By Bill Koch
The Cincinnati Enquirer

The Huggins household in Loveland will be packed today for Thanksgiving dinner, filled with University of Cincinnati basketball players, managers and coaches, maybe even a neighbor or two.

UC coach Bob Huggins' wife, June, will serve up her usual feast of turkey, ham and, among other things, chitlins, which Huggins will politely decline.

"They smell bad," Huggins said. "I guess they taste good. I don't know. I don't eat them."

The UC coach will watch football on television, talk about basketball and generally relax after a three-hour morning practice.

In other words, this Thanksgiving Day will be pretty much like every other Thanksgiving Huggins has celebrated with his players since he began his coaching career at Walsh College.

Maybe someone will mention Huggins' September heart attack, but the UC coach said Wednesday he had no plans to reflect on what he went through in the Pittsburgh airport Sept.28.

"I don't look backward," Huggins said. "I've never lived my life that way. I'm looking forward to having the guys out at the house like always. It's good for them to spend some time together and it's good for us to spend some time with them."

That's not to say Huggins isn't thankful to have survived the heart attack, it's just that he has chosen not to dwell on it.

"I don't want it to come out like I'm not thankful, because I am," Huggins said. "I'm thankful every Thanksgiving. I've been blessed. But I'm not about to live my life looking in the rear-view mirror."

UC always practices in the morning on Thanksgiving Day. There are stories from Huggins' early coaching days about how he stopped practice when it wasn't going well and ordered the student manager to call his wife and tell her not to put the turkey in the oven because practice wasn't going to end for a while; they were starting over.

He said he doesn't anticipate that happening today.

"We've been known to re-start them occasionally," Huggins said. "But not as much lately. I think my reputation precedes me in that regard, because they know I'll do it."

And no, Huggins is not one of those husbands who puts on an apron and attempts to help with the holiday feast.

"That would be a quick way to end the tradition," he said.