By Bill Koch
The Cincinnati Enquirer

As a high-profile college basketball coach, Bob Huggins is accustomed to receiving unsolicited advice from a variety of sources. Fans push for one player or another to receive more playing time. The media want to know why his University of Cincinnati Bearcats don't press or run the fast break more frequently.

Such constant second-guessing comes with the territory when you're in charge of a major-college program, especially one with the rabid following UC enjoys.

But since he suffered a heart attack at the Pittsburgh International Airport on Sept. 28, Huggins - who opens his 14th season as UC's head coach Saturday at Shoemaker Center against Tennessee Tech - has found himself receiving a different kind of advice, quite a bit more personal than suggestions having to do with basketball strategy.

It's advice born out of a sense of caring for the personal welfare of the 49-year-old coach rather than a concern over wins and losses.

Watch your diet, he's told by complete strangers. Get more exercise.

Don't get so excited on the court. Don't work so hard during the off-season. Tone down your mercurial act before it kills you.

"I'm getting more help than I can stand," Huggins said during the first week of preseason practice. "Everybody wants to counsel me."

Nearly two months later, he's still getting it from "people on the street, people at the gas station, everywhere."

It's not that Huggins doesn't appreciate the concern, it's just that he's a little uncomfortable as the focal point of such an outpouring of affection. He knew that he was popular in Cincinnati as a basketball coach who wins a lot of games.

But this is concern not just about Bob Huggins, the hard-driving, often controversial coach. This is about Bob Huggins the person. This is something altogether new.

"It makes you feel good," Huggins said. "It's amazing that now people are writing wonderful things about me. Those are the same people that have been killing me for the last 20 years."

As word of the heart attack spread, former UC players Corie Blount and Kenyon Martin both called Huggins' wife, June, and told her they were flying to Pittsburgh to see their old coach. She told them to hold off until his condition improved.

Former Xavier coach Skip Prosser, now at Wake Forest, and Memphis coach John Calilpari did visit Huggins in Pittsburgh. Duke coach Mike Krzyzewksi and Utah coach Rick Majerus, both of whom have taken time off for health reasons, called to urge Huggins to take it easy.

"Regardless of what type of enemy you perceive your competition to be," Louisville coach Rick Pitino said, "I think all Louisville fans are really happy that he's feeling well. I know as a staff - because (Louisville assistant coach) Mick Cronin worked for him and I knew him real well - when we heard it, we were devastated. ... And when we heard he was at (Breakfast with Bob), all of us breathed a big sigh of relief."

One of the most surprising aspects of the reaction to Huggins' heart attack is how many fans from other Conference USA cities responded to wish him well.

Even at Charlotte, one of UC's fiercest rivals, the feeling among fans was one of relief when they learned that he would be OK.

"He's not a fan favorite, but I think they would miss him in a strange kind of way if he wasn't there," said Charlotte coach Bobby Lutz. "He is Cincinnati basketball to our people. Every time we've played them, he's been the coach. I had lots of people e-mail or call and ask if I knew how he was doing. ... When something like that happens, it puts things in perspective."

The outpouring of concern for Huggins has been so overwhelming that immediately after the heart attack, even Andy Furman, the host of WLW Radio's nightly Sportstalk program, sounded more like a counselor than a talk show host.

"It wasn't like, `Yeah, Bob is going to come back and be our coach,'" Furman said. "I took the stance that he's a husband first, a father first and a coach second. I hope UC remembers that his family needs him more than the basketball program at UC."

Dan Peters, the associate head basketball coach at UC, considers Huggins his best friend. The two coached together in the early 1980s at Walsh College in northeastern Ohio and three years ago were reunited at UC.

Ask Peters what Huggins means to the UC basketball program and he'll tell you that you can't separate the two.

"He is the program," Peters said. "Everyone that's involved in this program has come here because of him, including the coaches. The kids really came because of Bob. They want to be coached by him. They want his acceptance. They believe in him. It's almost like a reverence. And there's also a tremendous faith on his part in those kids. Maybe they feel that."

Like many in Cincinnati who consider themselves close to Huggins, Peters decided to keep his distance in those first days after the heart attack, entrusting Huggins to the care of his family and his physicians.

When Huggins was transferred from the Medical Center in Beaver, Pa., to Christ Hospital in Cincinnati, Peters went to see him, not really knowing what to expect.

"I kind of walked in with mixed emotions," Peters said. "I didn't know how to feel. But when I left, I was uplifted. I was just happy to see the guy."

The UC coach was born in Morgantown, W.Va., and grew up in northeastern Ohio - where he became one of the state's most accomplished high school basketball players under his father, Charlie, then the coach at Indian Valley South High School in Gnadenhutten.

Much of the affection he has received stems from the success he has brought to the UC basketball program. During his 13 seasons at UC, the Bearcats have consistently excelled on the court, with one Final Four appearance, three Elite Eight appearances and 11 consecutive trips to the NCAA Tournament.

Largely because of Huggins, Cincinnati has grown into a national hotbed for college basketball, a development that would gave been unthinkable when he arrived in 1989 to replace Tony Yates. At the time, the UC program was at its lowest ebb in four decades.

"Right now, he might be up there with the most popular" sports figures in town, Furman said. "I don't think it's so much his personality or demeanor, but his accomplishments. Bob Huggins has brought new hope to sports fans in this town."

The affection has not been unconditional. Over the years, Huggins has had plenty of detractors who criticized him for the poor graduation rate of his players and for their conduct off the court. That criticism seems to have abated in recent years and, in the wake of the heart attack, seems to have disappeared altogether, at least for the moment.

But there is more to the Huggins persona than winning. With his blunt talk and sideline histrionics, he's also a character. Cincinnati used to be teeming with such characters in its sporting profile - Pete Rose, Sam Wyche, Boomer Esiason, Pete Gillen, Lou Piniella, Marge Schott.

They're all gone now, having either moved on to another city or faded from the public's consciousness. Only Huggins remains. He is genuine and unique. To almost everyone who knows him and to many who don't, he's simply "Huggs." It's as if everyone in Cincinnati has been out one time or another to have a beer with him.

In a city where the NFL team can't figure out how to win and the baseball team won't spend the money to, Huggins remains committed to nothing less than excellence year after year.

"When you go anywhere across the country or you speak about the University of Cincinnati, the next name out of anybody's mouth is Bob Huggins," said Goin. "It hasn't always been adorable, but it's been Bob Huggins.

"But the truth is, the last two or three years, even before this happening, there has been an incline in his reputation across the country. I think he's finally getting the respect that he's earned and that he deserves."

Huggins is an emotional enigma. The fiery coach who displays his feelings so unabashedly on the court keeps them under tight rein off the court. He's soft spoken and not given to rambling about what he's feeling inside.

So it's hard to tell from a distance how all this has affected him. He says he won't change the way he coaches, nor will he change his sometimes volatile personality, mostly because, he says, at the age of 49, he doesn't believe that's possible.

And yes, he'll work just as hard as he always has to recruit the most talented players he can find and to coach them to reach their potential when they arrive at UC.

"I don't foresee my recruiting schedule changing," Huggins said. "It can't. It's hard to recruit kids here. You've got to work hard at it. If I (cut back) and we're going to lose, I don't want to do that. I'm not going to do that for the university, I'm not going to do that for the kids and I'm not going to do that for me."

Huggins makes it clear that any changes he makes in his lifestyle or his approach to work will be subtle. But to all those fans so suddenly concerned about his health and personal welfare, he offers these rare soothing words.

"I hope all those people who care about me understand that I'd like to be around a little longer, too," he said.

"So I'm not going to do anything that I really shouldn't do."