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Huggins is a proven success as a program-builder, recruiter, game strategist, and inspirational leader, and he is believed by fans to have demonstrated this in varying situations during his tenure at Cincinnati. He also has directed star-studded teams, while developing the individual talents of players such as consensus All-Americans [[Danny Fortson]], [[Kenyon Martin]], and [[Steve Logan]], to a succession of conference championships and NCAA tournament runs. Huggins has achieved similar success on the recruiting trails. He has attracted three No. 1-rated junior college players and five [[McDonald's All-American]]s, while six of his last nine recruiting classes have been ranked among the nation's top ten. Inheriting a team short on numbers upon his arrival at Cincinnati, Huggins coached that 1989-90 squad to a post-season tournament berth. Two seasons later, he assimilated the talents of four junior-college transfers and a smattering of seasoned veterans into a cohesive unit, which he directed to successive finishes in the [[Final Four]] and the [[Elite Eight]]. However, Huggins had mixed tournament success after those seasons. He led the Bearcats to the Elite Eight in [[1996 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1996]] and the Sweet 16 in [[2001 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|2001]], but in all other tournaments, his teams were bounced in the second round, frequently losing to much lower seeds. Some have pointed out that his [[1992 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1992]] trip to the [[Final Four]] was facilitated by a busted bracket; the top three seeds in the bracket all lost in the second round, and all of the teams the fourth-seeded Bearcats beat were seeded lower than they were.
Over the ensuing seasons, he developed young and inexperienced teams with as many as three freshmen starters into squads which captured two more league titles and made another pair of NCAA appearances. Huggins surprised some astute college basketball followers in 1997-98 by directing a team which had only one returning starter to a 27-6 record, conference regular season, and tournament titles, a No. 2 seed in the NCAA tournament and a Top-10 finish in the polls. The team was then upset by [[University of West Virginia|West Virginia]] in the tournament. Huggins' 2001-02 team, unranked when the season began, posted a 31-4 record, setting a U.C. mark for victories, made a clean sweep of the [[Conference USA]] regular season and tournament titles, and was a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament, where they lost in double overtime to No 8 seed [[University of California, Los Angeles|UCLA]]. In 2002-03, Huggins suffered a major heart attack on the last Saturday of September, but was present for the team's first practice two weeks later and coached the Bearcats with the same intensity that has become his trademark. Not surprisingly given the season's rocky start, the team qualified for the NCAA tournament only as an 8 seed, and were ousted in the first round by Gonzaga.
The 2003-04 season was business as usual for Huggins, who piloted U.C. to C-USA regular-season and tournament titles, and an NCAA tournament berth while amassing a 25-7 record. Despite a favorable draw -- the team was sent to nearby Columbus, OH, for the first two rounds of the tournament -- the Bearcats were mauled by the University of Illinois, losing by 24 points in the second round. The 2004-05 Bearcats posted a 25-8 ledger, the ninth season in the past ten years that U.C. has won 25 or more games. They received only a 7 seed in the tournament, however, and gave eventual Elite Eight participant Kentucky a spirited game before falling in the second round.
==Resignation==
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