Huggins Anyone?

[Germainfitch1]

Please Spare me the holier than thou BG talk that gets tossed around here. We currently have a 2 basketball players ineligible, another who would have played this year kicked off for drugs, and 2 more who left because they missed their moms. We are thin and what kind of directiona re we going in? We also have a football player who was a drug dealer. I love BG but please just realize they are not all the choir boys you want them to be and they don't have to be to be good players.

Now Huggins will be looking for a home pretty soon. And that will be a temporary home. I would not mind bringing him in for a year or three to get our name on a national scale and get some recruits in the hisouse. It could move the program light years ahead in just one coach hiring.

He can't scar a schools reputation in 2 years. He can revitalize a school in 2 years. Please just think about it. Imagine OJ Mayo in a BG uniform for a year. That is potentially a Nate Thurmond like player.

Here is a recent CBSSportsline article that says Hugins is interestedin an Ohio school....

Blue-chip recruits will follow Huggins, wherever he ends up

Gregg Doyel Nov. 14, 2005
By Gregg Doyel
CBS SportsLine.com Senior Writer
Tell Gregg your opinion!





A college basketball program will hire Bob Huggins this spring. That school is out there somewhere, and whoever it is, that school will be getting a lot more than Bob Huggins.
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It will be getting a ready-to-go recruiting class, too. Maybe even two recruiting classes. Maybe, dare we say it, even future NBA All-Star O.J. Mayo.

Huggins is a free agent, and recruits know it. A handful of elite prospects, including 7-foot-2 Jason Bennett of Jacksonville, Fla., are letting this week's early signing period pass without making a decision. They are waiting, in many cases, for Huggins.

Huggins could end up almost anywhere next season, but his ties are strongest to Ohio. He was raised there, attended Ohio University before graduating from West Virginia, and has spent all 24 years as a head coach in Ohio.

It doesn't take much imagination to picture Huggins next season at, say, Kent State or Ohio University. The current coaches there, Jim Christian and Tim O'Shea, could jump to bigger schools if their teams win another 20 games in 2005-06.

It might not be Kent State or Ohio, but it will be somewhere. Whether you like Huggins or not is irrelevant. He wins. Wherever he goes next season, Huggins will bring baggage, yes -- but he'll also bring a 567-199 record, 14 consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances and a 20-for-24 success rate of 20-win seasons.

And he'll bring players.

Here (potentially) are some of them, with CBS SportsLine.com projecting their odds of following Huggins:

Jason Bennett: Bennett is a consensus top-100 recruit who says he would've committed to Cincinnati in August had Huggins received a contract extension instead of a pink slip. Bennett could have signed this week with Georgia, Clemson or Miami -- among others -- but a source close to Bennett says he is waiting to see where Huggins lands. Odds of following Huggins: 80 percent.

Ramar Smith: Smith, a 6-2 shooting guard generally ranked among the top 40 seniors, had been committed to Connecticut until he jeopardized his freshman eligibility by withdrawing from prep school this fall. The Huskies rescinded the scholarship offer, and Smith is back in Detroit, unsigned and uncommitted. At this time last year, Cincinnati was his top choice. Odds of following Huggins: 50 percent.

Ryan Pettinella: Pettinella, a 6-9 forward, transferred from Penn to Cincinnati this summer but was released from his scholarship after Huggins was let go. Pettinella, who averaged 4.8 points and three rebounds as a Penn sophomore, is attending Monroe (N.Y.) Community College but not playing. Like Bennett and Smith, he is letting the early signing period slip past. He'll have two years of Division I eligibility beginning in 2006-07, and his father says he wants to play for Huggins. Odds of following Huggins: 90 percent.

Herb Pope: Pope, a 6-9 forward from the class of 2007, is a top-10 recruit and a likely McDonald's All-American. When Huggins was at Cincinnati, Pope had the Bearcats among his favorite schools before committing in March to Pittsburgh. Five months later Pope backed off that commitment, and a source close to Pope says he is monitoring Huggins' future. The connection is Pope's AAU coach, J.O. Stright, founder of the Pittsburgh J.O.T.S. and one of Huggins' closest friends. How close? When Huggins suffered a massive heart attack in September 2002, he called Stright. Stright called the paramedics. Odds of following Huggins: 75 percent.

O.J. Mayo and Bill Walker: These are two more top-10 recruits from the Class of 2007, maybe even the two best recruits from that class. Mayo, 6-5, is one of the top backcourt prospects since Kobe Bryant. Walker, 6-6, is less refined but a Vince Carter-like athlete. Both play for North College Hill (Ohio) High near Cincinnati, and both became close to Huggins after regular unofficial visits to campus. Until Huggins was fired, Cincinnati was considered the front-runner to land Mayo, Walker and 6-11 teammate Keenan Ellis. Odds of following Huggins: 60 percent.

Huggins -- unemployed, yet on the prowl for recruits. It's a fascinating concept. Until a school hires him, Huggins is beyond NCAA jurisdiction limiting coaches to a set number of phone calls or visits with recruiting targets. He can't give recruits extra benefits, but he can operate outside NCAA boundaries in other, non-punishable ways. Literally, if he moved in with O.J. Mayo tomorrow, what could the NCAA do about it?

