A few things. I was going to post on this story for the sheer absurdity, stupidity and egotism of Bob Huggins.

Former University of Cincinnati basketball coach Bob Huggins is expected to be at Fifth Third Arena Saturday for pregame ceremonies honoring the Bearcats’ five seniors.

And if it’s up to senior forward Eric Hicks, Huggins, whose contract was terminated in August, will do more than sit in one of the luxury suites during the game against No. 16 West Virginia.

Hicks said Thursday he planned to walk onto the floor with Huggins, interim head coach Andy Kennedy and his family.

“I called him,” Hicks said of Huggins. “I’m going to walk out with him. I want to go out like everybody else went out. I came here to play for him and AK, and that’s who I intend to play for. If AK hadn’t been the coach here (after Huggins left), I would have been gone.”

Kennedy confirmed that Huggins plans to be at the game. He said Huggins called and asked if he had any objections if Huggins showed up. Kennedy said he didn’t.

But he said he hadn’t heard of any plans for Huggins to accompany Hicks on the floor before the game.

Hicks, though, was adamant in wanting Huggins to be part of the ceremony. He said he had called Huggins and asked if he would do it, and that Huggins agreed.

Hicks means well. And I understand him wanting Huggins there. Huggins, though is supposedly a grown-up. If he does this, it will be to screw his friend and former assistant Andy Kennedy. Well, I’ll just quote Greg Doyel (Mar 3 entry) because it pretty much mirrors what I was going to say.

Imagine the scene. Huggins, the coach who recruited and molded Hicks and (the injured) Kirkland, walking them onto the court before their final home game against West Virginia. Fifth Third Arena would go absolutely nuts. It would be fun, don’t get me wrong. But it would be wrong. Don’t get that wrong, either.
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And then there’s Andy Kennedy. He’s the former Huggins aide — a loyal aide, we all know — who has done a remarkable job as interim coach. Against all odds, considering the Huggins-UC schism, Kennedy’s grace and obvious coaching ability have earned him a shot at the permanent position. The only drawback to Kennedy, in the eyes of the UC administration, is his connection to Huggins.

The last thing Kennedy’s candidacy needs is one final reminder — one final thumbing of the nose at UC president Nancy Zimpher — that Huggins remains the most popular person in town.

That Kennedy who has done such a job with an injury-riddled team, as a perceived lame duck, who wants the job yet has remained openly loyal to Huggins is actually a possibility for the job has been impressive. Just as impressive is the way Kennedy has won over the fans and students who get just what kind of job he’s done in what was thought to be a lost season.

If Huggins walks out with his former players, he screws Kennedy. No doubt in my mind. He has to know this. Just as he has to know Kennedy wouldn’t, couldn’t be the one to tell him not to do it. It becomes a question of just how much of a friend he is to Kennedy versus how much he wants to stick it to the UC President.

Sticking with Doyel, he makes his picks for the weekend games:

Seton Hall at No. 8 Pittsburgh: Most people think Seton Hall has no chance at an NCAA bid. Most people are so cynical. After beating Cincinnati, Seton Hall is back in business. Most small businesses fail, of course, but the Pirates have a great opportunity to get into the black here. Yes, Seton Hall loses four of five games before beating Cincinnati. But the Pirates have wins this season at North Carolina State and at Syracuse, and have beaten West Virginia. Add a road win against Pittsburgh, and Seton Hall is in. Unless Seton Hall loses to Pittsburgh. Pick: Unless.

Then Stewart Mandel nails the NCAA for its APR, noting how this works:

Big-time college athletics has always had a clear demarcation between the “haves” and “have-nots” (branded in recent years by the terms “BCS” and “non-BCS”) on its fields and hardwoods. Based on Wednesday’s NCAA report — which docked scholarships from 99 sports teams at 65 schools nationwide for failing to reach an acceptable rate of academic retention the past two years — the discrepancy apparently applies to the classroom as well.

None of the eight Division I-A football teams cited by the NCAA hail from one of the six BCS power conferences, while only one such program, new Big East member DePaul, was among the 15 flagged in men’s basketball. (Arizona, Arizona State, Kansas and Texas A&M are still appealing their results and could well show up on the final list.)

This peculiarity would seem to contradict the widely-held belief that the nation’s big-money football and basketball factories are the ones making a mockery of academics. If you believe this report, the real problem lies in places like the MAC (Toledo, Western Michigan, Buffalo and Northern Illinois underperformed in football), the WAC (Hawaii and New Mexico State) and, most notably, at historically black colleges like the MEAC’s Florida A&M, Hampton, South Carolina State and Maryland-Eastern Shore.
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MAC commissioner Rick Chryst believes the playing field will be leveled once penalties become tied to the NCAA’s new Graduation Success Rate — an improved version of the old federal graduation rate, which didn’t take into account players who transfer and graduate at another school — in 2008. His league was one of the most heavily penalized Wednesday, and yet in the first GSR report released late last year, the MAC and the ACC were the only football leagues whose public-school teams all graduated at least 50 percent of their players.

“We’re supportive of the APR as a tool, but it’s still just a snapshot in time,” said Chryst. “Publicly, the dominant measure should be graduation.”

After all, isn’t poor graduation numbers what spurred this whole academic reform movement in the first place? It’s hard to remember much uproar about Temple football players flunking out last year. Cincinnati basketball’s poor graduation rate under Bob Huggins, on the other hand, became a national symbol for big-time athletics gone awry.

The cynic in me (the majority of “me”) sees most of the APR and the GSR stuff as just the latest variation for schools and the NCAA to provide cover from claims that when it comes to big time college sports: winning comes first and cash is a close second.