Do people really care about Bob Huggins being forced out at UC?
If one were wondering if people actually cared about Bob Huggins being forced out as Head Coach of the University of Cincinnati basketball team, consider this, the Cincinnati Enquirer has an open comments thread on the subject which has already reached 79 pages. Sadly, I must disagree with most of the sentiments expressed.
I am a sports fan. However, what a lot of people forget is in the term "student-athlete" the word student comes first for a reason. While I enjoy watching college sports I don't think anyone should be on a team if they would not be welcome at the school if they weren't a superior athlete. During the NFL draft the goofs at ESPN were lauding Frank Gore of UM for graduating even though he had a severe learning disability and couldn't read when he showed up in college. Not to be heartless but college is for higher education not for helping someone with a single digit IQ maintain eligibility in order to keep him carrying a football. If UC cleans up their act but has a losing basketball team they will be far better off than if they continue recruiting thugs, morons, and criminals who happen to be superior athletes.
posted by LargeBill at 8:17 PM
2 Comments:
I think the irony (actually the unfairness) is that Huggins did a lot better in the last couple of years getting people to graduate, and it's as if that improvement never happened.
Also, the 4-year grad stats don't give a school credit if the kid manages to get through in 5 or 6.
The First chance to get rid of Huggins was in the wake of the DUI. Instead they suspended WITH PAY (which ticked me off as a parent of a UC student and as a taxpayer. The second chance was in April or May, before recruiting commiments had to be made. A bunch of kids committed to playing for Hugs have been screwed.
In an ideal world they'd be coming to UC for academics first and sports second. We're not in an ideal world. The kids involved would never have committed had they known the full truth about the situation (the party line was "he'll be around for AT LEAST two years). Very unethical, IMO.
I could go on, but you can go to my post on it if you want to see more:
http://www.bizzyblog.com/?p=432
Tom Blumer
BizzyBlog
1:00 PM
Fully concur that the timing was very odd. What brought it to a head this week? Be interesting to watch how it turns out for UC. My guess is Zimpher will be judged on her handling of the Huggins ouster just as Huggins was judged based on the misbehavior of his players.
There are strong similarities between Huggins and Tarkanian in that both coaches would take chances on kids others might not consider. Both coaches got burned occasionally by a player who didn't respond but both did turn around a number of kids.
2:27 PM
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