Bob Huggins and Good Writing

Huggs, in all his glory.I don't really know enough about college basketball to have a valid opinion on things like whether or not Bob Huggins is a good guy - or, as I'm inclined to believe, representative of the worst in college sports. Famously, his University of Cincinnati team sported a zero percent graduation rate. I'm not one who thinks that a coach has to get his kids through school - after all, he's giving them a scholarship so that they can take advantage of an education many otherwise wouldn't get - but zero is zero is zero. Plus, who says you need a comprehensive knowledge on something to have an opinion on it? Where would sports - or politics, for that matter - be if this were the case? So, I felt comfortable with my hasty assessment of Huggins.

Still, as much as I am inclined to NOT like Huggins, I absolutely love writer Joe Posnanski, who writes for Sports Illustrated and has an awesome blog. So when he posted a (typically) long post solely about "Huggs," I read it. And, like every piece of good writing, it made me question my beliefs on Huggins.

On the graduation rate, Posnanski writes this:

The zero graduation thing really chaps him — Huggins will insist that was a reflection of the flawed way the NCAA measures graduation rates, and he will quickly provide numerous statistics that show academic excellence among his players.

I'll buy it, I guess. I'm not crazy about the guy still ...but I love writers who challenge my thoughts and make me wonder whether I've gotten it right.

On the other hand, I still think John Calipari is a twit.