By Andrew Krumme
There is no question about corruption in sports. It’s all over the place, whether it’s a drug ring, a gambling scandal or recruiting violations. Corruption goes on every day in every sport at every level. Heck, my friend from high school even got illegally recruited to play basketball – in high school. The real question about illegalities in sports is whether the media ignores the situation. However, our friend Bob Huggins, the controversial former basketball coach at Cincinnati who is now head coach at Kansas State, is taking it to the next level.
I must warn you before I go on that I am extremely biased when it comes to Mr. Huggins. I grew up in the Cincinnati area as a lifelong loyal Xavier basketball enthusiast. Bob Huggins and the University of Cincinnati Thugcats were the arch nemesis of Xavier and mine.
Every time I looked at the man, I felt sick to my stomach. I am appalled to think of the time he refused to shake Pete Gillen’s hand after the 1994 Crosstown Shootout. I would cringe with resentment every time one of his players got arrested and Huggins, along with the athletic department, would do the absolute minimum (sometimes even ignoring the situation) to discipline a player. I was overjoyed when he was arrested for a DUI – anything that could hurt Huggins and the UC program was a positive in my book.
About a week ago, browsing some college basketball message boards, I saw a rumor that one of Huggins’ first orders of business as the main man in Manhattan was hiring away Assistant Coach Dalonte Hill from Charlotte. Now the actual hiring is not what garnered my attention; it was that Hill was hired by Huggins because he has close connections with Michael Beasley, a consensus top-10 recruit for 2007 who had already committed to play at Charlotte. In college basketball circles, there is no question now that Beasley will back off from his commitment to play for Bobby Lutz and head to Kansas State with Hill to play for Huggins. After some more research, I found that Gregg Doyel of http://cbs.sportsline.com confirmed the theory.
Now, corruption may not be the word to describe this move by Huggins, because he did nothing illegal. However, one has to question his morals. This is simply one of the lowest moves I have ever seen or heard of in my time as a sports fan. Huggins essentially gave some assistant coach a raise to come to Kansas State, not because he was a good coach who could bring a new element to the program, but in the hopes of recruiting one player. So when you break it down, Huggins paid for Michael Beasley.
What makes this even worse is that he backstabbed Bobby Lutz, who supported Huggins when he was fired from UC. I know the world of sports is a cutthroat business, but is there no honor left? You’ve heard the philosophy “Do anything to win the game, no matter what the costs,” but isn’t it implied that you do it with some dignity? It appears that Huggins has no interest in dignity or honor.
I guess one good thing has come out of this. I now have 11 new teams to root for, all hailing from the Big 12.
