By Bill Koch
In the early 90s, during the first few years of Bob Huggins’ tenure as the head basketball coach at UC, he told me he planned to retire at the age of 50. He was in his late 30s at the time.
“I’m gonna go walleye fishing with Lou,” Huggins said of his retirement plans, referring to Lou Banks, his star guard at the time.
But as he approaches his 70th birthday in September, Huggins is still coaching. Next month, he’ll complete his 16th season at West Virginia, which means he will have coached at his alma mater as long as he coached at UC.
Huggins was 399-127 at UC, with 14 NCAA Tournament appearances, one Final Four appearance and two other Elite Eight appearances. His 399 wins are the most in UC history, although apparently not enough to merit his inclusion in the school’s James P. Kelly Athletics Hall of Fame.
At West Virginia, Huggins is 342-200 with 10 NCAA appearances and one Final Four. He ranks second in victories behind former UC coach Gale Catlett, and is one of two coaches in NCAA history to win 300 games at two different schools. The other is Roy Williams at Kansas and North Carolina.
Given what Huggins has done at West Virginia, it's only natural to wonder how the UC basketball program would be different today if Huggins' DUI hand't given Nancy Zimpher the opening she needed to fire him in 2005.
We’ll never know for sure, but one thing is certain: The Bearcats wouldn’t have had to enter their second season in the Big East with Mick Cronin facing a massive rebuilding project while trying to compete in one of the nation’s toughest conferences. It took Cronin's yeoman work to get UC back to the NCAA Tournament in five years, starting a streak of nine straight appearances before he left for UCLA in 2019.
UC then had to start over again, first with John Brannen and now with Wes Miller. The Bearcats are still trying to find the consistent defense and rebounding prowess that were the program’s trademarks starting with Huggins, and then with Cronin. Continuity means a lot in college athletics. It’s something UC is still trying to regain four years after Cronin left.
While doing interviews for my recent book, “Huggs: Former Players Talk About What It Was Like to Play for Hall of Fame Coach Bob Huggins,” I came to believe that he might retire after this year. West Virginia was 16-17 last year. This year, the Mountaineers are considered a bubble team with a 16-12 record, 5-10 in the Big 12.
The game has changed. Like every coach, Huggins now has to deal with the transfer portal and name, image and likeness, both of which have given players more power than ever before. He never told me he was thinking about retiring, but it was logical to consider how a coach who succeeded by pushing his players seemingly beyond their limits, would be able to coach with the same driving style that helped him win so many games. I looked around and saw North Carolina’s Williams, Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski, and this year, Notre Dame’s Mike Brey, announce their retirements. Would Huggins be next?
But I was told over the weekend by someone very close to Huggins that he planned to return next year for his 42nd season.
“He loves the game too much to walk away,” the source said.
When I interviewed Huggins for my book, I suggested to him that even though it was painful at the time, his firing at UC might have turned out for the best for him because he ended up at his alma mater, coaching in a state where he’s loved.
But he wasn’t buying it. And some of the people who remain close to Huggins told me how much he was hurt by the firing, that he had adopted Cincinnati as his home town, and hoped to finish his career here.
Eighteen years after Huggins was walked out of the Carew Tower arcade cluthing a copy of his buyout agreement, Huggins is still extremely popular among UC fans who fondly remember the good old days. He was a character matched in the last 31 years in Cincinnati by only Reds manager Lou Piniella, who led the Reds to a World Series championship in 1990; and Sam Wyche, who coached the Bengals to the Super Bowl in 1988.
Piniella, now 79, has long since retired. Wyche passed away in 2020. But Huggins soldiers on, with 932 wins, second among active D-I coaches.
Maybe walleye fishing on Lake Erie with Lou Banks really is in Huggins’ future, but it doesn’t appear it will happen anytime soon.
In the early 90s, during the first few years of Bob Huggins’ tenure as the head basketball coach at UC, he told me he planned to retire at the age of 50. He was in his late 30s at the time.
“I’m gonna go walleye fishing with Lou,” Huggins said of his retirement plans, referring to Lou Banks, his star guard at the time.
But as he approaches his 70th birthday in September, Huggins is still coaching. Next month, he’ll complete his 16th season at West Virginia, which means he will have coached at his alma mater as long as he coached at UC.
Huggins was 399-127 at UC, with 14 NCAA Tournament appearances, one Final Four appearance and two other Elite Eight appearances. His 399 wins are the most in UC history, although apparently not enough to merit his inclusion in the school’s James P. Kelly Athletics Hall of Fame.
At West Virginia, Huggins is 342-200 with 10 NCAA appearances and one Final Four. He ranks second in victories behind former UC coach Gale Catlett, and is one of two coaches in NCAA history to win 300 games at two different schools. The other is Roy Williams at Kansas and North Carolina.
Given what Huggins has done at West Virginia, it's only natural to wonder how the UC basketball program would be different today if Huggins' DUI hand't given Nancy Zimpher the opening she needed to fire him in 2005.
We’ll never know for sure, but one thing is certain: The Bearcats wouldn’t have had to enter their second season in the Big East with Mick Cronin facing a massive rebuilding project while trying to compete in one of the nation’s toughest conferences. It took Cronin's yeoman work to get UC back to the NCAA Tournament in five years, starting a streak of nine straight appearances before he left for UCLA in 2019.
UC then had to start over again, first with John Brannen and now with Wes Miller. The Bearcats are still trying to find the consistent defense and rebounding prowess that were the program’s trademarks starting with Huggins, and then with Cronin. Continuity means a lot in college athletics. It’s something UC is still trying to regain four years after Cronin left.
While doing interviews for my recent book, “Huggs: Former Players Talk About What It Was Like to Play for Hall of Fame Coach Bob Huggins,” I came to believe that he might retire after this year. West Virginia was 16-17 last year. This year, the Mountaineers are considered a bubble team with a 16-12 record, 5-10 in the Big 12.
The game has changed. Like every coach, Huggins now has to deal with the transfer portal and name, image and likeness, both of which have given players more power than ever before. He never told me he was thinking about retiring, but it was logical to consider how a coach who succeeded by pushing his players seemingly beyond their limits, would be able to coach with the same driving style that helped him win so many games. I looked around and saw North Carolina’s Williams, Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski, and this year, Notre Dame’s Mike Brey, announce their retirements. Would Huggins be next?
But I was told over the weekend by someone very close to Huggins that he planned to return next year for his 42nd season.
“He loves the game too much to walk away,” the source said.
When I interviewed Huggins for my book, I suggested to him that even though it was painful at the time, his firing at UC might have turned out for the best for him because he ended up at his alma mater, coaching in a state where he’s loved.
But he wasn’t buying it. And some of the people who remain close to Huggins told me how much he was hurt by the firing, that he had adopted Cincinnati as his home town, and hoped to finish his career here.
Eighteen years after Huggins was walked out of the Carew Tower arcade cluthing a copy of his buyout agreement, Huggins is still extremely popular among UC fans who fondly remember the good old days. He was a character matched in the last 31 years in Cincinnati by only Reds manager Lou Piniella, who led the Reds to a World Series championship in 1990; and Sam Wyche, who coached the Bengals to the Super Bowl in 1988.
Piniella, now 79, has long since retired. Wyche passed away in 2020. But Huggins soldiers on, with 932 wins, second among active D-I coaches.
Maybe walleye fishing on Lake Erie with Lou Banks really is in Huggins’ future, but it doesn’t appear it will happen anytime soon.
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