By Bill Koch
The Cincinnati Enquirer

University of Cincinnati center Robert Whaley says he has struggled during the first half of the season because of Dec. 3 surgery on his left knee, not because he hasn't bought into the amount of effort and dedication that are being displayed by the rest of his teammates.

"Other people think that I just can't buy in," Whaley said. "I think that I would be every little thing that people think that Robert Whaley really is if I didn't have my knee surgery."

Whaley, a two-time junior college All-American, was left in Cincinnati last week by UC coach Bob Huggins when the Bearcats traveled to New Orleans to play Tulane because he was not fulfilling his obligations to the team.

He returned Saturday in UC's 90-65 win over DePaul and scored a career-high 10 points with four rebounds in 13 minutes before fouling out. For the record, Huggins doesn't buy Whaley's contention that it's his knee that has held him back.

"I wouldn't second that," he said.

Whaley said it was difficult watching on television and seeing his teammates play without him, but he said he learned a few things.

"I learned that you can't win arguing with Huggs," Whaley said. "I also learned that you can't beat him so you might as well join him. You might as well just go on and do it his way. I also learned that my team needs me. Everybody came up to me after the (Tulane) game and told me that they missed me, just showing me a lot of love."

But Whaley said he wishes now that he had not succumbed to pressure to return from his surgery in two weeks. He said his knee is still only about 85 percent of what it should be.

"I should have listened to my mom and stayed out a couple more weeks," Whaley said. "It couldn't do nothing but help me. But you can't win with Huggs.

"I'm kind of like the same as Huggs. It's hard for me and Huggs to bond with each other. But I love him because everything he tells me is right. There's just some things I don't agree with and I'm outspoken and I speak what's on my mind. You can't do that with Huggs."

ON THEIR HEELS: After watching his team get ripped by 25 points, DePaul coach Dave Leitao said the team that finally beats UC (11-0, 2-0 in Conference USA) will have to slug it out with the Bearcats.

That could happen when the Bearcats take on defending league champion Marquette (11-2) in Milwaukee on Wednesday. UC has lost five of its last seven games against the Golden Eagles and has lost three in a row at the Bradley Center.

"With the style they play, you can do one of two things," Leitao said. "You either attack back or you get back on your heels. I think so far this year teams have played back on their heels against them. They haven't found a team yet that sparred with them round for round."

WINNING BIG: UC's average of margin of victory now stands at 26.2 points and Huggins is beginning to receive questions about how the Bearcats will react when they're in a close game.

"What do you want us to do, do you want us to play all close games?" Huggins said. "Do you think that helps us? Do you want us to screw around and let everybody be close and then we can say we played some close games? Every game last year was close. We lost 12 times. Isn't that enough?"

Huggins said the Bearcats do not set out each game to win by a certain margin, but to "play hard as you can possibly play and as intelligently as you can possibly play. It's about how proficient you get at the game. That's what we're trying to do. We don't worry about what the score is."

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E-mail: bkoch@enquirer.com