Cold war between OSU, Cincinnati thaws with basketball series
BySTEVE HELWAGEN 17 hours ago
7
College basketball fans across the state of Ohio have clamored forever for instate match-ups involving the state’s top programs.
Those fans will be thrilled to know the decades long cold war between Ohio State and Cincinnati has thawed. Those programs will square off in Wednesday’s season opener inside UC’s renovated Fifth Third Arena (6 p.m., ESPN2).
It will be the first on-campus match-up of the basketball teams from Ohio’s two largest universities since OSU hosted Cincinnati in 1921. OSU made its only all-time visit to UC in 1920.
The schools met on campus six times between 1905 and 1921. There were no meetings between the schools until 1961, when they met in the first of back-to-back national championship games.
Ohio State had won the national championship behind coach Fred Taylor and sophomores Jerry Lucas and John Havlicek in 1960. The Buckeyes were the No. 1 team going into the NCAA Tournament in each of the next two seasons. But No. 2 Cincinnati, behind coach Ed Jucker and center Paul Hogue, pulled out both victories for consecutive national titles.
UC outlasted OSU 70-65 to win the 1961 championship, which was played in Kansas City. In 1962, Cincinnati cruised to a 71-59 win in Louisville, Ky. Those two losses stand as two of the most bitter defeats in Ohio State basketball history.
For years, there were hopes that Ohio State and Cincinnati would play again. But various OSU athletic directors and coaches deflected the idea they would ever willingly play Cincinnati.
“We play a tough enough schedule in the Big Ten,” they would invariably say. “We have everything to lose and nothing to gain.”
The fires were stoked in the mid-1990s as Ohio State took a verbal commitment from Cincinnati Woodward guard Damon Flint. That recruitment went sideways, however, when one of head coach Randy Ayers’ assistants allegedly paid for Flint and his traveling companions to eat at an off-campus restaurant and also gave them OSU gym bags.
It was alleged that current Cincinnati coach Mick Cronin – then a Woodward assistant – may have been involved and/or helped report the incident to the NCAA. OSU went on probation and was ruled ineligible to sign Flint, who ultimately ended up at UC. Cronin, himself, became a video coordinator for then-head coach Bob Huggins.
The hard feelings thawed in the years that followed. The schools began playing each other regularly in football, beginning with a 1999 match-up in Columbus and a 2002 game played at Paul Brown Stadium in Cincinnati.
An Ohio State-Cincinnati match-up seemed fait accompli in the 2002 NCAA Tournament. They were lined up to play in the NCAA Sweet 16 in Oakland. But UC was upset by Tulsa and OSU fell to Miami (Fla.) in second-round match-ups in Nashville, Tenn.....
https://247sports.com/college/ohio-...y-with-opening-opponent-Cincinnati-124312542/
BySTEVE HELWAGEN 17 hours ago
7
College basketball fans across the state of Ohio have clamored forever for instate match-ups involving the state’s top programs.
Those fans will be thrilled to know the decades long cold war between Ohio State and Cincinnati has thawed. Those programs will square off in Wednesday’s season opener inside UC’s renovated Fifth Third Arena (6 p.m., ESPN2).
It will be the first on-campus match-up of the basketball teams from Ohio’s two largest universities since OSU hosted Cincinnati in 1921. OSU made its only all-time visit to UC in 1920.
The schools met on campus six times between 1905 and 1921. There were no meetings between the schools until 1961, when they met in the first of back-to-back national championship games.
Ohio State had won the national championship behind coach Fred Taylor and sophomores Jerry Lucas and John Havlicek in 1960. The Buckeyes were the No. 1 team going into the NCAA Tournament in each of the next two seasons. But No. 2 Cincinnati, behind coach Ed Jucker and center Paul Hogue, pulled out both victories for consecutive national titles.
UC outlasted OSU 70-65 to win the 1961 championship, which was played in Kansas City. In 1962, Cincinnati cruised to a 71-59 win in Louisville, Ky. Those two losses stand as two of the most bitter defeats in Ohio State basketball history.
For years, there were hopes that Ohio State and Cincinnati would play again. But various OSU athletic directors and coaches deflected the idea they would ever willingly play Cincinnati.
“We play a tough enough schedule in the Big Ten,” they would invariably say. “We have everything to lose and nothing to gain.”
The fires were stoked in the mid-1990s as Ohio State took a verbal commitment from Cincinnati Woodward guard Damon Flint. That recruitment went sideways, however, when one of head coach Randy Ayers’ assistants allegedly paid for Flint and his traveling companions to eat at an off-campus restaurant and also gave them OSU gym bags.
It was alleged that current Cincinnati coach Mick Cronin – then a Woodward assistant – may have been involved and/or helped report the incident to the NCAA. OSU went on probation and was ruled ineligible to sign Flint, who ultimately ended up at UC. Cronin, himself, became a video coordinator for then-head coach Bob Huggins.
The hard feelings thawed in the years that followed. The schools began playing each other regularly in football, beginning with a 1999 match-up in Columbus and a 2002 game played at Paul Brown Stadium in Cincinnati.
An Ohio State-Cincinnati match-up seemed fait accompli in the 2002 NCAA Tournament. They were lined up to play in the NCAA Sweet 16 in Oakland. But UC was upset by Tulsa and OSU fell to Miami (Fla.) in second-round match-ups in Nashville, Tenn.....
https://247sports.com/college/ohio-...y-with-opening-opponent-Cincinnati-124312542/
