Troubled Past Follows Huggins to Kansas State

The ink had barely dried on Bob Huggins’ contract when Kansas State officials were offered a glimpse of what they were getting themselves into.

A few hundred miles east from Manhattan, Kan., where Huggins was introduced Thursday afternoon as the Wildcats’ new coach, a few of his former -- and perhaps future -- ballplayers were making headlines at his last stop.

Maybe it was just an unfortunate coincidence.

First, there was the story of O.J. Mayo, a junior at Cincinnati North College Hill High and two-time Ohio Mr. Basketball. Mayo sat out the state high school semifinals Thursday -- on orders from his principal, who wouldn’t disclose the reason -- before learning Friday that he could play in the championship game Saturday.

Mayo has known for a while now where he and teammate Bill Walker, another very talented junior, wanted to go to college: Whichever school Huggins wound up at.

“At the same time,” Mayo said recently, “we have to see where he ends up, what the school’s fan base is like, see what the fans think about him and make sure everything is great.”

Everything is not great, though, with the program Huggins left behind. Hours before its NIT quarterfinal loss to South Carolina on Thursday night, Cincinnati suspended two starters, leading scorer James White and three-point specialist Jihad Muhammad, for violating undisclosed NCAA eligibility rules.

Though Huggins hasn’t been part of the program since he walked out the door in August with a $3-million buyout check -- his contract wasn’t renewed following his 2004 arrest for drunk driving -- White and Muhammad were his recruits. Draw your own conclusions.

In a statement released by the university, interim Coach Andy Kennedy said, “Our team will continue in its attempt to represent this university in the manner with which it deserves to be represented.”

Anybody who watched the opening few minutes of the Huggins news conference heard Kansas State President Jon Wefald try to say much the same thing.

In a rambling introduction, Wefald mentioned a handful of the school’s recent academic achievements and said he wanted an athletic program that would complement them. He talked about “plumbing the depths” in the school’s search for a coach, about contacting the NCAA “six or seven times” to ensure integrity, and about America being a great place because it presents opportunities “to fit in ... and to start over again.” And then he turned the microphone over to ... Huggins.

“I don’t know that I’ve ever been around nicer people,” Huggins said, “people committed to doing things the right way.”

Any more questions about why big-time college athletics is such a cesspool?

Didn’t think so.

Had Wefald been more honest and less convoluted, he would have said something like this:

“We’re tired of losing, tired of being stuck at home during March Madness, tired of being dumped on in the Big 12, tired of not filling the arena, not selling more programs, jerseys, bobbleheads, bottle openers, keychains and every other doodad you can slap a Wildcat logo on.

“That, plain and simple, is why Bob Huggins is standing next to me today. He wins basketball games. I’ll worry about all the other stuff when the NCAA opens a satellite office on campus.”

There’s no need to review the laundry list of accomplishments and troubles compiled by Huggins, beyond saying that if his virtues were stacked up alongside his sins, the piles would be close to even. He finds kids as desperate as he is to win, doesn’t graduate as many as he should, but saves more than the odds would dictate. He inspires loyalty in players that few coaches can match, teaches defense better than most of the rest, and is hounded by trouble -- from the NCAA and the law -- more often than all but a handful.

That’s who Huggins is. He suffered a massive heart attack at the Pittsburgh airport in September 2002 and was in his office two weeks later. Huggins vowed to change, but a few minutes into his first game back -- an exhibition game! -- he exploded again. Intimidation and intensity were his principal teaching tools back then, and as Thursday’s bad news back in Cincinnati reminded everyone, nothing much is likely to change.

Huggins will bring some great players to Kansas State, the Wildcats will win way more than they’ll lose, and sometime down the road, that satellite NCAA office in Manhattan will be calling Wefald with questions.

And anybody who didn’t see it coming has no business running a grade school, let alone a university.