CINCINNATI (AP) – Bob Huggins’ top assistant was promoted Monday to take over the Cincinnati basketball program during the head coach’s indefinite suspension because of a drunken driving arrest.

Interim coach Dan Peters will “have total authority with no outside interference to run the basketball program,” athletic director Bob Goin said in a statement.

Huggins was placed on indefinite, paid suspension Saturday following his arrest last Tuesday night. The arrest report said Huggins failed a sobriety test and had vomit on the inside of his car.

At a news conference Monday afternoon, Goin praised Peters as a man of integrity.

“We’re going to move forward,” Goin said.

Huggins apologized over the weekend and promised to do whatever is asked of him so he can return to coaching. Goin declined to set a length for the suspension, saying Huggins could return once Goin feels he’s ready.

Goin equated Huggins’ suspension to a sabbatical that will give him time to examine his life. Huggins had a massive heart attack while recruiting 21 months ago and his mother died from cancer last year, but he has not taken any significant time off from coaching.

Peters, 49, has been on Huggins’ staff the past five years, working the last two as associate head coach. He also spent three years on Huggins’ staff at Walsh in the early 1980s and later was head coach at Walsh, St. Joseph’s (Ind.) and Youngstown State before being reunited with Huggins at Cincinnati.

“I plan to continue to build on the tradition of excellence that has been established here,” Peters said. “We expect UC basketball having another banner season, one in which we compete for a conference championship and postseason play.”

Peters said at the news conference that he was going to rely on help from others.

Huggins’ case is pending in mayor’s court in suburban Fairfax. His lawyer, Richard Katz, said Monday that he was not sure if Huggins would attend a hearing scheduled for Wednesday.

UC also released a statement Monday saying that the school’s investigation showed that no NCAA rules were violated in Huggins’ visit with a recruit last Tuesday.

In the arrest report, an officer said that Huggins told officers that he had been talking to recruits and drank beer with a recruit’s family.

UC said Monday that an investigation by its athletics department confirmed that all aspects of the recruit’s visit occurred on campus and that all expenses for the visit were paid by the prospect’s family as required by NCAA rules.

Huggins told Goin about his arrest two days later and also said that he wasn’t recruiting.