Huggins Returns

In case you've had a candle burning in the window or a yellow ribbon tied round the oak tree in your front yard awaiting Bob Huggins's return to his head coaching position at the University of Cincinnati, your vigil has come to an end. His seventy-six day suspension for driving under the influence now over, Coach Huggins is back doing what he does best -- molding and shaping the lives of young men.

I've posted twice before on this issue, once at the time of the incident and then later when the university modified its "punishment." There are a lot of other things I could be writing about right now, and normally I would have chosen something more positive, but then I read Andy Katz's column on Bobbo's return, and I really had no choice.

In case you don't have the time to check it out, here are two choice quotes:

"I would think that the past 15 years here and us playing on TV should tell kids what we're all about. I saw a lot of guys in the spring."

This is Bobbo's response to the potential damage his suspension could cause the program. Basically, he's admitting that it shouldn't be that big a deal.

If this is the case, what was so bad about the suspension? Here's a response from assistant coach Andy Kennedy: "It's still an unanswered question."

Hmm. Let's get this straight. The coach who was suspended doesn't feel the suspension was that big of a deal. The assistant coach who was left in charge (Oscar Robertson was officially pointed interim head coach, but that was mainly a P.R. move) doesn't see what was so bad about the suspension. Here's the obvious question, one I asked two and a half months ago: was this a punishment or a paid vacation?

Huggins was initially worried about being bored, but thankfully things weren't as bad as he had feared. He spent much of his suspension hanging around town, but he did manage to squeeze in some fishing in Florida. His coaches and friends couldn't call him from university phones, so they just waited until they got home. So basically, his punishment is the same as mine was the time when I got caught forging my mom's name in high school, except that I didn't get to go fishing.

I don't really have anything more to say about Mr. Huggins. I just hope that somewhere out there someone is paying attention. I hope that there's a living room someplace where two parents are waiting to tell him that they could not possibly send their son to play at the University of Cincinnati. Doubtful, certainly, but worth hoping for.