Cincinnati coach Bob Huggins will probably have to change his diet, exercise regimen and sleeping pattern, but not his intense coaching style once he decides, or for that matter, is allowed to go back to coaching major Division I college basketball sometime this season or next.

At least that's the advice of Utah's Rick Majerus, Miami's Charlie Coles, former Fresno State and UNLV coach Jerry Tarkanian and former Pepperdine, Fresno State and New Mexico coach Gary Colson. All of them had some sort of serious heart procedures during their coaching careers and none of them claim they dramatically altered the way they coach.

	Utah's Rick Majerus changed his lifestyle, not his coaching style, after heart troubles.

But they had to do something differently to avoid being back on the operating table or to simply save their life.

"You can't change who you are on the floor, though,'' Coles said. "It would be no fun. That's who Bob Huggins is.''

Huggins is known to rage when he is upset with a call or a player's poor decision. But that wasn't the direct cause of his heart attack Saturday. He was simply in the Pittsburgh airport waiting for a flight to Milwaukee and had chest pains. The exact cause of why he had a 90 percent blocked artery isn't known yet. His father had a heart attack before he was 40, so genetics could have played a role. But the reality is the 49-year-old Huggins will have to make some personal changes before he returns to the Cincinnati bench, whenever his doctors clear him.

"I never changed the way I coached, but you need to change the way you eat, drink, live and exercise,'' said Majerus, who 13 years ago had a total of seven bypasses performed prior to his first season. "The first thing you need is quality medical care and a great cardiologist and surgeon. Bob had a heart attack. I never had a heart attack. Once that happens there can be irreparable damage done to your heart. You can have a genetic predisposition that affects your heart, too. And you can't govern that.

"But you can't smoke, you've got to eat well and late at night you have to choose the salad instead of the pizza,'' said Majerus who battles his weight and food choice issues throughout the season. "You've got to exercise every day. The stress of your job can be good for you. The stress of my mother's situation (when she was diagnosed with cancer two seasons ago) affected me more than my health and that's the reason why I quit for the season.''

Majerus said he never thinks about not getting angry during a game because of his heart condition. But he has altered his lifestyle, choosing to take plenty of vacations. The recruiting contact period ends this weekend and Majerus is heading off to Hawaii for a week before practice starts Oct. 12. He's going body surfing and ensuring he gets in his down time before the stress of coaching starts.

"You've got to know your own body, your own heart,'' said Majerus, who was 40 when he had the heart surgery. "The biggest adjustment for Bob will be lifestyle things and allocating time for exercise every day. You can govern smoking and drinking but you can't govern your genetic makeup.''

Majerus said Huggins wouldn't enjoy life as much if he had to cut out yelling or coaching the way he wants to on the sideline. He said Huggins should cut out the clinics and extra stuff with boosters that can be physically draining.

"I would take time off right now and wouldn't do one thing until the season starts,'' Majerus said. "He'll be fine. Huggins is mentally and physically a tough guy. He loves the game.''

But everyone's approach to their heart procedure varies, of course depending on the severity and how scared they were when it happened. Coles said he should have stopped coaching for the season when he suffered a heart attack prior to the 1985-86 season at Central Michigan. Coles went in for an angioplasty but then suffered a heart attack at the hospital. He went home and five weeks later on Nov. 25, 1985, he had bypass surgery. His first game on the bench was Jan. 12, 1986.

"It was my first job but had I been a veteran, established coach I wouldn't have gone back so quick,'' Coles said. He then had another heart attack in 1998 when he fell during a game while coaching at Miami. He had no pulse and was in full cardiac arrest.

"They had to bring me back with the paddles and beat my chest,'' Coles said. "Off the court, I was just like all the other coaches, staying up late, watching tape. Then I found out you can watch tape all day and go to bed at night.''

	“	You've got to know your own body, your own heart. The biggest adjustment for Bob will be lifestyle things and allocating time for exercise every day. You can govern smoking and drinking but you can't govern your genetic makeup. ”
		— Utah coach Rick Majerus

Coles said the RedHawks practice in the morning and he's in bed by 8 p.m. on most nights.

"If I feel tired, I go to bed,'' said Coles, 60. "I'd rather be well rested. I'll have a drink but I've never smoked. I won't eat fried foods and hadn't eaten a hamburger since 1985. And I exercise, exercise, exercise. From what I know, I don't see why Bob wouldn't be back on the court.''

Tarkanian never had a heart attack but had a balloon put in to open up an artery and then had a stent put in to clear up a blockage within the first two years of his tenure at Fresno State.

"I changed my diet but I wasn't as intense here as I was at Vegas anyway,'' Tarkanian said. "But Bob isn't going to change his coaching. I'm sure he'll look at life differently after being close to dying. He'll appreciate every day. He might not be as crazy as usual but he won't give up the intensity.''

Colson said he was accused of being a "duck on a pond,'' after he came back to coaching following his heart attack in 1977 while he was at Pepperdine.

"But underneath the waters that wasn't true,'' said Colson, who continued to coach until 1995 at Pepperdine, New Mexico, assisting at Cal and then at Fresno State before Tark.

"It was a blessing since I wasn't eating the right foods,'' said Colson, who is a special assistant to Jerry West, the Memphis Grizzlies president of basketball operations. "I worked out every day, ran and played tennis and the doctors said my conditioning helped me recover. I was always intense inward, even though outwardly it didn't show that way.''

Colson said he changed a bit, but mostly with his diet and his outlook on life.

"I was single at the time and always eating fast food, junk food and never having a good home cooked meal,'' Colson said. "It's 2002 and I'm living proof that you can turn around your health and live well.''

Colson said Huggins should get the proper rest, think positively and read all he can about the heart.

Huggins will be faced with all these decisions in the coming weeks once he's released from the hospital. It will ultimately be up to him how he responds to this life-threatening incident, this life changing moment. He can still coach, these coaches are living proof that he can go on and be just as intense. Whether or not his off-court lifestyle will be able to mirror his sideline demeanor is still up for discussion. But these four coaches say he can't run himself ragged anymore.

Andy Katz is a senior writer at ESPN.com.