By Bill Koch
UC opens its second season under head coach Wes Miller tonight trying to end a streak of three years without an appearance in the NCAA Tournament. It’s UC's longest NCAA tournament drought since 2011 when the Bearcats ended a five-year drought in the aftermath of the firing of Bob Huggins.
But it’s nothing compared to the 13-year drought the Bearcats were trying to end in 1989 when Huggins started his 16-year tenure at UC, taking over for Tony Yates, who had gone 70-100 in six seasons.
Huggins’s first game as UC’s head coach was also UC’s first game at Shoemaker Center, a new 13,176 arena that returned Bearcat basketball to campus after 12 years of playing their home games downtown at what was then Riverfront Coliseum.
The opener was on Nov. 25 against 20th-ranked Minnesota during a tumultuous time in UC athletics. Both the men’s basketball and football teams were on NCAA probation. In addition to Yates, football coach Dave Currey and athletic director Carl Meyer had been fired. Meyer was replaced by Rick Taylor, who hired Huggins.
Just three months earlier, on Aug. 24, Pete Rose had accepted his lifetime ban from Major League Baseball. Eight months before that, the Bengals played in the Super Bowl, losing to the San Francisco 49ers.
But UC basketball was struggling. The Bearcats hadn’t been to the NCAA Tournament since 1977. They hadn’t been ranked in the Top 25 since 1978. Now it was up to Huggins to try to turn things around.
“The University of Cincinnati basketball program begins a fresh era tonight with a new coach and a new arena,” I wrote that day in The Cincinnati Post. “But to many of their old fans, it’s the same old story. They’ve been promised a return to the winning ways of the past too many times to buy it at face value. They want results.
“That’s probably why tonight’s game against No. 20 Minnesota at Shoemaker Center is not a sellout. The once diehard fans have grown weary of unfulfilled promises.
“Huggins was hired to deliver where his predecessors failed. But he has been dealt a poor hand. The Bearcats are in their second year of NCAA probation. They have only eight scholarship players. Their tallest player is 6-foot-7. They start a walk-on and former football player at guard.
"Still, Huggins isn’t conceding anything. He wants to win now and has done his best to convince his players that they can.”
Huggins started delivering on his promise right away when the Bearcats upset Minnesota, 66-64, on a last-second 3-pointer by that football player, Steve Sanders.
They ended the year with a 20-14 record and played in the NIT. Following another NIT appearance in 1991, they ended their NCAA Tournament drought in 1992 with a trip to the Final Four, starting a streak of 14 straight NCAA appearances until Huggins was fired in 2005 in the aftermath of his DUI conviction.
Huggins, how the head coach at West Virginia, left as the winningest coach in UC history. Two months ago, he was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
Now it’s Wes Miller’s turn to try to make the Bearcats nationally relevant again.
UC opens its second season under head coach Wes Miller tonight trying to end a streak of three years without an appearance in the NCAA Tournament. It’s UC's longest NCAA tournament drought since 2011 when the Bearcats ended a five-year drought in the aftermath of the firing of Bob Huggins.
But it’s nothing compared to the 13-year drought the Bearcats were trying to end in 1989 when Huggins started his 16-year tenure at UC, taking over for Tony Yates, who had gone 70-100 in six seasons.
Huggins’s first game as UC’s head coach was also UC’s first game at Shoemaker Center, a new 13,176 arena that returned Bearcat basketball to campus after 12 years of playing their home games downtown at what was then Riverfront Coliseum.
The opener was on Nov. 25 against 20th-ranked Minnesota during a tumultuous time in UC athletics. Both the men’s basketball and football teams were on NCAA probation. In addition to Yates, football coach Dave Currey and athletic director Carl Meyer had been fired. Meyer was replaced by Rick Taylor, who hired Huggins.
Just three months earlier, on Aug. 24, Pete Rose had accepted his lifetime ban from Major League Baseball. Eight months before that, the Bengals played in the Super Bowl, losing to the San Francisco 49ers.
But UC basketball was struggling. The Bearcats hadn’t been to the NCAA Tournament since 1977. They hadn’t been ranked in the Top 25 since 1978. Now it was up to Huggins to try to turn things around.
“The University of Cincinnati basketball program begins a fresh era tonight with a new coach and a new arena,” I wrote that day in The Cincinnati Post. “But to many of their old fans, it’s the same old story. They’ve been promised a return to the winning ways of the past too many times to buy it at face value. They want results.
“That’s probably why tonight’s game against No. 20 Minnesota at Shoemaker Center is not a sellout. The once diehard fans have grown weary of unfulfilled promises.
“Huggins was hired to deliver where his predecessors failed. But he has been dealt a poor hand. The Bearcats are in their second year of NCAA probation. They have only eight scholarship players. Their tallest player is 6-foot-7. They start a walk-on and former football player at guard.
"Still, Huggins isn’t conceding anything. He wants to win now and has done his best to convince his players that they can.”
Huggins started delivering on his promise right away when the Bearcats upset Minnesota, 66-64, on a last-second 3-pointer by that football player, Steve Sanders.
They ended the year with a 20-14 record and played in the NIT. Following another NIT appearance in 1991, they ended their NCAA Tournament drought in 1992 with a trip to the Final Four, starting a streak of 14 straight NCAA appearances until Huggins was fired in 2005 in the aftermath of his DUI conviction.
Huggins, how the head coach at West Virginia, left as the winningest coach in UC history. Two months ago, he was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
Now it’s Wes Miller’s turn to try to make the Bearcats nationally relevant again.
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