By Michael Perry
The Cincinnati Enquirer

CHICAGO - Bob Huggins has dramatically improved his diet since his Sept.28 heart attack. He has, for now, stopped smoking cigars. He is exercising daily and getting more rest. But turning down requests to speak? That's a work in progress.

The University of Cincinnati basketball coach flew by private airplane to a Jimmy V Foundation dinner on Tuesday night in New York and to Conference USA Media Day on Sunday. They were his first trips since his heart attack.

"(UC athletic director Bob Goin) wanted me to do the private plane thing," Huggins said. "I could've flown commercial. That wouldn't have bothered me."

Huggins is scheduled to speak Wednesday night at the Colerain Boosters Stag and Thursday night at the Greater Cincinnati Hall of Fame induction banquet.

"I have a hard time saying no," he said. "The New York thing I thought I should do. I think what they do with the V Foundation is very important and certainly ESPN has been very good to us. The Colerain Stag, I made a commitment to do that like a year ago. It's not me (to back out). I'm going to do the Hall of Fame thing because I said I would do it."

Huggins, beginning his 14th season with the Bearcats, drew the biggest crowd of reporters Sunday at C-USA's Media Day.

He was the story of the day.

The interview session hadn't officially started when more than two dozen media members started camping out at the UC table.

Last year, the biggest crowd was around Louisville's Rick Pitino, then in his first year as the Cardinals' coach. Two years ago, it was John Calipari, Memphis' new coach, who stole the show.

"I'm going to have to take pretty good care of myself here for a while," Huggins told everyone listening. "My heart took a pretty big shot. And right now, there's a good portion of it that's not working (he declined to say what percentage). Hopefully, it comes back. But all I can do is do the things that they tell me to do and take my medication, and hopefully, it comes back. It's not dead. It's just not working right now. But that's very typical of what happens when you have a heart attack of the magnitude of the one that I had.

"I mean, it was a massive heart attack. They tell me 10 or 15 more minutes, I probably would've been dead."

Huggins said he drinks a glass of red wine each night ("The French don't have heart attacks").

He has had fast food once - it was chicken - and consumed no hamburgers.

He also follows advice provided in a letter from Wake Forest coach Skip Prosser's high school coach, who had a heart attack years ago and told Huggins to drink a glass of grape juice with breakfast, then have red wine and a hot pepper at dinner time.

"He has had no problems for like 25 years," Huggins said.

Huggins said he has friends who have tried to talk to him about taking a year off of coaching, but he has never considered it.

Utah coach Rick Majerus and former Fresno State and UNLV coach Jerry Tarkanian were among those who cautioned Huggins against returning too soon. You might recall, he was coaching his team two weeks after the heart attack.

"How does anybody know how I feel?" Huggins said. ".... I feel stronger every day.

"The day I got out of the hospital, (administrative coordinator) Renie (Heroux) said, `What are you going to do?' And I said, `Give me a little bit of time to see how I feel.' I wouldn't do it if I didn't feel I could do it. But I feel good.''

Huggins said he just has to carve out time for speaking engagements and other appearances the way he does for his treadmill workouts (three times a week) and his almost daily walks.

"I have days where I know I'm tired," Huggins said. "So I go home and get something to eat and watch a little TV and go to bed. I've gone to bed at 9:30.

"I haven't had a vacation in I don't how long. I haven't had a vacation with my kids, and I've got to do that - and not just for them. I've got to do it for me."

E-mail: mperry@enquirer.com