Cincinnati coach Bob Huggins is still in serious but stable condition Sunday after suffering a heart attack Saturday at the Pittsburgh International Airport, but his doctors are pleased with his progress.

Cincinnati sports information director Tom Hathaway said the news was good enough that athletics director Bob Goin was leaving Pittsburgh to return to Cincinnati Sunday. But it still could be three to four days before Huggins is cleared to travel back to Cincinnati from the Beaver Medical Center, about 24 miles northwest of Pittsburgh.

"He's still in a cardiac care ward and it was a serious heart episode,'' Hathaway said. "We're not out of the woods yet but we're seeing less branches.''

Huggins is conscious, alert and there were going to be attempts to have him sit up Sunday.

Dr. Lynne Wagoner, director of cardiac services at University of Cincinnati Hospital, said Huggins' doctors will have to determine the damage to his heart before they decide when he can return to Cincinnati.

Huggins was at the airport for a flight to Milwaukee for a coaching clinic.

"He was lucky he was where he was, not in the wilderness or on an airplane,'' Wagoner told reporters.

Wagoner said she understood that Huggins received treatment quickly, but said that his recovery period would still be a minimum of 4-to-6 weeks. She added that it would be three months or longer before it was determined if Huggins sustained any permanent heart damage.

Hathaway said it was premature to say if associate head coach Dan Peters, a longtime assistant of Huggins' and a former head coach at Youngstown State, would be named interim coach.

However, practice starts on Oct. 12 and no one is expecting Huggins to be conducting practice the first day. Peters would be the logical choice to be named interim coach since he has more experience than either Andy Kennedy or Keith LeGree.

Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.