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Bearcats' not so Huggable coach

When Cincinnati coach Bob Huggins gets cranked up, not all of his words make the transition. (170k wav)

Huggins' animated style doesn't sit well with everyone. (1meg avi)

Huggins makes sure his words are heard.

"I don't want you to play," Cincinnati coach Bob Huggins angrily said to forward Danny Fortson during a recent practice. "Get the (bleep) out. I don't want you to play. I don't want to deal with you, Danny. I don't want to deal with (bleeps) who don't want to get any better. I'm tired of 'em."

That kind of outburst is nothing new to the Bearcats. In fact, at times Bob Huggins can even make Bob Knight seem placid.

"I've seen him put holes in chalkboards," forward Keith Gregor said. "Put chairs through walls."

"Kicking trash cans," guard Keith LeGree added. "I almost got hit with a trash can one time at Arizona."

"Throwing his clipboard -- breaking it," Fortson said.

"Kicking a table -- kicking a ball rack," LeGree said.

"People are shocked that I'm the way I am, absolutely shocked," Huggins said.

In his seventh season in Cincinnati, Bob Huggins is known for his unique motivating tactics and for his strict disciplinary style. He learned that style while growing up in northeast Ohio playing basketball for his father, who he says screamed even more. But Huggins does not lead by tirade alone. In fact, people are just as shocked by his soft- spoken, fatherly demeanor off the court.

"Off the floor, he's completely different," associate coach Larry Harrison said. "He's like a Jekyll and Hyde."

"It's night and day with Huggins on and off the court," Gregor added.

"What our guys come to understand is that for three hours a day, two-and-a-half hours, whatever it is, we work and we're expected to work, and I demand that they work," Huggins said. "And then when they walk off the court, I'm not going to chase them around and go scream at them."

Fortson says his coach tries to balance the criticism.

What really lights his fuse
But when they're on the court, Huggins rules. He rides his players long and hard. And there's one thing a player can do to really set him off at practice.

"Quit," Huggins said, "quit on a play."

And when a player quits on a play, as Fortson did on one occasion when he was stripped of the ball and subsequently elbowed teammate Rodrick Monroe, the player certainly feels Huggins' wrath.

"Danny, I don't want to deal with it anymore," Huggins groused after the play. "Danny, I don't want to deal with it. Larry, I'm sick and tired of it man. You can't get him better because he's a (bleeping) baby. He don't do nothing wrong. He won't move his feet. But he's got all the answers and when somebody steals the ball from him, he's going to (bleeping) hit him in the mouth. (Bleeping) baby. No chance of getting better."

But the players understand Huggins' motivation.

"Sometimes it feels like it's personal. Sometimes you might have a problem with it," Fortson explained. "You know when you walk off the court, he's going to tell you what's going on. And he'll tell you what your problem is and he'll just pick you back up after he puts you down during practice."

Huggins knows why his players can handle his aggressive style -- because he knows where to draw the line on his behavior.

"What our guys appreciate is that I don't carry things onto the floor," Huggins said. "Because they had a bad practice doesn't mean they're a bad person, and there are a lot of coaches that can't separate those two."

"He rants and raves," Gregor said. "For us, it's more of just listening to what he's saying, as to how he's saying it, because how he says it doesn't really (matter). It's just his way of getting it across to the guys."

No thin-skinned athletes need apply
But how do you convince a player to want to talk to, much less play, for a guy who can look like a raving lunatic on the sidelines, berates his players, and who once after an ugly loss in December, told his team that Christmas had just been ruined?

"We tell them from day one, don't take it personally," Harrison said. "It's not a personal thing. He's probably going to call you every name in the book, but it doesn't mean he doesn't like you. He just didn't like what you just did."

Huggins has his quiet moments.

And before players decide to come to Cincinnati, they know what's in store for them.

"He makes recruits watch practice," Fortson said. "I think the guys who don't want to get here get kind of scared when they see the practices and see how he is. Guys who want to go through it and want to get better as a basketball player come here."

Gregor added: "He does what it takes, he feels, to get guys motivated and get the necessary reaction from the guys."

But, does it work?

"Most often it does," Gregor said.

What Huggins also believes works is the work -- three-hour practices, year-round weight training -- even on days before games. That's something other coaches say produces only tired bodies at tournament time.

"I don't think our guys get burned out," Huggins said. "I don't think our guys get tired. I think our guys get stronger and stronger and stronger as we go."

And the Bearcats are known for their physical play, which stems from physical practices.

"It's like a football practice," Fortson explained. "Coach don't call fouls. I think when we get to the NCAA tournament, it's going to be pretty fun banging with everybody."

And in fact, the Bearcats, under Huggins, have gone 25-10 in March. He has taken the team to the NCAA Tournament four times -- reaching the Elite Eight twice and the Final Four once. And he's sent three players -- Nick Van Exel, Dontonio Wingfield and Corie Blount -- to the NBA. And along the way, he's learned a thing or two about self control -- toning down his act a bit come gametime.

But is that because he's realizes it doesn't do any good to yell at the referees?

"No. It's all the years that I've tried to help them. They've started to get better," Huggins said with a smile.

And if the Bearcats continue their impressive March runs, Huggins will keep on smiling.

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