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August 25, 2005
Thuggins Fired...
University of Cincinnati basketball coach Bob Huggins (hereafter referred to by his unofficial nickname, "Thuggins") has finally been released by the school's president, Nancy Zimpher, after years of embarrassing personal behavior and an utter lack of standards for either the academic or personal conduct of his players.
Thuggins cares so little about the reputation of the school he is supposed to represent that he'll recruit anyone from any league... junior college or, a la Ricky "Wild Thing" Vaughan, the California Penal League. In 16 years, 21 Thuggins players were arrested or charged with various violations. His graduation rates were among the lowest in the nation. Worst of all, Thuggins' cavalier attitude toward personal conduct extended to his own; he was arrested in 2003 for drunken driving... hardly a pillar of the community.
Yet sadly, there is outcry in Cincinnati over Thuggins' release. The town seems to basically be admitting that winning a sports game is far more important to it than integrity, respect for the law, or reputation. That's pathetic. It reflects incredibly poorly on a city that its residents are so insecure and so unprincipled that such a premium is placed on winning at sports, at the expense of what really matters -- at an academic institution, and in life.
Sadder still are the predictable -- and wrong -- claims from some corners that the move is motivated simply by racism. For example, the Kansas City Star's Jason Whitlock -- a writer whose work I usually respect -- has gone completely Johnny Cochran over the situation. In a column on ESPN2, he writes,
She basically fired Bob Huggins for recruiting too many poor, academically and socially underprepared black kids... Yes, the saga continues. Another institution used poor blacks for its benefit, disrespected them in writing and then kicked them to the curb.
Not only are analyses like this just simply wrong, they're also insulting.
What Whitlock is basically saying is, "It's okay for a black kid to behave any way he wants, get arrested, do whatever... because he's been underprivileged by a racist system, so society has no right to expect any standard of conduct from him." What he's saying is, illegal or dangerous behavior is okay when committed by black kids who can play basketball. What he's saying is, if held to society's standards of proper conduct, black kids are at a disadvantage, and the only way to even up the system is to not expect young black men to behave themselves in accordance with the law.
I can think of few more insulting and more racist arguments. For one, I believe that it's true of any kid that if you tell him he is expected to conform to a standard of behavior, and then hold him to it, he will. Or he'll be gone. It works at the military academies, for example - and plenty of both white and non-white kids graduate with their officers' commissions every year. It works at other basketball powers... many coaches achieve improvements in graduation rates and manage to recruit kids of all colors who don't break the law and don't embarrass their program and their university.
Yet somehow Whitlock and others like him want to excuse the atmosphere Thuggins has created at Cincinnati. They tell us that whatever happens is okay, even if it's against the law, because an unjust system excuses any behavior from those oppressed by it. They tell us that those demanding basic standards of behavior (like "don't get arrested," or "go to class at the school that's paying for you to be here") from student athletes (remember the "student" part of college sports?) are simply racists without the white hoods. It's an unfortunate argument, and does a tremendous disservice to the very kids it purports to defend.
Bob Thuggins got exactly what he had coming this week. He built a lawless program that for sixteen years was never held accountable by anyone for its collective behavior. He embarrassed the institution he was supposed to represent, and he failed the kids he recruited by refusing to hold them responsible for their classwork or conduct.
Bob Thuggins represents much of what is wrong with sport today. Those defending him represent the rest.
Comments
"Thuggins" is hilarious. And yeah I agree with you for the most part, he ran a renegade program, much like Tark did at UNLV and Fresno State.
However, oddly enough the five basketball players I like dealing with the most because of their friendly nature...Two are from Huggins' program (Danny Fortson and Kenyon Martin), two are from Tark's program (Greg Anthony and Larry Johnson) and of course the other is Grant Hill..
That being said another Tark product (Stacey Augmon) is one of the biggest dickheads in sports.
Posted by: Corey at August 26, 2005 01:56 PM
Tark's another one. I can't stand that guy, he's another champ of the Jailhouse philosophy. I just wonder whatever happened to the part of the coach's job where you're supposed to *mentor* your kids and help them grow into men.
The only regret I have about Thuggins being gone is that it took this long.
Posted by: Curmudgeon at August 26, 2005 03:52 PM
