By Bill Koch
Steve Logan was the Ohio Division I Player of the Year when he averaged 24.3 points during his senior year at Cleveland St. Edward High School, and he badly wanted to play at UC. He even called UC head coach Bob Huggins and told him how much he wanted to be a Bearcat.
But Huggins thought Steve Logan was too small at 5 feet, 11 inches, and a little overweight when he was looking for a point guard back it the late 1990s.
Even though Mick Cronin, who was then Huggins’ assistant, was pushing hard for Logan, Huggins wasn’t so sure he wanted him. He had his eyes on another point guard in California. Fortunately for Logan and the Bearcats, when Huggins went to watch his first choice in person, the kid had a bad shooting game.
“Huggs went to see him and he shot something like 2-for-21,” Logan said. “He said, ‘You know what, Mick? Get Logan on the phone. We’re going to offer him.’”
It might have been one of the best recruiting decisions Huggins ever made, even though he was reluctant to pull the trigger.
In four years at UC (from 1998-2002), the undersized Logan scored 1,985 points. When he completed his eligibility he ranked second in career scoring behind Oscar Robertson (2,973 points). He currently ranks third behind Sean Kilpatrick (2,145 points).
Logan was the Conference USA Player of the Year as a junior and senior, and a consensus first-team All-American as a senior.
But those accomplishments weren't impressive enough to get the Bearcats to retire his jersey No. 22 and hang it in Fifth Third Arena. Logan isn't openly campaigning for it, but when I asked him about it he ackowledged it’s an honor he would dearly love to have.
“It would mean the world to me,” Logan said. “After all the work I put in, it would be amazing. I thought they would do it during Mick’s era (as UC’s head coach) because Mick was an assistant coach there when I played. But at that time I didn’t have my degree. But now I did everything that I needed to do for it to go up.”
Logan earned his degree last year. He was inducted into UC’s James P. Kelly Athletics Hall of Fame in 2010. He ranks first in school history having played in 111 winning games, sixth in 3-point field goals (258), fifth in 3-point field goal percentage (.378), fourth in free throws made (445), first in free throw percentage (86.1), and fifth in assists (456).
When Logan arrived at UC for his freshman year, he felt like he had to prove himself to Huggins.
“I wanted to come in and let him know that he made the right choice,” Logan said, “that I can play and I’m a good kid. My first two years were full of all that. Huggs was by far the hardest coach I’ve had. All my coaches that I played for were screamers, so by the time I got to Huggs I was kind of used to it. But Huggs had another level. It was like, hold on, wait a minute, man, did you really just say that?
“We got into it a number of times. I was young, 18 or 19, thinking that I’m the best thing out there. We bumped heads a lot when I was young.”
Time has a way of making even the most intense coaches mellower. Logan has seen Huggins at practice and at West Virginia games, and he’s not the same head coach he was at UC.
“I call him soft now,” Logan said. “I say you’re the softest teddy bear now. Who are you? He was young and vibrant and full of energy with us. Now he’s so mellow. Don’t get me wrong, he still screams and yells, but some of the stuff he lets those kids get away with, I’m like, man, you would have never let me do that. He’s smart. He understands that he has to change with the times for the sake of the kids, how their makeup is now. He’s smart about what he’s doing.”
Logan was smart, too, one of the smartest players in UC history. He knew how to compensate for his lack of height by using his body to draw fouls and he was a deadly shooter. He hit the 40-point mark twice during his senior year, getting 40 in a win on Dec. 21, 2001 against Mississippi in the Las Vegas Classic, and a career-high 41 against Southern Miss on Feb. 15, 2002. He outscored the entire Golden Eagles team in that game, an 89-37 UC win.
“I was on a different level in that game,” Logan said. “I just felt like I could do anything. I was making shots from everywhere. I was in a groove. I was coming off being Player of the Year in the conference. I was so in tune with our program, our system and our players that I felt that I could do no wrong out there. It was a hell of a game. I outscored the other team, which was kind of unheard of.“
The Bearcats won the C-USA regular-season championship in all four of Logan’s years at UC. During his senior year, the Bearcats won both the regular-season and conference tournament titles on the way to a 31-4 record and No. 5 national ranking in the final Associated Press Top 25. He averaged 22.0 points that season, the fourth-highest season average ever for any UC player not named Oscar Robertson.
He topped the 20-point mark 22 times in 2001-02 and 39 times during his UC career. He had seven games with at least 30 points.
Logan has recently moved back to Cincinnati and works as the general manager at the Nothin’ But Net Sports Complex in Mt. Carmel.
As a kid growing up in Cleveland, Logan was frequently told he was too small and too slow to excel at the highest level of college basketball. Now he tells the kids he works with there are no such limitations if they’re willing to work at their game.
Now there’s just one more accolade he’d like to add to his resume.
“It would be a great honor coming from a college that’s rich in tradition and in academics, with all of the great players that have been through there, for my jersey to be hung would mean the world to me,” Logan said.
UC hasn’t retired a jersey since Martin’s No. 4 went up on the wall in 2000 alongside Robertson’s No. 12 and Jack Twyman’s No. 27.
This has been a tough off-season for the Bearcats. They could use some feel-good moments from their rich hisory to make their fans smile again. Logan, Kilpatrick and Danny Fortson deserve to have their jerseys hanging in Firth Third Arena. Why not do it now?
