Thursday, March 23, 2006

If He Does for Hoops What Bill Snyder Did For Football. . .

Then Kansas State will be on the map and give cross-state rival Kansas fits for years.

That's right, it looks like Bob Huggins is going to Kansas State.

On the positive side, you can argue that a school with an inconsistent hoops tradition is making a bet that will put it solidly in the big-time. After all, Bob Huggins has produced results, and he should make the Big 12 even more competitive. Okay, he should be able to get K-State to the Sweet 16 in three years.

On the other side of the coin, you can argue that Kansas State is pimping its school by making a deal with a coach whose players didn't achieve a graduation rate worth bragging about and who had a major run-in with his school's president). (For those of you not familiar with a popular MTV special, someone in California writes into MTV about their lame car -- it's old, has mismatched doors, the seat cushions have worn out, the trunk doesn't work right, and then a West Coast body shop customizes it and makes it look like the baddest car in town, with bright paint, super-sharp wheels, an amazing sound system and stuff in the trunk that replicates your hobbies -- a bowler, for example, had a ball-washing machine put in his trunk. The show is called, "Pimp My Ride."). I had blogged about a school with a moribund program doing just that a while back (as well as having suggested other Sports Reality TV shows). Translated here, could it be the case that given his history, K-State is making a bad statement about the need to win? I'm sure that there are those in the University of Cincinnati administration who would agree.

I am not sure how I think about this hire at this point, except to say that the Big 12 just got tougher in many respects.

I'm just not sure that all of them are good.

No comments: