Like A Bear In The Stream, Chompin On Fish

With the NCAA Tourney starting tomorrow, I figured I'd remind everyone about one of the biggest badasses ever to grace a basketball court. But before that, here is an off the top of the head history of basketball in Cincy.

Back in the day the city of Cincinnati had a fine basketball heritage. In the late 50s and early 60s the Bearcats went to 5 straight Final Fours and won a couple National Championships with the likes of Oscar Robertson and Jack Twyman. And then Robertson went to the pros and was the best player in the world for several years with the Cincinnati Royals. The Royals unfortunately left town for browner pastures at some point in the late 60s, early 70s. I'm not doing research on when or where they moved because I don't see the need, but if I had to guess not very educatedly, Milwaukee or Sacramento or somewhere in South America, like Portugal. Then there was a lull for a couple decades while the Bearcats wallowed in mediocrity.

Insert GOB Bluth suit quote here:

Enter Bob MOTHERFUCKIN Huggins y'all! The former West Virginia player and native was hired by UC in 1989. Before basically being hired to resurrect the Bearcats program he had assistant coaching stints at West Virginia and Ohio State (I just found out about the OSU ties on Wikipedia. And yeah, that's right. I'm willing to look up all sorts of Huggins shit but absolutely nothing on the Cincinnati Royals) as well as piling up a crazy good record as the Head Coach at Walsh and Akron respectively. So basically UC hired someone who knew Ohio and our surrounding states well. Who had plenty of coaching experience. And who also, obviously and probably most importantly, looked damn good in a pimp suit.

Although UC had not been to an NCAA Tourney since 1977,  in his third year Huggy Bear landed them in the tournament, where they proceeded to wreck shop on their way to a Final Four appearance. That was his only trip to the Final Four coaching the Bearcats, but he also compiled a typing error-like 399-127 record at UC (And well over 700 freaking wins for his career). He also piloted them to 14 straight tournament appearances after not making it the first two years on the job. Along the way, he cultivated an image for having one of the most notoriously physical, defensive-minded, and sometmes criminal teams in college basketball. And when it comes to college athletics, who cares if a player punches a police horse, or his team gets placed on probation for lack of institutional control (Hahhahahaha. Fuck the NCAA anyways). His teams have always won, which is the only truly important thing when it comes to big time revenue producing college athletics. And personally, he made being a UC fan groing immensely fun and entertaining. I can't imagine myself being such a basketball fan if Huggins hadn't been such a surly defensive mastermind with UC.

This year is the first in a long time that Huggs doesn't have his team in the Tourney, which is incredible if you look at how long he's been able to sustain his success as a coach, and also it's a testament to a person who has basically done things his own way all along and never taken shit from basically anyone. Because usually if you're not playing by the rules you get bounced the fuck out of successful programs. Not him though, Huggy is a teflon don.