By Bill Koch
The Cincinnati Enquirer

When University of Cincinnati basketball coach Bob Huggins watches his team practice, he can't help but wonder: Is there a Bobby Brannen in the house?

How about a Steve Logan?

Brannen developed from a role player to a first-team all-Conference USA selection t o lead the 1997-98 Bearcats, unranked at the start of the season, to 27 wins.

Last season, Logan led another unranked team to a school-record 31 wins and a No.1 seed in the NCAA Tournament. Although he was already a star as a junior when he was named C-USA Player of the Year, he got even better as a senior, developing into a first-team All-American.

"We've been fortunate to have guys respond," Huggins said. "I don't know if these guys will respond or not.

"I don't know how you tell that. I wish I could. You could argue that history suggests that's going to happen, but that's a whole different set of players."

Only time will tell, but Huggins is sure of one thing. Unless someone steps forward in the recent UC tradition, this team will struggle to match the accomplishments of its predecessors.

The Bearcats play their second and final exhibition game of the season Thursday night at Shoemaker Center against Athletes in Action. They open the regular season Nov.23 against Tennessee Tech.

Huggins has been winning for so long at UC that it's hard to take him seriously when he laments his lack of talent and experience, as he frequently does at this time of year, just before he goes out and wins 25 games and a conference championship.

His track record suggests that no matter what kind of talent he has returning each year, the victories will accrue automatically.

So you can excuse UC fans for smiling complacently when they hear Huggins singing the blues. Somehow they know that one of the current UC players will blossom into a star and that everything will turn out OK.

But as Huggins points out, there's no guarantee that's going to happen again.

"If you can sit there and tell me you thought Logan would be that good, you're a liar," Huggins said.

The obvious candidate to be the next Brannen or Logan is senior forward Leonard Stokes, the most experienced player on the team and the second-leading scorer last season at 12.7 points a game.

Jason Maxiell, who averaged 8.1 points and 6.8 rebounds last season, has enormous potential, but he's a sophomore still trying to find his own way before he can lead others.

The danger, Huggins said, is that in an attempt to take that next step, one or both of those players will try to do things they can't, which will complicate the issue.

"Bobby Brannen did what he could do, and Logan did what he could do," Huggins said. "They didn't get outside of that."

Now it's time for Huggins to do what he can do: find a way to win with a team he says presently is unequipped to do so consistently.

"You just keep trying to figure things out," Huggins said.

And hope there's a Bobby Brannen in the house.