Thursday, October 21, 1999

UC freshmen get crash course in the Huggins way

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BY MIKE DeCOURCY
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Freshman Kenny Satterfield. | ZOOM |

        All the hard work B.J. Grove did to get this far has only resulted in more hard work.

        He has been playing basketball with the Cincinnati Bearcats for almost a week, but the fun doesn't begin until the Nov. 20 opener against Youngstown State, with a couple of exhibition games beforehand. Until then, he'll run a lot. He may be ready for a marathon by the time the season arrives.

        “It's been a little harder than I expected,” said Grove, a 6-11 freshman center who qualified for freshman eligibility last month. “It's been kind of tough on me. It's all to make me better, though.”

        He is one of four UC freshmen getting their first dose of playing for coach Bob Huggins, along with guards Kenny Satterfield, DerMarr Johnson and Leonard Stokes. Their practices run three hours each day. Few fouls are called. The punishment for a lack of effort or execution in a drill by an individual or group is to run sets of four fullcourt sprints that must be completed in 22 seconds. Whoever doesn't beat the clock runs again.

        This is life as a Bearcat. It's nothing new to those who've been following UC in the decade since Huggins became head coach, but it's nothing the freshmen have seen before.

        “The toughest thing is staying focused,” said Grove, who was all-state as a senior at Pennsylvania's George Jr. Republic school. “Because coming out of high school, practices like this you can't even compare it to high school. We'd go 1¹/₂-2 hours then. And when you mess up now, you run. Like he says, "Pay me now or pay me later.'”

        Huggins turned up the intensity a bit in the early part of Wednesday afternoon's workout, directly after saying he hasn't been compelled to do much shouting because the players have been attentive and energetic.

        UC is making some strategic changes to its defensive approach — changes he'll not talk about for now — and that has put the veterans in the position of having to learn along with the freshmen.

        “It's a different look,” Huggins said, “so the other guys that are used to what we always did, they're struggling.”

        Learning the system has been, for Satterfield, the easiest adjustment. He said a lot of the plays are similar to those that were used by his team at New York's Rice High.

        Fortunately for them, unfortunately for the rest of the world, none of the freshmen has a story to tell of encountering the full Huggins experience. Satterfield insists he hasn't seen anything threatening in Huggins' practice demeanor.

        “He hasn't been going too crazy right now,” Satterfield said. “Everybody's been working hard, trying, so he really can't say much.”

        Huggins claims he unloaded pretty well on a veteran player earlier this week. Told the freshmen didn't report seeing anything frightening, Huggins said, “That's because it wasn't aimed at them.”

        The UC freshmen volunteered for this. Stokes said he wanted to play for a coach that will push him reach the limits of his ability.

        “I try to go as hard as I can every drill,” Stokes said. “Sometimes, there's going to be days when you want to slack off. If the coach is on you, you're not going to do it. That'll improve your game.”

        Stokes said the Bearcats' upperclassmen have been helpful in pointing out what the coaches are looking for in practice and what mistakes to avoid “so I don't get yelled at.”

        Grove became eligible after studying to achieve the minimum test score mandated by the NCAA. Not being officially cleared until early this month cost him the chance to participate fully in preseason conditioning.

        After his fourth full practice, Grove had a conversation with fifth-year senior Ryan Fletcher, who's spent more time in Huggins' practices — and probably more time on the wrong end of a Huggins harangue — than anyone on the roster. Grove asked the best way to get endure the physical and psychological demands.

        “He said he had it rougher than I did,” Grove said, “and while I'm on Huggs' good side, just stay there.”

       

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