Cincinnati's Net Results

Insight on the News, Dec 27, 1999 by Patrick Hruby

The University of Cincinnati's basketball team has been chided for its poor graduation rates and `lack of institutional control.' But the Bearcats claim the criticism is unfounded and unfair.

University of Cincinnati men's-basketball coach Bob Huggins still remembers the slights, the insults, the thinly veiled hostility that greeted his squad at the 1992 Final Four. In a field that featured college basketball bluebloods Duke, Michigan and Indiana, the Bearcats were portrayed as party-crashers -- a nouveau riche, JUCO, or junior-college, laden band of mercenaries who embodied all that was wrong with the sport. "We had a lot of junior-college and transfer guys" Huggins recalls. "So automatically, we weren't what you were supposed to be."

Seven years later, the story remains the same. Ranked No. 1 by the Associated Press, Cincinnati boasts a deep and talented team and is an early-season favorite to return to the Final Four. Yet despite their success, the Bearcats still are seen as an outlaw program, one that Sports Illustrated once dubbed the "UNLV of the East" -- a reference to the scandal-tainted University of Nevada-Las Vegas teams of the early 1990s.

Naturally, the Bearcats rankle at their rank reputation. "[Former UNLV coach] Jerry Tarkanian is a friend of mine" says Huggins. "I respect what his teams did on the floor, how hard they played. But to compare the two programs is ridiculous."

Maybe so, but, like UNLV, Cincinnati has had its share of run-ins with the National Collegiate Athletic Association, or NCAA. Last fall, the school was slapped with two years of probation and the loss of three scholarships after the NCAA cited "a lack of institutional control." A 20-month NCAA investigation revealed that the school had provided former point guard Charles Williams with improper academic assistance and extra benefits that included an airplane ticket. Moreover, former small forward Ruben Patterson was found to have received extra benefits from a booster, who cosigned a car loan for Patterson and let the player stay in his condominium.

While admitting that mistakes were made, the Bearcats contend that the violations were relatively minor. "Nobody was getting paid; nobody was driving cars" says assistant coach Mick Cronin. "The reality of the situation is that after 20 months, if we were an outlaw program, they would have buried us. In the last 10 years, Kansas has been on probation. Kentucky has been on probation. Arkansas was on probation. UCLA is on probation. But nobody seems to mention that."

More recently, ESPN reported a damning statistic about Cincinnati's basketball program: By latest calculations, the graduation rate for its student athletes is ... zero percent. "For [ESPN anchorman] Bob Ley to sit there and say we don't graduate anybody -- Bob Ley doesn't know" says Huggins. "If he would take the time to find out, he wouldn't say things like that."

The zero figure was misleading, claims Huggins, because the NCAA only counted scholarship athletes who entered the school as freshmen in 1991 and not the transfers and junior-college players who made up the bulk of his roster at the time. Cincinnati's media guide claims that 14 of 33 players who have completed their eligibility under Huggins also have earned their degrees.

Moreover, Huggins is quick to point out that some of his former players left school early to play professional basketball. Five former Bearcats are playing in the NBA, and a handful of others are playing in Europe. "Some of our guys come back to finish their degrees" Huggins says. "Some don't see the need. With [Denver Nuggets and former Bearcats point guard] Nick Van Exel, I don't know what a liberal-arts degree is going to do for him. He just signed a contract for $70 million. He'll be able to pay his bills."

In the same report, titled "Bad-News Bearcats," ESPN focused on Huggins' hard-nosed, often-volatile coaching style -- particularly during the Bearcats' grueling, three-hour-long practices, which reportedly are rife with screaming and cursing. A university sports-information official later called the report a "hack job." And while Huggins doesn't deny a predilection for yelling, many of his players said the image of the coach as a blustering tyrant was unfair.

"You can't judge a book by its cover," says senior center Kenyon Martin. "Coach is very intense and hates to lose. When he gets somebody down, he doesn't want to let them up. That's why I came here." Adds senior forward Ryan Fletcher: "Some coaches will hold grudges if you're outspoken, but with Coach Huggins you can speak your mind. And what happens on the court stays on the court. Even when we've had confrontations, he's the first one to come up and joke with me after. You learn to respect that."

Cincinnati also has been criticized for recruiting a number of players with legal and academic problems. Former Bearcats All-American Danny Fortson came to Cincinnati amid eligibility questions and allegations that he had trashed his mother's house, for example. And former forward Dontonio Wingfield, who tuned pro after a single college season, pleaded guilty earlier this year to charges of assaulting two suburban Cincinnati police officers.