Pep bands, cheerleaders and confetti. Spotlights, dancing mascots and dunkfests.
A festive custom at Kentucky, Maryland, Kansas and other traditional college basketball powers, “Midnight Madness” practices allow students an opportunity to watch the first practice and celebrate the prospects for another successful season.
Which is why it had been years since anybody had asked Kansas State players to stay up that late.
Bob Huggins, the newly hired taskmaster, has awakened a sleepy program. Old ways and low expectations have been discarded. On Oct. 13, the Bramlage Coliseum doors opened at 10:30 p.m. and an estimated 10,000 fans stampeded inside to salute the new coach.
Despite baggage filled with controversies that might have caused other athletic directors to run the other way, Kansas State made a heavy investment in Huggins, 53, to the tune of a five-year contract that starts this season with a base salary of $800,000. That does not include the $125,000 he will receive from the school’s Nike contract.
“It became apparent to me that, although there were risks, I felt like the risks were calculated and ones we needed to take, considering where we were with our basketball program,” KSU athletic director Tim Weiser said. “At Kansas State, you’re going to have to play that risk card a little more often than at other places.
“We don’t want to be irresponsible. But we maybe have to consider options that other people wouldn’t consider.”
Last week’s home opener drew the largest opening crowd at Bramlage, and Saturday night’s game against Tennessee Tech, even with students heading out for the Thanksgiving break, was a sellout.
“There’s no question Bob Huggins has rock-star status in the community,” said Casey Scott, Kansas State’s associate athletic director. “Things are different around here.”
Bar-hopping students in the Aggieville district of Manhattan, Kan., can be spotted wearing “Huggieville” T-shirts. All advance season tickets were gone by Nov. 2, guaranteeing a sellout (13,344) for every game for the first time since Bramlage opened in 1988.
“Bob Huggins has given Kansas State national attention and exposure,” KSU women’s basketball coach Deb Patterson said. “That helps all of us.”
Huggins, 569-199 in 24 seasons as a head coach, cautions that his first K-State team will be a work in progress and said recently that “right now we have a lot of enthusiastic guys running into each other.”
Anything short of immediate success will be a surprise, however.
Past practices
According to a report filed by the University of Cincinnati general counsel, 21 players or recruits faced legal issues during Huggins’ 16 years at Cincinnati. The Bearcats were placed on two years probation in 1998 for NCAA violations that included Ruben Patterson receiving extra benefits. Huggins’ contract at Cincinnati was not renewed after a 2004 drunken driving arrest. He accepted a $3.1 million buyout Aug. 24, 2005.
Weiser said he “got down and dirty with tough questions” for Huggins during the interview process.
“It was important for me to know how Bob reflected on those (controversies) in his past,” Weiser said. “I’ve learned over the years that some coaches in that situation are going to still believe it was somebody else’s fault. I wanted to be sure that Bob admitted the role that he did or did not play in those incidents.”
Before pulling the trigger on the hire, Weiser also spoke with NCAA officials about Huggins. There is nothing in Huggins’ contract that differs from other multiyear contracts with KSU coaches, Weiser said.
He’ll shake Manhattan
Huggins walks into a much better situation than those faced by most newly hired coaches. Former coach Jim Wooldridge did not leave the cupboard bare. Kansas State returns four starters from a team that went 15-13 and 6-10 in Big 12 Conference play last season. “Kansas State has a basketball tradition,” Scott said. “But it’s been dormant.”
Many believe that is about to change. Huggins averaged 24.9 victories in 16 seasons at Cincinnati and reached the NCAA Tournament 14 times. Since Huggins’ first season at Cincinnati (1989-90), Kansas State has averaged 14.9 wins and played in three NCAA Tournaments – the most recent in 1996.
“Bob is one of the few coaches in America who, from Maine to Montana, can take a coaching job and make that program successful almost instantly,” said Fran Fraschilla, ESPN college basketball analyst and former Division I head coach.
When asked if it will be difficult to coach and recruit in the shadow of superpower Kansas, Huggins told reporters: “We’re not going to concede anything to anybody.”
Within a couple of weeks of being hired last spring, Huggins nabbed three recruits, including 7-foot-3 Jason Bennett of Jacksonville, Fla. Bennett made some national top-50 recruiting lists, but that was just a start.
On Nov. 8, the first day of the early recruiting period, Huggins secured Rivals.com’s top-rated high school player, Michael Beasley, a 6-9 forward from Notre Dame Prep in Fitchburg, Mass. Beasley attended KSU’s “Madness in Manhattan” opening practice, where the crowd chanted his name.
Huggins also signed three guards during the early period, and before signing day announced that Bill Walker, a 6-6 forward who is ranked No. 6 nationally by Rivals.com., enrolled as a part-time student and will be eligible to play Dec. 16 as a midyear student.
Huggins said he is not a savior and should not be considered such. But he has a system and a plan. He hired assistant coaches who had recruiting ties in different parts of the country.
“I don’t deal with losing very well,” Huggins said. “So you work like crazy not to. My dad was a coach (in tiny Gnadenhutten, Ohio) and I don’t know anything else. We want to win. That’s kind of why you play.”
Instilling toughness
Kansas State senior Cartier Martin, a 6-7 forward who averaged 18 points last season, said Huggins’ practices are more intense than those conducted by Wooldridge.
“Expectations are higher,” Martin said.
With an in-your-face defensive mentality at one end and a quick-strike offense at the other, Huggins-coached teams tend to wear down opponents.
Huggins’ teams reflect his own toughness. After suffering a heart attack Sept. 28, 2003, Huggins returned to work in 14 days. Weiser said Huggins has a no-baloney, “football-like” mentality.
That has some K-State fans thinking long and hard. Huggins said a Kansas State alumnus questioned his hiring after Huggins addressed a meeting of the Catbackers booster club.
“He said, ‘Coach, I’d like to believe you. But I’ve been fooled before,”‘ Huggins said. “He’s right. Every new coach comes in and says he’s going to win and we’re going to be in the top 20. They all say that.
“I told the guy, ‘If you don’t get tickets now, you’re probably not going to get one. You might want to take a stab at it one more time,”‘ Huggins said.
Tom Kensler can be reached at 303-954-1280 or tkensler@denverpost.com.
