Investigations. Suspensions. Injuries. Victories.
Which of those items does not fit with the others?
It's a trick question. For coach Bob Huggins and the University of Cincinnati, they all fit together in a most unusual season. UC endured the suspensions of four starters and won 23 of 28 games and the Conference USA championship. For this, Huggins was presented Wednesday with the Ray Meyer Award as C-USA coach of the year.
It was the third time Huggins claimed the Meyer award and his sixth coach of the year honor in a Division I conference. Earlier this week, he was named national coach of the year by Basketball Times.
''To win something like this, you sometimes have to have a lot of things go wrong,'' Huggins said. ''So many people around here have screwed up that I've had an opportunity to fix a lot.''
Unlike the other awards in C-USA, coach of the year is voted upon only by the 12 coaches.
If you think winning national honors from Basketball Times automatically made Huggins the choice in his conference, it isn't always that simple.
In 1994, when Charlie Spoonhour resurrected the Saint Louis program, he was named coach of the year nationally by the United States Basketball Writers Association but was overlooked by his colleagues in the Great Midwest Conference. They chose Kevin O'Neill, then of Marquette.
''This is a great tribute to our guys,'' Huggins said.
DeMarco's excellence
UNC Charlotte forward DeMarco Johnson, the leading rebounder in Conference USA and third-leading scorer, was named the player of the year in a vote of coaches and journalists.
Johnson received 20 votes to nine for runner-up Larry Hughes of Saint Louis and eight for Memphis forward Omar Sneed.
Johnson twice earned first-team all-conference honors and was the only unanimous selection to this year's squad. He averaged 20.4 points, 9.4 rebounds and shot .495 from the field for the 49ers, who finished second to UC.
Conference calls
Winning may be the only thing, but is it the best thing?
Marquette coach Mike Deane wonders if the Bearcats would be wise to expend the necessary energy and emotion to win the Conference USA tournament, figuring it might hurt their chances to advance deep into the NCAA Tournament.
He's got a point. Only three of the past 13 NCAA champions were conference tournament winners - none in the past five years.
''I think they can do a lot in the (NCAA) Tournament,'' Deane said. ''If they happen to lose here, that's not a concern.''
Although UC has made two runs to the Elite Eight and one to the Final Four after winning conference tournaments, Deane suggested this team is not as deep inside as those and might pay a stiffer price for playing three games in three days a week before the NCAAs.
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