It’s out there. In a week and a half, deposed Cinci coach Bob Huggins will see his “contract” with Cinci end. At that time, Huggins will be plotting his return to the college coaching ranks. Not necessarily in terms of angling for certain jobs — though he says he has been contacted by more than 5 schools already about the possibility. No, more disturbing, recruiting kids to join him.
McAlister asked Huggins if he had been doing any recruiting or had asked recruits to follow him to his next stop, wherever that might be.
“I haven’t discussed it with them, Huggins said. “In the next month or so, I probably will.”
Once he is free from the confines of his contract with UC, Huggins is not bound by any NCAA rules regarding contact with prospective players until or unless he is hired as a coach at another NCAA school.
McAlister asked him if he plans to increase recruiting efforts in December. Huggins said he would, adding that conventional recruiting rules would not apply to him.
“Pick them up, take them home from practice, feed them dinner,” Huggins said jokingly of what he would be allowed to do in recruiting.
After the interview with McAlister, however, Huggins said that doesn’t mean he’s going to put on a full-court press in recruiting such high-profile players as O.J. Mayo, the North College Hill junior who is the top-rated player nationally in the class of 2007.
Huggins said he hasn’t spoken with Mayo since Mayo made a campus visit to UC while Huggins was still coaching there.
Huggins said the likelihood of him getting commitments from several recruits while he doesn’t have a job is small.
“I don’t need to stockpile a bunch of guys to get a job,” Huggins said. “That ain’t me.”
Not to get the job, no. But to be able to jump in and win right away. Also the article reports that he called top recruit, now a Xavier signed commit Adrion Graves, at least once in November urging him not to sign. Instead wait until Huggins was hired next season and sign with him. Graves had intended to sign with Cinci and Huggins until the firing.
Just to point out the continued stupidity of the Cinci administration, by the way, the Huggins settlement back in August may lead to their VP for Legal Affairs suspended from the bar — once she is actually admitted.
In July, Monica Rimai became vice president for legal affairs and general counsel at the University of Cincinnati. But today, she’s simply known as “special assistant to the president.”
The distinction?
Rimai’s not licensed to practice law in Ohio. At least not yet.
UC spokesman Greg Hand said Rimai, formerly the chief legal counsel at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, is working to obtain her license through the Ohio Supreme Court. The process could take months, Hand said, as it did for Rimai’s predecessor, James Wesner, who retired this summer after 16 years as general counsel.
In the meantime, Rimai, who makes $167,000 a year, hasn’t been functioning as attorney for UC but has focused on the other aspects of her job, including risk management and licensing, Hand said. The legal work has gone to six licensed lawyers on staff as well as the outside firms with which UC contracts.
Rimai’s status and what she has done since coming to UC has stirred debate, especially this summer, when she negotiated on behalf of the university in its efforts to terminate the contract of men’s basketball coach Bob Huggins.
In letters to Huggins’ attorney this summer, Rimai called UC her “client,” referenced Ohio case law and signed off as “Monica Rimai, Vice President for Legal Affairs and General Counsel.”
Rimai, who did not return a call seeking comment, was acting as a negotiator, not a lawyer, Hand said.
Brilliant. That will be fun for her and the university to spin to the bar association. Another Cinci attorney who had worked for Huggins’ attorney in the past blogged on her activities and how it violated the ethics code.
It may seem like a technical violation — a lawyer not certified to practice in one state while actually certified in another — but bar associations take that very seriously. Not just for the ethics, but mainly because they like to maintain their controls and keep as many other lawyers out.
Anyways, what does this have to do with Pitt? How about potential Pitt recruit Herb Pope? Greg Doyel at Sportsline handicaps Pope and others who Huggins could be targeting.
Herb Pope: Pope, a 6-9 forward from the class of 2007, is a top-10 recruit and a likely McDonald’s All-American. When Huggins was at Cincinnati, Pope had the Bearcats among his favorite schools before committing in March to Pittsburgh. Five months later Pope backed off that commitment, and a source close to Pope says he is monitoring Huggins’ future. The connection is Pope’s AAU coach, J.O. Stright, founder of the Pittsburgh J.O.T.S. and one of Huggins’ closest friends. How close? When Huggins suffered a massive heart attack in September 2002, he called Stright. Stright called the paramedics. Odds of following Huggins: 75 percent.
The odds of Pope going to dinner at Stright’s one night and Huggins being there: near certainty.
Stright, for those who don’t know, goes back a long way with Huggins. Not sure when it started, but the relationship paid dividends starting back in 1991 when the two conspired with John Calipari on who would get what players off Stright’s AAU squad. Huggins wanted and got Fortson.
Stright was also the AAU coach who encouraged Pope to consider transferring to Arlington Country Day Prep School over this past summer.
Now as I said when he first announced, and again over the summer, I do not put a lot of stock on a verbal this early. It’s just too soon and too much is swirling around this kid. Do I want potentially the top player in the 2007 class coming to Pitt? Sure. Do I think it will happen, I have my doubts at this point. Regardless of being Freshman Safety Tommie Campbell’s cousin, this kid has a lot of other voices whispering in his ear.
