Xavier's path blocked by old foe Huggins

PHOENIX -- What is this, the Skyline Chili Crosstown Shootout?

It's Bob Huggins against Xavier all over again.

The Cincinnati-Xavier basketball rivalry could make USC-UCLA hoops look friendly, and now Huggins, the old nemesis, is sending his West Virginia team against Xavier in an NCAA West Regional semifinal.

"I'm sure a lot of Xavier fans are glad he's not coaching UC anymore because when he was there, they were a real hard team to beat," said Xavier forward C.J. Anderson, a Cincinnati native who remembers when Huggins prowled the sideline.

"That's like our version of North Carolina-Duke, or Ohio State-Michigan in football," Anderson said. "I've got people that like UC. I don't call them during that week. They don't call me. It's personal whenever we meet them, and Coach Huggins, he had a huge part in that."

This is not the same Xavier that Huggins used to do battle with when Pete Gillen and Skip Prosser were there.

Sean Miller is the coach now, and Huggins has known the 39-year-old former Pittsburgh point guard since the days Miller was a dribbling prodigy who appeared on "The Tonight Show" with Johnny Carson.

"I like Sean. I have known Sean pretty much his whole life," Huggins said. "I know his father John very, very well. John and my dad have been friends and coaching colleagues for 30, 35 years."

If it seems as though Cincinnati days were another life for Huggins, well, they sort of were.

He had a near-fatal heart attack in 2002, then was forced to resign at Cincinnati in 2005 after a controversy-filled tenure that included a drunk-driving arrest, NCAA rules violations and poor graduation rates in addition to three Elite Eights and the 1992 Final Four. He spent one year at Kansas State before leaving for West Virginia, his alma mater.

A changed man? Maybe not.

"It's like New Year's Eve," Huggins said. "You say, 'I'm not going to do this,' and about the third of January you are back to doing what you did before.

"I haven't really changed all that much. I mean, you know, I would like to sit here and tell you that I probably eat better, but look at me. That's obviously not the case."

He still rants and raves, and his heart attack, West Virginia center Jamie Smalligan said, is something he jokes about.

"Sometimes in one of his more fiery moments in practice, say, if somebody misses a block-out . . . he'll just say, 'I was dead on the floor for two minutes and I could block that guy out,' " Smalligan said.