BASKETBALL Huggins assistant steps in at Cincy
Former YSU coach Dan Peters will replace the suspended coach.
STAFF/WIRE REPORTS
CINCINNATI -- Bob Huggins' top assistant was promoted Monday to take over the Cincinnati basketball program during the coach's indefinite suspension because of a drunken driving arrest.
Interim coach Dan Peters will "have total authority with no outside interference to run the basketball program," athletic director Bob Goin said in a statement.
Huggins was placed on indefinite, paid suspension Saturday following his arrest last Tuesday night.
At a news conference Monday, Goin praised Peters as a man of integrity.
"We're going to move forward," Goin said.
Peters, 49, coached at Youngstown State from 1993-99, compiling a career record of 78-87. His best season at YSU came in 1997-98, when the Penguins finished 20-9 and played in the Mid-Continent Conference tournament championship game.
Strong tradition
Peters has been on Huggins' staff the past five years, working the last two as associate head coach. He also spent three years on Huggins' staff at Walsh in the early 1980s and later was head coach at Walsh and St. Joseph's (Ind.) before taking the Youngstown State job.
"I plan to continue to build on the tradition of excellence that has been established here," Peters said. "We expect UC basketball having another banner season, one in which we compete for a conference championship and postseason play."
Peters said at the news conference that he was going to rely on help from others.
"We're going to ask everybody to do a little bit more," he said. "I think we all need to step forward, including our administration, to keep this program at the level that it's at."
Huggins' case is pending in mayor's court in suburban Fairfax. His lawyer, Richard Katz, said Monday that he was not sure if Huggins would attend a hearing scheduled for Wednesday.
UC also released a statement Monday saying that the school's investigation showed that no NCAA rules were violated in Huggins' visit with a recruit last Tuesday.
In the arrest report, an officer said that Huggins told officers that he had been talking to recruits and drank beer with a recruit's family.
UC said Monday that an investigation by its athletics department confirmed that all aspects of the recruit's visit occurred on campus and that all expenses for the visit were paid by the prospect's family as required by NCAA rules.
Huggins told Goin about his arrest two days later and also said that he wasn't recruiting.