Re: Cincinnati Enquirer fails again to give Coach Huggins his due

[jon breiner]

In response to this and Richard's earlier message, I thought I would share a few thoughts.

While I am more inclined to agree with Lonnie Wheeler, both he and Paul D. are wrong, but have some truth.  The thing is they are either ignoring or failing to recognize the contributions the other Bob made in their articles of the past 2 days.

I agree both men played a role, and it is not as simple as to say Huggins did it all or Goin did it all or it could not have been done without Huggins, etc.  In my opinion they both deserve equal credit.  Without Huggins, Goin likely would have not been at the table to talk.  We can talk all we want about academics or football or whatever, but to be blunt, if this was 1987, even assuming Goin could have been our AD then, there is little chance the BigEast is interested in us.  Huggins built the basketball program into such a place that the Big East was willing to listen to what UC had to offer.

But Goin's role was equally large.  There were many schools who wanted to go in a different direction, and even us most ardent Huggins supporters will acknowledge the chinks in his armor (although immediately afterwards will remind folks about how special the armor still is!).  He had to sell everything, and this is the part of the article I thought Paul D. excelled on.  Huggins might have helped Goin get to the door, but Goin had a decent amount of work left to do and did it.  I do not think it is as cut and dry as some might believe.  To fully appreciate what Goin did, picture a news conference in Chicago in October where it was just announced that UC is supposed to compete with UAB for the CUSA title this year.  Wow, look at that schedule with Tulane and So. Miss still on it!  :)

The one person who may have done a decent job in her role, but I give little credit to is Zimpher.  Maybe I am a bit naive here, but I think any school president should be able to come in and talk up the programs and academics and explain why they are good.  She is good at sharing her vision, and while important, I will never believe that her role carried any weight near what the Bob's did.  I have no idea who the 2nd choice candidate was when Zimpher was hired, but my belief is that person would have done equally as well in that role.  I do not believe that any other basketball coach or AD would have.  In my mind it is that simple.

Finally, as for Doc not giving Huggins his due, c'mon.  It would be the  first time!  I like Doc (it was a pleasure to meet him at Max's draft party), I like his articles, but he is not a Huggins fan and has publicly admitted it.  He is a very good writer though (even when I disagree with him!).  His biggest failing is that he is a bit pretentious.

Anyway, those are some of my Sunday morning thoughts, FWIW.

Jon

ps.  If I had to give % breakdowns I'd say Bob H. 45%, Bob G. 45%, Zimpher 10%.  While I think someone else could have done Zimpher's role, you have to acknowledge she did it and did it well.

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Keith Wedinger 
  To: address@hidden 
  Sent: Sunday, July 03, 2005 8:43 AM
  Subject: [UC Basketball] Cincinnati Enquirer fails again to give Coach Huggins his due


  Read this first:
  http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050703/COL03/507030353/1082/SPT

  I will not deny for one second that Bob Goin was instrumental in getting UC into the Big East.  However, his dealings with donors and the Big East would not be possible without the success of the basketball team.  You simply cannot play this high stakes poker game without having the cards.  Fortunately for Bob Goin, Bob Huggins and his basketball team provided Bob Goin with most of his good cards.  The football team gave Bob Goin the ace kicker.

  -- 
  Keith Wedinger
  Bearcatnews.com
  Sciotofootball.com
  I Support Coach Bob Huggins!