By Bill Koch
Enquirer staff writer

When University of Cincinnati basketball coach Bob Huggins left his office under suspension June 12, associate head coach Dan Peters, a close friend of Huggins' since their days together at Walsh College in the early 1980s, was poised to run the program in his absence.

By the time Huggins returned to work Friday, Peters had left UC to become the associate head coach at Ohio State.

Huggins said the program will survive without Peters.

"Dan's a great basketball coach," Huggins said. "And he did a lot of things here. But he's not the first assistant we've lost here and he won't be the last. We don't sell Dan Peters. We sell the University of Cincinnati. ... If people were coming here to play for an assistant coach, then they shouldn't be here."