CINCINNATI -- Bob Huggins' condition improved Sunday, a day after the Cincinnati men's basketball coach suffered a heart attack at Pittsburgh International Airport during a recruiting trip.

Tom Hathaway, the university's assistant athletic director, said the 49-year-old Huggins was in serious but stable condition at Medical Center in Beaver, about 20 miles northwest of Pittsburgh.

	Bob Huggins had tests on his heart four years ago as a precaution, but there's a history of heart trouble in his family.

"He continues to make progress and the doctors are happy with the type of progress he's made this afternoon,'' Hathaway said.

Hathaway said Huggins was also supposed to sit up on Sunday.

Hospital spokesman Scott Monit deferred calls on Huggins' health to the university.

Doctors implanted a stent Saturday morning. The tiny, metal mesh device is designed to keep Huggins' once-clogged artery open.

Hathaway said Huggins could remain in Pennsylvania for several days before going back to Cincinnati.

"I don't know if he realizes how close he came to not being here," athletics director Bob Goin told the Cincinnati Enquirer in a story published Sunday.

Huggins' coaching status for the coming season is unclear.

"I don't think anybody knows yet," assistant coach Andy Kennedy told the Enquirer.

ESPN.com has learned that a family member at the hospital told Charlotte coach Bobby Lutz, who had called to check on his rival coach, that Huggins could be moved to Cincinnati once he becomes stable and more procedures on two other arteries could be done. But the other two arteries are not considered as critical at this juncture.

Huggins will remain in the hospital at least two days. Monit said future questions on Huggins' health were to be directed to University of Cincinnati spokesman Tom Hathaway.

"We're lucky and he's lucky," Goin told the Enquirer. "The situation that we're hoping for is to get him back up on his feet as soon as he can travel and get him back home to Cincinnati and get him under medical care there in Cincinnati. It's going to be a few days."

According to the newspaper, Cincinnati players were lifting weights and going through conditioning Saturday morning when they were summoned to the locker room.

Senior Leonard Stokes, for one, thought nothing of the meeting -- until associate head coach Dan Peters delivered the news.

"It was dead silent," Stokes told the Enquirer. "You could hear a pin drop. I can't even explain it -- my heart just dropped. We said a prayer and we all just left. Nobody could play after that.

"He taught us how to be warriors, and now we're pulling for him."

Huggins was at the airport for a flight to Milwaukee for a coaching clinic scheduled to include Maryland's Gary Williams and Oklahoma State's Eddie Sutton.

Monit didn't know the player Huggins was recruiting in the Pittsburgh area.

Huggins is known almost as much for his sideline temper as for turning Cincinnati into a perennial winner. He rages at his players' mistakes and at referees' calls that go against him.

He also has worried about having a heart attack. His father, a high school coach in northern Ohio, had one before the age of 40. Huggins had tests on his heart in 1998 as a precaution.

Cincinnati football coach Rick Minter, in Philadelphia for a game against Temple, was stunned when he received the news.

"He's what put the University of Cincinnati back on the map in the early '90s,'' Minter said. "We have the same work habits, same lifestyle. This could easily be me.''

The hard-driving Huggins was the third-youngest coach to get 500 wins in Division I. His career record is 500-172, including a 332-100 record in 13 seasons at Cincinnati.

The Bearcats have been ranked No. 1 several times during his tenure, but have made the Final Four just once. Cincinnati went 31-4 last season, losing to UCLA 105-101 in double overtime in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

In March, Huggins turned down a chance to coach West Virginia, his alma mater.

He came to Cincinnati before the 1989-90 season from Akron and immediately turned around a lagging program. He also became known for his antics during games -- throwing off his jacket, jumping while screaming at officials, berating players on the bench.

He became nationally prominent after leading the Bearcats to the 1992 Final Four by using a tenacious full-court press. He has turned down offers from two NBA teams -- the Miami Heat and Los Angeles Clippers -- and overtures from other universities to stay in Cincinnati.

The basketball program also has been characterized by a poor graduation rate and criminal charges against players during Huggins' tenure. The NCAA imposed wide-ranging penalties on the program in 1998 for lack of institutional control.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.