Steve Logan was the Ohio Division I Player of the Year when he averaged 24.3 points during his senior year at Cleveland St. Edward High School, and he badly wanted to play at UC. He even called UC head coach Bob Huggins and told him how much he wanted to be a Bearcat.
But Huggins thought Steve Logan was too small at 5 feet, 11 inches, and a little overweight when he was looking for a point guard back it the late 1990s.
Even though Mick Cronin, who was then Huggins’ assistant, was pushing hard for Logan, Huggins wasn’t so sure he wanted him. He had his eyes on another point guard in California. Fortunately for Logan and the Bearcats, when Huggins went to watch his first choice in person, the kid had a bad shooting game.
“Huggs went to see him and he shot something like 2-for-21,” Logan said. “He said, ‘You know what, Mick? Get Logan on the phone. We’re going to offer him.’”
It might have been one of the best recruiting decisions Huggins ever made, even though he was reluctant to pull the trigger.
In four years at UC (from 1998-2002), the undersized Logan scored 1,985 points. When he completed his eligibility he ranked second in career scoring behind Oscar Robertson (2,973 points). He currently ranks third behind Sean Kilpatrick (2,145 points).
Logan was the Conference USA Player of the Year as a junior and senior, and a consensus first-team All-American as a senior.
But those accomplishments weren't impressive enough to get the Bearcats to retire his jersey No. 22 and hang it in Fifth Third Arena. Logan isn't openly campaigning for it, but when I asked him about it he ackowledged it’s an honor he would dearly love to have.
“It would mean the world to me,” Logan said. “After all the work I put in, it would be amazing. I thought they would do it during Mick’s era (as UC’s head coach) because Mick was an assistant coach there when I played. But at that time I didn’t have my degree. But now I did everything that I needed to do for it to go up.”
Logan earned his degree last year. He was inducted into UC’s James P. Kelly Athletics Hall of Fame in 2010. He ranks first in school history having played in 111 winning games, sixth in 3-point field goals (258), fifth in 3-point field goal percentage (.378), fourth in free throws made (445), first in free throw percentage (86.1), and fifth in assists (456).
When Logan arrived at UC for his freshman year, he felt like he had to prove himself to Huggins.
“I wanted to come in and let him know that he made the right choice,” Logan said, “that I can play and I’m a good kid. My first two years were full of all that. Huggs was by far the hardest coach I’ve had. All my coaches that I played for were screamers, so by the time I got to Huggs I was kind of used to it. But Huggs had another level. It was like, hold on, wait a minute, man, did you really just say that?
“We got into it a number of times. I was young, 18 or 19, thinking that I’m the best thing out there. We bumped heads a lot when I was young.”
Time has a way of making even the most intense coaches mellower. Logan has seen Huggins at practice and at West Virginia games, and he’s not the same head coach he was at UC.
“I call him soft now,” Logan said. “I say you’re the softest teddy bear now. Who are you? He was young and vibrant and full of energy with us. Now he’s so mellow. Don’t get me wrong, he still screams and yells, but some of the stuff he lets those kids get away with, I’m like, man, you would have never let me do that. He’s smart. He understands that he has to change with the times for the sake of the kids, how their makeup is now. He’s smart about what he’s doing.”
Logan was smart, too, one of the smartest players in UC history. He knew how to compensate for his lack of height by using his body to draw fouls and he was a deadly shooter. He hit the 40-point mark twice during his senior year, getting 40 in a win on Dec. 21, 2001 against Mississippi in the Las Vegas Classic, and a career-high 41 against Southern Miss on Feb. 15, 2002. He outscored the entire Golden Eagles team in that game, an 89-37 UC win.
“I was on a different level in that game,” Logan said. “I just felt like I could do anything. I was making shots from everywhere. I was in a groove. I was coming off being Player of the Year in the conference. I was so in tune with our program, our system and our players that I felt that I could do no wrong out there. It was a hell of a game. I outscored the other team, which was kind of unheard of.“
The Bearcats won the C-USA regular-season championship in all four of Logan’s years at UC. During his senior year, the Bearcats won both the regular-season and conference tournament titles on the way to a 31-4 record and No. 5 national ranking in the final Associated Press Top 25. He averaged 22.0 points that season, the fourth-highest season average ever for any UC player not named Oscar Robertson.
He topped the 20-point mark 22 times in 2001-02 and 39 times during his UC career. He had seven games with at least 30 points.
Logan has recently moved back to Cincinnati and works as the general manager at the Nothin’ But Net Sports Complex in Mt. Carmel.
As a kid growing up in Cleveland, Logan was frequently told he was too small and too slow to excel at the highest level of college basketball. Now he tells the kids he works with there are no such limitations if they’re willing to work at their game.
Now there’s just one more accolade he’d like to add to his resume.
“It would be a great honor coming from a college that’s rich in tradition and in academics, with all of the great players that have been through there, for my jersey to be hung would mean the world to me,” Logan said.
UC hasn’t retired a jersey since Martin’s No. 4 went up on the wall in 2000 alongside Robertson’s No. 12 and Jack Twyman’s No. 27.
This has been a tough off-season for the Bearcats. They could use some feel-good moments from their rich hisory to make their fans smile again. Logan, Kilpatrick and Danny Fortson deserve to have their jerseys hanging in Firth Third Arena. Why not do it now?
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