Wednesday, August 24, 2005
Zimpher won battle, but war awaits
By Paul Daugherty
Enquirer staff writer
Winning the war was easier than winning the peace. Not that Nancy Zimpher's knock-down drag-out with Bob Huggins was a first-round KO. If you put the University of Cincinnati president and basketball coach in the same room with one clock on the wall, they couldn't agree on the time. All they have in common is an unwillingness to be pushed around.
But the unqualified mess that concluded Tuesday, with the school telling the coach to resign or be fired, was a walkover compared with what happens next. Zimpher has decided UC basketball is broken. Now, she has to fix it. All that's in the balance is her legacy as the university's president.
Having said that, we'll also say this: A coach, even one as successful and powerful as Huggins had become, cannot be allowed to win a power struggle with his university's president. Bob Knight couldn't do it. What chance did Bob Huggins have?
At most schools where coaches loom godlike and untouchable, presidents leave well enough alone. They enjoy the national acclaim. They tolerate the Faustian deal they cut to achieve it. They know that challenging a big-time coach is more trouble than it's worth.
Zimpher didn't look at it like that. She challenged a Cincinnati icon and won. Her victory will be judged by how she handles the reconstruction.
It could be the Marshall Plan of college basketball. Fans are furious. Some donors are put off. Players are disillusioned. Recruits could change their minds. The program is in chaos.
We'll find out, over the next several years, if Huggins built the program, or if Huggins
was the program. Anyone taking the job will learn quickly that UC basketball thrived under the force of Huggins' will. The same will helped seal his fate.
Zimpher and the Board of Trustees have shown a remarkable lack of understanding of how college basketball works. You cannot tell the world that your coach is finished in two years, then expect that coach to compete for recruits in a league like the Big East. UC admitted as much in an Aug. 8 letter to Huggins' lawyer, Richard Katz. "UC agrees with your client that the parties should end their relationship as soon as possible."
In Zimpher's world, academic and athletic success are twin sons of the same mother. The Aug. 8 letter, again: "UC believes it can better advance its mission by building a winning program around scholar-athletes who earn degrees that will allow them to succeed not only in athletics but more importantly in life generally."
Large goal, that.
Also one that a university president has every right to set. If Zimpher were president of UC men's hoops, then hang her from the highest backboard for this. She ain't. You can say she has thrown the basketball program into darkness. You can say she has thrown Huggins' loyalty to the curb. What you cannot say is that, as president, Zimpher isn't obliged to do what she feels is in the best interests of the entire place.
People in Zimpher's camp say that, behind the scenes, Huggins has urged big donors to close their wallets. They argue that a spiteful Huggins prolonged the fight knowing he would take the buyout eventually, that he waited as long as he did to hurt the basketball program.
Believe what you want. Regardless, if UC were to retain its self-respect, Zimpher had to win.
This was one episode Huggins could not John-Wayne his way through. He didn't have the unqualified support of many heavy-hitting boosters, or even the backing of his athletic director. Bob Goin had championed him publicly, until this summer. Goin's signature is on the letter Huggins received Tuesday.
Halfway through July, Huggins was still demanding a three-year contract extension or the resumption of his four-year rollover. He was never good at taking no for an answer. Or having anyone tell him how things would be. Both sides are to blame for this mess. Spite against spite is never pretty.
No one should forget the good work Huggins has done here, the loyalty he inspired, or his charming inability to say no to nearly every charitable request. Through will and deed, Bob Huggins became a prominent stitch in the city's fabric.
His sweat-ethic insistence on hard work from his players and himself appealed to Cincinnati's Everyman heart. The success of his teams throughout the 1990s, when the Bengals floundered and the Reds mostly treaded water, kept our civic pride from banging rock bottom.
Another thing: Huggins never went big-time, even when he did. His daughters attended public school. He occasionally spent evenings in a neighbor's driveway, swapping lies between gulps of adult beverages. His phone number was in the book. Huggins' swift return from a heart attack was inspirational and a testament to his resolve.
His resolve is tested anew. Not as much as Zimpher's will be, though. If she didn't know what she'd gotten herself into, she's about to find out.
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