CINCINNATI - Bob Huggins' days as the Cincinnati Bearcats' basketball coach are down to one. The volcanic coach who won more games than anyone else in Cincinnati history has been shown the door by an academically minded school president who doesn't like Huggins' history or philosophy.

Cincinnati basketball coach Bob Huggins, shown at a news conference, Monday, May 16, 2005, in Cincinnati, was ordered Tuesday to resign or be fired as basketball coach at the University of Cincinnati. (AP Photo/Tom Uhlman)

The university sent Huggins an ultimatum Tuesday, ordering him to resign as coach or be fired at 2 p.m. EDT Wednesday. Huggins was out of town when the ultimatum was faxed to his lawyer, giving him a 24-hour window to choose his exit.

Huggins returned to town Tuesday night, but didn't immediately make a decision.

School president Nancy Zimpher pointed to the history of poor graduation rates and player arrests during Huggins' 16-year stay at Cincinnati. Also, Huggins was convicted of drunken driving last year.

"We expect to recruit very strong students, both on the court and in the classroom," Zimpher said emphatically. "We expect our coaches to be role models, and we expect our students to be role models. I will not apologize for setting high standards."

Tensions between Huggins and Zimpher — two strong-willed people with conflicting views of athletics — have been building since Huggins' drunken driving conviction. The videotape of Huggins staggering through his field sobriety test was shown nationally, embarrassing the school.

The stakes escalated last May, when the school decided not to give Huggins an automatic contract extension. Without the roll-over provision, Huggins had only two years left, a lame-duck status that made it difficult to recruit.

Huggins' lawyer repeatedly approached the school about an extension this summer, but was rebuffed.

"We've been discussing with them for the last six or eight weeks an extension of the contract," lawyer Richard Katz said. "It appeared he wasn't going to be able to fulfill the remaining two years of the contract because he couldn't recruit, he was running into obstacles at the university. It would not have been appropriate for that to continue."

Zimpher was willing to let Huggins, 51, coach this season, the Bearcats' first in the Big East. She wasn't willing to give him anything more.

"It was in acknowledgment of his rich history here that we wanted to give him an opportunity to coach in the Big East and to have a wonderful sort of termination of his career at the University of Cincinnati," Zimpher said. "Obviously that didn't turn out to be a viable option for him, but I'm optimistic about the future of our program."

The short-term outlook is bleak.

By waiting until less than two months before the start of the season, Zimpher left the Bearcats in chaos for their move into one of the toughest basketball conferences in the country.

Athletic director Bob Goin hasn't decided who'll be the interim coach. Whoever takes the job will be handling players who came to Cincinnati to play for someone else. Recruits won't be interested in the school until a new coach is hired after the 2005-06 season.

The basketball program could feel repercussions for years, but Zimpher said Huggins' removal would help the university in the long run. She noted that the school has been improving in national academic rankings.

"The only variable that we have stagnated on is our national reputation," Zimpher said, blaming the basketball program.

Huggins went 399-127 in 16 seasons at Cincinnati, rebuilding it into a nationally prominent program after years in disarray. His teams made 14 consecutive appearances in the NCAA tournament, and reached the Final Four in 1992.

The program also had a history of player arrests and infractions. The program went on two years' probation in 1998 after the NCAA concluded there was a lack of institutional control.

Huggins' arrest for drunken driving was the low point. A teary Huggins apologized for failing the university, his players and fans, then returned after a two-month suspension over the summer.

The Bearcats failed to win a league title in their final season in Conference USA, and lost in the second round of the NCAA tournament. The program's problems multiplied after the season, when freshman Roy Bright was dismissed from the team because he had a gun on campus.

Assistant coach Keith LeGree also was arrested and charged with drunken driving, but was acquitted during a trial. He was reinstated as an assistant coach last month.

The university's board of trustees supported the decision to change coaches, as did Goin, who has been one of Huggins' most loyal supporters. Huggins has the option of staying with the university in some other role other than athletics, and the school is willing to pay him about $3 million as an accommodation.

"It's a day of change," Goin said. "It happens. I don't evaluate if it's good or bad. The time for change is here. There's been a lot of discussion with that, there's been a lot of wrestling with that.

"The truth is, the change is here and it's time to move forward."