

[schild]

What's up with all the 800 year old man avatars? Did I miss a memo about something?

"Are there any other historically famous women you've had relationships with?"

"Well, there was Helen of Troy....-"

"THE HELEN OF TROY?"

"No, her sister."

[Yegolev]

Just for reference, I don't see the sports at my school bringing in much money at all. The College(s) of Business and Engineering probably bring in more money than all of the sports.

You should go to a school in the SEC.  I'd hate to think what my tuition would have been without the Auburn Tiger Subsidy.