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Tue Jun 30, 2009 10:38 am EDT

Is Cincinnati going back to the future with its Stephenson recruitment?

By Chris Chase

As we detailed yesterday, the latest college rumored to be close to having Lance Stephenson torpedo any chance at success next year landing troubled prep star Lance Stephenson is the University of Cincinnati. That would be the same University of Cincinnati that sanctimoniously fired Bob Huggins, in part, because of the recruits he was bringing in.

Dick "Hoops" Weiss pointed out this hypocrisy on his Hoops on Campus blog:

We find it interesting that Cincinnati, which dumped highly successful Bob Huggins partly because it didn't approve of the recruits he was bringing in, is now seemingly so desperate to get back into the national spotlight, and is one of the last teams standing with this talented, but suddenly, sadly tainted star.

Cincinnati hasn't made the NCAA tournament since Bob Huggins was fired, so it was only a matter of time before they fled the moral high ground in an attempt to get back onto the college basketball radar.

Maybe this change of stance has to do with the fact that Nancy Zimpher, the school president who ran Huggins out of town, recently left the university to become the chancellor of the SUNY system in New York. Zimpher left on May 31. I can't imagine the timing of her departure and the announcement that Cincinnati is in the hunt for Stephenson are a coincidence.

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5 Comments

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  1. CincyFan
    1. Posted by CincyFan Tue Jun 30, 2009 11:49 am EDT

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    Bob Huggins got fired because of his DUI's. the recruits didn't help. but if he didn't get the DUI's, he would not of gotten fired
  2. bearcatmark
    2. Posted by bearcatmark Tue Jun 30, 2009 12:17 pm EDT

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    Huggins had 1 DUI and he was kept on for over a year after it. He got fired because the president was threatened by him and wanted to shape the program more in her own image.
  3. WingNut
    3. Posted by WingNut Tue Jun 30, 2009 12:19 pm EDT

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    The hypocrisy started when Cincy hired Mick Cronin. Murray State is the mid-major version of Cincinnati: thugs and lawlessness galore. Obviously Cronin's gonna have to step up his game and bring in even sketchier recruits if he wants to survive in Cincy.
  4. Shogun
    4. Posted by Shogun Thu Jul 02, 2009 9:10 am EDT

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    Dear god, let the BS Cincinnati hate begin. Now that we're inching our way back to the top, you get all of these punk sports writers who have to take their shots. Too bad there are about 100 other programs in the country with so-called "questionable" recruits, including such darlings as Kansas, Kentucky, Florida, UCLA, etc. If Stephenson would have gone to one of those schools everyone would be waiting in line to applaud the decision and tout the school and the player. In order to compete in the Big East, you have to recruit the best players in the country. You can't make the tournament recruiting all farm-bred, goody-two-shoes kids who excell academically. It's basketball, and even in the NCAA, it's a business. Get over it.
  5. Andy S
    5. Posted by Andy S Thu Jul 02, 2009 12:23 pm EDT

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    Bearcats seem to be taking lessons in "redemption" from Mikey Boy Brown. However, I hope Cronin can use this recruit to help UC reach the playoffs again.
    And in Zimpher's defense, she didn't help basketball any, but football improved drastically and the educational aspect of the school(which is more important for 99% of students at UC who don't play basketball) improved a lot as well.
    On the downside, football is building a massive $100+ million indoor facility, while track is cutting all scholarships because the athletic department(track costs about 388,000 a year to maintain).

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