I've wanted this to happen as long as I've wanted pigeons to start using shirtless joggers as target practice. Cincinnati President Nancy Zimpher finally turned Elliot Ness and had enough stones to muscle Bob Huggins out as head basketball coach of Cincinnati. Sure Huggins had a remarkable stretch in Cincinnati that included 14 straight trips to the NCAA Tournament and had been named Conference USA coach of the decade, but I am not the only one who felt the Bearcats would have been more comfortable playing in prison orange opposed to Cincinnati black.

The string of player problems at Cincinnati started with Huggins, and with this forced resignation Cincinnati hopes its image is recharged. It is not often that a university puts image and integrity in front of recognition and revenue, but Zimpher had decided it was finally time to trade in the two R's for the two I's.

Huggins has garnered support from an overwhelming majority of people in wake of his firing. Nick Lachey, who should be more concerned about buying the "See Jane Run" series for his wife, issued a statement claiming the firing was a mistake.

Dick Vitale called Huggins a blue-collar guy scraping to get along. But he failed to mention he got along by throwing the university's integrity under the bus by recruiting players who have been accused of everything from statutory rape to bringing a firearm on campus. Huggins' coaching resume wasn't freshened up by his graduation rate. Cincinnati had one of the lowest graduation rates in the nation in the 1990s, according to a Yahoo! news story.You can say all you want about Tom Crean, but when it comes to recruiting, personality goes hand in hand with athletic ability, and that is something to be admired.

Huggins' departure should start a trend of coaches losing their jobs because their win sheet is only matched by their players' rap sheet, looking first at Iowa's Steve Alford and Missouri's Quinn Snyder. Each has not come close to accumulating the number of wins or notoriety at his schools that Huggins amassed at Cincinnati, but it's important to intervene before the notoriety grows into something bigger.

Though Huggins is no longer at Cincinnati running the show, I'm sure that some other team a tier below Cincinnati's will take a good long look at him when they begin a search for a new head coach. The only thing that gets recycled more than college basketball coaches are "Fresh Prince" reruns. Second chances are a first nature of the job, but let's hope Huggins learned a lesson after losing his.

This article was published in The Marquette Tribune on September 1, 2005.