CINCINNATI (AP) – Cincinnati basketball coach Bob Huggins was arrested on a drunken driving charge after he visited recruits this week in an eastside suburb.

Huggins had slurred speech and there was vomit on the driver’s door when he was stopped in the village of Fairfax, the police report said.

He was arrested after he failed a sobriety test, police said. His wife came to the pick him up from the police station.

Huggins was scheduled to appear Friday evening in court in Fairfax. Police Chief Rick Patterson said it was Huggins’ first offense. He could be fined and sentenced to three days in jail. The university declined comment until Saturday morning.

, when athletic director Bob Goin will hold a news conference. Huggins’ lawyer didn’t immediately return a phone message.

His arrest is the latest black mark on a program that has been trying to get beyond a series of player arrests and NCAA rules violations in the 1990s that led to probation and a loss of basketball scholarships.

Huggins, 50, had a massive heart attack less than two years ago but didn’t miss any time coaching the team. The Bearcats went 26-7 last season, won a share of Conference USA’s regular season title and lost to Illinois in the second round of the NCAA tournament.

He was put on a diet and lost weight after the heart attack, which occurred while he was recruiting in Pennsylvania on Sept. 28, 2002. Huggins gained back some weight last season, when he said the most enduring change in his routine was that he got more sleep.

When officers pulled Huggins’ car over at 11:35 p.m. Tuesday night, he said, “Don’t do this to me,” but was cooperative, according to the report by Sgt. Jeff Bronson and two other officers.

Officers said Huggins told them he was on his way home after talking to recruits and had a “couple” of beers. He denied that he was under the influence of alcohol.

The report said Huggins was stopped because his car was straying out of its lane, and he sat at a light for 10 seconds after it turned green. Officers noticed vomit on the inside of the driver’s side door and reported a strong smell of alcohol, prompting them to administer the field test.

Huggins had slurred speech and red, watery eyes, the report said. Officers said he “staggered” out of the car and couldn’t keep his balance during the sobriety test.

Asked to recite the alphabet from the letter “E” through “P,” Huggins said, “E, F, G, H, I, K, L, N, Z,” according to the police report. Asked to count backward from 67 to 54, he counted from 62 to 52, the report said.

Officers tried to give a breath analyzer test, but Huggins couldn’t complete it, the report said.

AP-ES-06-11-04 1655EDT