Some games just need to be played, even though they are not on anything remotely resembling a regular basis. There are some teams who only ever seem to meet in tournaments, but could easily do so on each other’s campus.
Cincinnati and Ohio State fit that one. Even though both have arch rivals, these two schools are just 110 miles apart. Each has plenty of great history. Yet over the last 97 years, they have only played four times, all in tournaments. Then came last night.
Cincinnati re-opened a renovated Fifth Third Arena against the Buckeyes, and they opened up by getting the crowd going with a pregame that featured former Bearcat Kenyon Martin going in for a dunk. That would be the high point of the night, however, as Ohio State would lead for most of the night and by as many as 16, holding off the Bearcats 64-56.
Interestingly, this is a matchup of two teams that are hard to peg this season. Cincinnati has been on a great run of late, with Mick Cronin and his staff doing great work. But this season will be a different challenge given significant personnel losses like leading scorer Jacob Evans, silent assassin Gary Clark and Kyle Washington. The cast beyond junior guard Jarron Cumberland, who had a game-high 22 points on Wednesday night, is what will determine how far this team goes. Ohio State watched Keita Bates-Diop head off to the NBA along with the departures of Jae’Sean Tate and Kam Williams. Like Cincinnati, they have a top-notch coach in Chris Holtmann.
In an era of conference realignment, where rivalries get ripped apart as one team in the rivalry changes conferences, we’re losing rivalry games. Some teams have done well to play old rivals; Syracuse and Georgetown still play, and the Orange have regularly played Villanova and now UConn, while a lesser-known rivalry continues as Northeastern and Boston University have opened the season nine years in a row. But we have also lost Kansas-Missouri, Texas-Texas A&M, and even other sensible games like Providence-UConn don’t happen.
Neutral sites are often nice, especially since they tend to be professional arenas and in theory make it easier for fans of both schools to get to the game and provide a great atmosphere. But there is nothing like being on campus with a packed house of fans.
Cincinnati and Ohio State finally met on campus for the first time in nearly a century on Wednesday. We can only hope there is more to come between them and other schools close by and on campus sites.
Side Dishes
In other game action of note, TCU was down by nine at the half against CSU Bakersfield, but rallied with a big second half to win 66-61, and the only overtime game of the night was a wild one. Bucknell showed that despite losing a great deal of winning experience and production, they won’t go away quietly, rallying from being down by 13 with 12 minutes left to beat St. Bonaventure 88-85 in overtime.
Of note, St. Bonaventure remains without their top returning player, as Courtney Stockard continues to recover from off-season surgery on his right knee. The senior forward is likely to be out a little longer.
Defending Ivy League champion Penn may have scored a nice win at George Mason on opening night, but there was also some bad news from the game. Just five minutes into the season, guard Ryan Betley ruptured the patella tendon and will miss the rest of the season. The junior averaged 14.3 points per game last season as their top perimeter scoring threat and acknowledged the injury on Twitter.
Tonight’s Menu
The pickings are a bit slim tonight, especially with 12 games involving a Division I school and a non-Division I opponent. A few games stand out among those with two Division I schools.
- The Chris Mack era begins at Louisville as the Cardinals host Nicholls (7 p.m.)
- UConn officially begins the Dan Hurley era with Morehead State coming to town (7 p.m.)
- A game that looks to be worth watching is Evansville traveling to Illinois (8 p.m.)
- A little further west, Utah hosts Maine (9 p.m.)
