[quote]Start with what's known at Kansas State.

Bob Huggins, a relentless recruiter, will bring big-time talent to small-town Manhattan. He already has, from 7-3 freshman Jason Bennett to scoring guard Blake Young, one of the nation's top junior-college prospects a year ago. Cincinnati high school star Bill Walker, who graduated early, is scheduled to join the team next month.

The Wildcats' fourth coach in 13 years will whip up the energy level, as he has in inspiring the school's first season-ticket sellout in nearly a quarter-century and the christening of Bramlage Coliseum's student section as "Huggyville."

His teams will play like they're possessed. They'll be especially ferocious on defense. Bottom line, they are expected to win.

And then?

"There are going to be people who attribute it to some shortcut or some process that would suggest we didn't follow the rules. ... As our success grows, I imagine the scrutiny will grow," Kansas State athletics director Tim Weiser says.

His hiring of Huggins, blessed by school president Jon Wefald in March, is the boldest move in the Big 12 since Texas Tech brought in Bob Knight five years earlier. Huggins had been deemed a liability at Cincinnati, despite turning the Bearcats into a perennial NCAA Tournament entry and reaching the 1992 Final Four.

His players' graduation rate was embarrassingly low. Too many had off-court problems. Huggins was arrested for driving under the influence, and in August 2005, Cincinnati's president refused to extend his rollover contract and ultimately bought it out.

Huggins sat out last season, although the only question about his return was where it would be. The answer turned out to be a school that reached four NCAA regional finals in 10 years in the '70s and early '80s under Jack Hartman but had finished no better than a tie for sixth in 10 Big 12 seasons.

Weiser vetted the hire in separate meetings with the NCAA and Huggins in Indianapolis, coming away convinced Huggins hadn't cheated at Cincinnati but accepted responsibility for unspecified issues that had arisen. Wefald then met the coach in Chicago.

"I found him to be very impressive and very candid. And I just thought, 'Well, K-State's not Cincinnati,' " Wefald says. "We're going to provide a tremendous academic advising operation here ... and our compliance people know all the rules and regulations of the NCAA. And Tim Weiser operates from the moral high ground. So we aren't going to have any NCAA violations."

Huggins, 53, is entering his 25th season as a college coach and "hopefully I'm smarter," he says. "Hopefully, doing this for as long as I've done it, I've picked up some better ways to do things."

Still, he finds ways to raise eyebrows. He was hardly idle in his year away from coaching. Unencumbered by NCAA rules, Huggins maintained his recruiting contacts and

Huggins isn't the first coach to lose a job, and recruit while unemployed. If there's no rule against it, where's the violation?

NC State allowed Herb Sendek, one of the most ethical coaches, to leave under fire for his failure to win BIG (only 59% in 10 years!) Where's the ethics in that, Mr. Fowler?

BEARCATS65 Wrote:Huggins isn't the first coach to lose a job, and recruit while unemployed. If there's no rule against it, where's the violation?

NC State allowed Herb Sendek, one of the most ethical coaches, to leave under fire for his failure to win BIG (only 59% in 10 years!) Where's the ethics in that, Mr. Fowler?

I think they tried to slam Cincinnati but it didn't really work. Cincinnati had academic advisors and the players did attend classes. They were never given grades just to graduate. Huggins always made sure they earned their degrees but the problem is...Huggins wants tough kids that aren't that good in academics. He wants the bad boy-toughness image and he will always recruit like that. Kansas State can do all they can do about that but many of his recruits will require taking minimal amount of academic hours because of his long practices and his expected committment to basketball first. Huggs brings them into play basketball first. The rest of it happens at convenience. The K State recruits will have opportunities but many of them will need 6 years or more to attain the graduation hours...unless the Upper Admins of K State decide to do things like Xavier's did....get them graduated first....worry about how many classes they attended later. Most wont work in Manhattan when they're finished anyways....unlike Cincinnati/Indianapolis area.

Wow, nice post. lmfao

Huggins is the basketball coach, not the academic advisory telling the kids how many credit hours to take. So blaming all this on Huggins is a bit ridiculous.

Huggins may bring energy to the Kansas State team, but the Kansas State team is going to bring Huggs second heart attack to him...

snart Wrote:Huggins may bring energy to the Kansas State team, but the Kansas State team is going to bring Huggs second heart attack to him...

We will be fine.....next year