Sports Note: Kansas State's new B-Ball Head Coach Gets Tough...
....or does he?
Bob Huggins, noted for his 0 (zero) percent graduation rate at the U of Cincinnati in many years, for the numerous brushes (and outright shoves) with the law his players undertook while at UC, and for his multiple drunk driving offenses has kicked off his team some anonymous backup center for being a registered sex offender.
The problem is that, according to the kid's dad in an SI article, the offense occurred when Hughes was under 18 and presumedly (I know, a big assumption, but one that as of Monday at 8:30pm I'm willing to make) involved the kid having consensual sex with an underage girl. Of course I could be wrong and he did something awful and should be kicked off the team and off campus, but with the involvement of Huggins.....well, I'm suspicious.
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Anyway here's a quote from the SI article:
"'It is absolutely not what it seems,' Hughes' father, Rodney, told The Kansas City Star. 'But no matter right or wrong, it still doesn't look good.'
Hughes played in 26 games last season, averaging 1.7 points."
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And why am I suspicious?
1) K State basically has sucked at basketball for decades. For every Mitch Richmond and Rolando Blackman there have been a hundred stiffs. The fan support is usually there (thus the bucks laid out for Huggy Bear) but the roster currently has a few..um...not-so-good players left over from the previous regime.
2) Huggins is a sleaze but is beloved by former players he has exploited for four (actually make that two: jc) years. The zero percent graduation rate is not an exaggeration. There were very few players who played for Huggins at UC that got a degree, none that I know of. He didn't even bother to recruit one or two end of the benchers to bring up the team GPA; standard practice at big time schools. He just didn't give a shit about class/book learnin'. And to think this guy graduated with honors from West Virginia. Well, yeah, I know: WVU; not Ivy League. But still.
3) Hughes averaged 1.7 points per game.
4) 1+2+3=4 :Hughes was tying up a 'ship, and Huggins needed to polish up his image in Manhattan. So the revelation on Saturday (2 damn days ago!) of Hughes being a registered sex offender was too sweet to pass up: Revoke that ride, Bob, and save it for OJ Mayo or Bill Walker or some other stud. And sleep well at night.
Or not.
==================================
One of the big reasons this story jumped out at me is that I went to college next door to Cincy; at Miami U in Oxford, OH. There are four schools in the area that are big basketball rivals: Xavier, Dayton, UC, and Miami, with MU usually but not always (Harp and Wally) having the weakest of the four teams. All four have terrific traditions, with UC having national championships and multiple final fours, and Dayton also a final four. But when I was in Oxford, UC was mediocre at best. Their coach was a really nice guy from Chicago, great player at UC, Tony Yates, who could recruit but didn't get the players to play hard. This didn't sit well with the UC alums, who remembered the Big O's glory days and the 2 titles and wanted similar results. So they made a deal with the devil: hire Huggins from Akron, knowing he cut corners. Within a season or two UC was in the final four with players from hither and yon. And Huggins could do whatever the hell he wanted for the next decade plus in the city. Finally a new UC President got some balls (of course it took a woman, but hey) and fired his ass after the embarrassing DUI video. Of course he found another school to coach at, but I'm happy he's gone from the greater Miami Valley. Dayton, X and Miami are classy schools with classy coaches. Now hopefully UC can get back on track and have a team to be proud of, both on and off the court.
Bob Huggins, noted for his 0 (zero) percent graduation rate at the U of Cincinnati in many years, for the numerous brushes (and outright shoves) with the law his players undertook while at UC, and for his multiple drunk driving offenses has kicked off his team some anonymous backup center for being a registered sex offender.
The problem is that, according to the kid's dad in an SI article, the offense occurred when Hughes was under 18 and presumedly (I know, a big assumption, but one that as of Monday at 8:30pm I'm willing to make) involved the kid having consensual sex with an underage girl. Of course I could be wrong and he did something awful and should be kicked off the team and off campus, but with the involvement of Huggins.....well, I'm suspicious.
------------------------------------------------------
Anyway here's a quote from the SI article:
"'It is absolutely not what it seems,' Hughes' father, Rodney, told The Kansas City Star. 'But no matter right or wrong, it still doesn't look good.'
Hughes played in 26 games last season, averaging 1.7 points."
------------------------------------------------------
And why am I suspicious?
1) K State basically has sucked at basketball for decades. For every Mitch Richmond and Rolando Blackman there have been a hundred stiffs. The fan support is usually there (thus the bucks laid out for Huggy Bear) but the roster currently has a few..um...not-so-good players left over from the previous regime.
2) Huggins is a sleaze but is beloved by former players he has exploited for four (actually make that two: jc) years. The zero percent graduation rate is not an exaggeration. There were very few players who played for Huggins at UC that got a degree, none that I know of. He didn't even bother to recruit one or two end of the benchers to bring up the team GPA; standard practice at big time schools. He just didn't give a shit about class/book learnin'. And to think this guy graduated with honors from West Virginia. Well, yeah, I know: WVU; not Ivy League. But still.
3) Hughes averaged 1.7 points per game.
4) 1+2+3=4 :Hughes was tying up a 'ship, and Huggins needed to polish up his image in Manhattan. So the revelation on Saturday (2 damn days ago!) of Hughes being a registered sex offender was too sweet to pass up: Revoke that ride, Bob, and save it for OJ Mayo or Bill Walker or some other stud. And sleep well at night.
Or not.
==================================
One of the big reasons this story jumped out at me is that I went to college next door to Cincy; at Miami U in Oxford, OH. There are four schools in the area that are big basketball rivals: Xavier, Dayton, UC, and Miami, with MU usually but not always (Harp and Wally) having the weakest of the four teams. All four have terrific traditions, with UC having national championships and multiple final fours, and Dayton also a final four. But when I was in Oxford, UC was mediocre at best. Their coach was a really nice guy from Chicago, great player at UC, Tony Yates, who could recruit but didn't get the players to play hard. This didn't sit well with the UC alums, who remembered the Big O's glory days and the 2 titles and wanted similar results. So they made a deal with the devil: hire Huggins from Akron, knowing he cut corners. Within a season or two UC was in the final four with players from hither and yon. And Huggins could do whatever the hell he wanted for the next decade plus in the city. Finally a new UC President got some balls (of course it took a woman, but hey) and fired his ass after the embarrassing DUI video. Of course he found another school to coach at, but I'm happy he's gone from the greater Miami Valley. Dayton, X and Miami are classy schools with classy coaches. Now hopefully UC can get back on track and have a team to be proud of, both on and off the court.
posted by joe sweeney at 8:16 PM
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