To Cincinnati basketball fans, this is the most important game of the season. There are greater goals at stake for sure, a conference championship, a good seed in the NCAA tournament but for thousands of people in the area this is it. Many educated people attend undergraduate school at the University of Cincinnati and earn advanced degrees from Xavier University or vice versa.
Others have strong preferences that their next door neighbor may not share to them this game is for bragging rights and is mostly friendly.
I say mostly because there have been some ugly incidents on and off the court.
There have been fights between coaches after games. Cincinnati coach Bob Huggins and Xavier coach Peter Gillen had a shouting match during what should have been post game handshakes. There was a fight on the court in the 80's between Cincinati natives, Keith Stark of UC and Byron Larkin of Xavier. There was an ugly fight at Xavier several years ago. The last time the game was at Xavier's Cintas Center, Cincinnati coach Mick Cronin had harsh words for Xavier's J.P. Macura. Macura was defended vigorously by Xavier coach, Chris Mack. Ironically, the pair who grew up two miles apart in Cincinnati's northern suburbs were high school rivals. Cronin played at LaSalle and Mack competed for St. Xavier High School.
Cincinnati holds a 51-35 advantage but over the last 25 years the rivalry has been more competitive.
Since Xavier moved to the Cintas Center and Cincinnati played at the Shoemaker Center the teams are 16-16 on their home court. Cincinnati won on December 8 last year, 62-47 at UC, Cronin's last game of the series before moving on to coach at UCLA. New UC coach John Brannen will be in his first Crosstown meeting. Xavier coach Travis Steele will be in his second game of the rivalry as a head coach.
Xavier won four of the last six games and eight of the last 12.
This game tips off at 5:00 pm.
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