For now, Huggins won't talk about it. He told CBS SportsLine.com that, until his contract with Cincinnati expires at November's end, he's not comfortable discussing his future.

In that vacuum of volume, hear this: A team featuring O.J. Mayo and Ramar Smith at guard ... Bill Walker and Herb Pope at forward ... and Jason Bennett at center ... and coached by Bob Huggins ... might just win the 2007 national championship.

Recruits are clamoring for Huggins. Pretty soon, it'll be athletics directors.

[Bleeding Orange]

Whoa - seriously? I normally try to stay out of the basketball arguments, but your statement that "he can't hurt a school in only two years" is so far off the deep end I can't even believe it. This has nothing to do with the fact that our players are "better" than anyone elses, but rather, with the fact that Huggy is about as dirty as a hooker's STD screening. F*%k that guy.

If you want to see about 10 times the situations you are accusing Dakich of creating, go ahead and bring Huggy here. There is such a thing as bad publicity, no matter what a smarmy Terrell Owens agent may tell you. I'm sure it would be worth buying out Dakich's contract...

[Tricky_Falcon]

Your post is a joke right? I got down to the part where you said you wanted Huggins to be our coach. I'm hoping toward the end you had a clever ending like sike...or just playing.

[OptionQB]

This is assuming that Mayo and Walker could get qualified at a rigorous institution like BGSU, that the NCAA has a vendetta against.

I'm betting someone is willing to pay Huggins a lot more than the $125K or close to it that we shell out.

No thank you.

[Flipper]

Ummmmm.....no....

[Bleeding Orange]

I will say this also (and you are going to claim that this proves your point, but it is so ridiculous that I don't give a damn): nothing is worth selling our souls for a couple of minutes in the spotlight. Yes, an ACC or B11 team is going to pick up Huggy - let them! If there is one thing that is great about MAC basketball is that we do police ourselves. We don't pull crap like Michigan does just to win - our conference plays the game for the sake of the game, and we don't wait for the NCAA to come in to address crap (pending the current situation, which reeks of BS).

Ugh! I'm so appalled by this I can't even stand it!

[BGDrew]

So because a majority of our talent that we recruit are either dumbasses/not mature we hire someone who has the ability to destroy our program for 30 seconds on SportsCenter?

[Warthog]

Destroy our program? Did I miss something? Did Cincinati get the death penalty and I didn't hear about it? I am not saying Huggins is a great guy and would be a great coach here, but he gets results. Plain and simple. As Germaine pointed out, we have had guys doing drugs, not being eligible, leaving the program early, etc. What has Huggins done in his program that is similar or worse than that?

At least he wins games.

[Jacobs4Heisman]

Destroy our program? Did I miss something? Did Cincinati get the death penalty and I didn't hear about it? I am not saying Huggins is a great guy and would be a great coach here, but he gets results. Plain and simple. As Germaine pointed out, we have had guys doing drugs, not being eligible, leaving the program early, etc. What has Huggins done in his program that is similar or worse than that?

At least he wins games.

But with a graduation rate of near 0%.

At least every now and then, some of our players get a degree. Dakich is no saint, but I don't want Huggins within 150 miles of this program. I understand the argument -- 15 minutes of fame and all -- I just don't agree with it.

[hammb]

Destroy our program? Did I miss something? Did Cincinati get the death penalty and I didn't hear about it? I am not saying Huggins is a great guy and would be a great coach here, but he gets results. Plain and simple. As Germaine pointed out, we have had guys doing drugs, not being eligible, leaving the program early, etc. What has Huggins done in his program that is similar or worse than that?

At least he wins games.

I'm not convinced our program is very far ahead of the one that Huggins ran in a morals sense. However, I don't see the solution to that problem being hiring Huggins either. As Option said, somebody will pay him far more than we could anyways.

I really think this could be Dan's last year in BG. Wouldn't shock me if he is tired of dealing with it and leaves. Especially if they don't offer him an extension...I think next year is the last year on his contract, would he want to come back as a lame-duck coach?

[Germainfitch1]

Hiring Huggins for 1-3 years and signing AJ Mayo and Walker would give us a team we at Bg would remember for 100 years.

[Jacobs4Heisman]

Hiring Huggins for 1-3 years and signing AJ Mayo and Walker would give us a team we at Bg would remember for 100 years.

Huggins ain't comin here -- we don't have the cash for that douche.

And I don't for one second believe that Mayo or any other top 5 recruit would come to BG next year if John Wooden was the coach, let alone Bob Huggins.

If we want BG to rise to an elite program like Connecticut did or Duke did, we need a coach like Calhoun or Kryczawhatzit. We need a coach who would dedicate ten years to building the program. We don't need a one year rental to use us as a stepping stone. No thanks.

[Tricky_Falcon]

Last time I checked I've never seen Dakich on the news puking on himself receiving a DUI. When there have been problem players on the team coach never said oh whatever as long as we win we'll keep playing him and look the other way. I think it's insulting to Dakich to say that these coaches run their programs similar.

[Warthog]

I think it's insulting to Dakich to say that these coaches run their programs similar.

You're right. Huggins has a much better winning percentage.

[Tricky_Falcon]

I think it's insulting to Dakich to say that these coaches run their programs similar.

You're right. Higgins has a much better winning percentage.

Then I suggest bringing in this Higgins fella for an interview. Haven't heard much about him.