Huggs/Self golf article. Larger font = KSU talk Smaller = ku font
Huggs talk>>>>self
OVERLAND PARK, Kan. - New Kansas State basketball coach Bob Huggins took his first shots at Kansas coach Bill Self on Tuesday, but there wasn't a hoop in sight.
Just a whole lot of sand.
Huggins teamed with Kansas State alum Jim Colbert in a charity skins game against Self and Tom Watson at Nicklaus Golf Club at LionsGate, where the Champions Tour is playing the Greater Kansas City Golf Classic this weekend.
The typically demure Huggins, who drew the loudest ovations while uttering the fewest words, barely registered a smile until Colbert put him in the bunker for the second time in a row at the par-5 sixth hole.
Then, as he rifled through his bag looking for a club, he deadpanned, "I can't find any in there I'm comfortable with."
Colbert's reply: "Want to use one of mine?"
A gallery that stretched six-deep and halfway down most fairways turned out to see the two coaches, together for the first time since Huggins was introduced as Kansas State's coach on March 23. But both were upstaged by a third pairing of Dana Quigley and Royals Hall of Famer George Brett, who won the first eight holes and $16,000 for their charities.
"We're getting our clocks cleaned," Watson said as he walked toward the final hole, where Self won a chip-off by nearly dunking his shot from just off the green to take the final skin.
That Huggins even played was commendable.
Earlier in the week, he was so pained by a bad back that he called new football coach Ron Prince seeking an emergency replacement. But Prince said he was too busy with the Wildcats' summer football camps to make it, leaving Huggins to grimace and limp around the golf course.
"He should be at a chiropractor," Colbert said, before admitting he didn't have any excuses for his own sketchy play.
For their parts, Huggins and Self played the roles of amicable buddies. They bantered as they walked off the second tee box and shook hands before and after the round. At a news conference before the match, they took turns one-upping each other with praise.
"His job is to win games. My job is to win games," Self said. "His hiring has created a lot of interest and rightly so. There'll definitely be some added interest."
Self said Huggins will spice up a rivalry that has had little zest for more than a decade. Kansas State hasn't beaten the Jayhawks in Manhattan since Bramlage Coliseum opened in 1988, and until a 59-55 upset in Lawrence in January, had lost 31 straight in the series.
"You have to win once in a while before it's a rivalry," said Huggins. "We've kind of struggled to do that. When I went to Cincinnati, they talked about the Louisville rivalry. There wasn't a rivalry. They won all of them.
"Maybe to win one at home would be nice - that may start a rivalry. You gotta play for something."
Huggins said he caught plenty of Kansas basketball games on TV in his year out of coaching, and with a straight face, said he knows more about Self's Jayhawks than his own team. He has only had two workouts with the squad he inherited, and what little he has seen left him skeptical.
"After 15 minutes I brought them in and explained to them that if they kept it between the black lines and threw it to the guys in the same color shirt, things would go a little better," he said.
Help may be on the way.
In short order, Huggins secured one of the nation's top recruiting classes, including 7-foot-2 center Jason Bennett, and has given Wildcat fans a reason to be eager for autumn for something besides football.
But he faces an uphill battle against Self's squad, who went 25-8 last season and won the Big 12 championship with a team consisting mostly of freshmen and sophomores. Mario Chalmers, Brandon Rush and Julian Wright all return, and joining the Jayhawks' top seven scorers from a year ago are incoming freshmen Sherron Collins, Brady Morningstar and Darrell Arthur.
"We're pretty excited about the upcoming season," Self said. "We return a lot of guys and hopefully added a couple, three guys who can make our team better."
