Cincinnati's Huggins receives ultimatum

The university told the coach to ressign or he would be fired.

CINCINNATI -- Bob Huggins was ordered Tuesday to resign as Cincinnati's basketball coach or he'll be fired, the culmination of a power struggle with the school president.

In a letter faxed to his lawyer by the university, Huggins was given 24 hours to resign and accept a financial compensation package worth almost $3 million. If he doesn't respond by 2 p.m. today, he will be fired, the letter said.

The 51-year-old coach was traveling and had not seen the letter, lawyer Richard Katz said.

Athletic director Bob Goin, one of Huggins' most loyal supporters over the years, said he backed the decision.

"It's time for the university to move on," Goin said. "We've reached an impasse."

Huggins has won more games than any other coach at Cincinnati, but his tenure also has been marked by player arrests, poor graduation rates and NCAA rules violations that landed the school on probation.

His arrest for drunken driving last year upset new school president Nancy Zimpher. Huggins was placed on unpaid leave over the summer, but returned and coached last season, the Bearcats' last before moving into the Big East.

"Character counts," Zimpher said emphatically. "Our coaches must be exemplary role models on the court and off."

By dumping their head coach less than two months before the start of practice, the school put itself at a major disadvantage heading into one of the nation's toughest basketball conferences.

Cincinnati will have an interim coach in the inaugural season and mark on its reputation that could chase away recruits. Goin wanted to take a few days before picking an interim coach.

The basketball program could feel repercussions for years, but Zimpher said Huggins' removal would help the university in the long run. She noted that the school has been improving in national academic rankings.

"The only variable that we have stagnated on is our national reputation," Zimpher said, blaming the basketball program.

Earlier in Huggins' career, the program had one of the lowest graduation rates in the nation. It improved recently, but not enough to please Zimpher, who decided to take on a strong-willed coach accustomed to having things his way.

The school declined to invoke a roll-over provision in his contract that would have left Huggins with four years on his deal, making it easier to recruit. Katz has tried unsuccessfully to get the contract extended.

"We've been discussing with them for the last six or eight weeks an extension of the contract," Katz said. "It appeared he wasn't going to be able to fulfill the remaining two years of the contract because he couldn't recruit, he was running into obstacles at the university. It would not have been appropriate for that to continue."

The letter faxed to Katz on Tuesday was signed by the school's legal counsel, Zimpher, Goin and the chairman of the board of trustees.

The letter, obtained by The Associated Press through a Freedom of Information request, offered to keep Huggins in some other job until 2008, paying him $2.77 million over that time. He could have no hand in the basketball program.

If Huggins declines the offer, he will be fired, the letter said.

"I think we would both agree that these negotiations have gone on far too long," the letter said. "Mr. Huggins has clearly expressed, through you, his desire to move in another direction."

Zimpher notified Huggins last May that he would not get his contract automatically extended, as provided for in the deal. He was given the option of leaving or continuing to coach on the two-year deal.

He held a news conference to announce he was staying rather than informing the administration privately, a move that evidently drove the wedge deeper. The ultimatum sent on Tuesday referred to the May news conference, noting the university had to issue a statement "in light of the fact that coach Huggins chose to deal with contract issues through the media."

Huggins went 399-127 in 16 seasons at Cincinnati, rebuilding it into a nationally prominent program after years in disarray. His teams made 14 consecutive appearances in the NCAA tournament, and reached the Final Four in 1992.

The program also had a history of player arrests and infractions. The program went on two years' probation in 1998 after the NCAA concluded there was a lack of institutional control.

The relationship between Huggins and Zimpher was strained after he was arrested in June 2004 for drunken driving. The police videotape of Huggins staggering during his field sobriety test was shown nationally.

Huggins pleaded no contest to driving under the influence, attended a three-day intervention program, and was suspended without pay by the university for two months.

The Bearcats failed to win a league title in their final season in Conference USA, and lost in the second round of the NCAA tournament. After the season, freshman Roy Bright was dismissed from the team because he had a gun on campus.

Assistant coach Keith LeGree was arrested and charged with drunken driving, but was acquitted during a trial. He was reinstated as an assistant coach last month.