TicketsBEARCATS TO REOPEN FIFTH THIRD ARENA VS. BUCKEYES
By Bill Koch
GoBearcats.com
CINCINNATI – When Mark Berger, the basketball operations director at the University of Cincinnati, told head coach Mick Cronin that Ohio State might be interested in a home-and-home series with the Bearcats, Cronin was skeptical.
After years of pursuing a regular-season rivalry with the Buckeyes, Cronin had long since assumed it wasn't going to happen, no matter how much sense it makes.
"It's not like we call them every year and keep hearing no," Cronin said. "(Berger) came to me and said, 'An Ohio State guy called and asked if we'd be interested in playing them.' I said, 'You might want to check with him and make sure that he ran that up the flagpole first with their administration. But it was real and really it was easy."
UC announced Tuesday that the two biggest schools in the state will play a home-and-home series beginning with the 2018-19 season when Ohio State will be the Bearcats' opponent in the first game at the renovated Fifth Third Arena. UC will then return the favor the following season in Columbus. That game will also be the first of the season for both teams. Neither date has been set.
"It was their idea to have this game be like an opener," Cronin said. "I think it'll help early- season practice for both teams. Your players know, that hey, our first game is real. Our first game's not a buy game. I've been a part of that before and it does heighten your awareness with your preseason practice."
Next year's game will be the first between UC and Ohio State since March 22, 2012 when the Buckeyes beat the Bearcats, 81-66, in the NCAA Tournament's Sweet 16 in Boston. Before that, their last meeting was during Cronin's first year as UC's head coach on Dec. 16, 2006 in the John Wooden Tradition in Indianapolis. Ohio State, led by 7-foot All-American center Greg Oden, was ranked fourth nationally. The Buckeyes won, 72-50, over a UC program that was starting over under Cronin.
Overall, Ohio State holds a 6-4 edge over UC, but in the two biggest games of the series – the 1961 and 1962 national championship games – the Bearcats prevailed. They beat OSU, 70-65, in overtime in Kansas City in 1961 and 71-59 in Louisville in 1962. Both times Ohio State was the top-ranked team in the country. The only time UC and Ohio State have met on UC's campus was in 1920 when they played at Schmidlapp Gym. The Bearcats lost, 15-13.
After the '62 title game, the Buckeyes had steadfastly refused to play UC during the regular season until they met on a neutral court in 2006. But when Thad Matta was forced out at the end of last season as OSU's head coach and replaced by former Butler coach Chris Holtmann, the door swung open for a renewal of a rivalry that has lain mostly dormant for more 55 years. The seeds for this series might have been planted during the last two years when Holtmann was the head coach at Butler and scheduled a home-and-home series with UC.
"Chris and I have a good relationship," Cronin said. "We have a lot of respect for each other. We both believe that we run programs the way they're supposed to be run and we have respect for the way each other run our programs and what we stand for. So therefore you're willing to compete with that person in a series. It's common sense. I would think that Chris probably got in there and said this would be a good game. There's no shame if we lose to them."
When the 2006 game was scheduled to be played in Indianapolis, there was some optimism among UC officials that it would lead to a regular-season series.
"I'd like to play them home and home," Cronin said at the time. "Being part of the Wooden Tradition is an honor, but I don't understand why we haven't played in the regular season in 44 years."
But based on Matta's evasive answers in the days leading up to that game, it was obvious that he had no interest in scheduling UC.
"I'm not going to beat a dead horse," Cronin said. "From the comments the last few days, it's pretty clear they're not interested. They caught us when we were down. Cincinnati basketball has a great tradition and it has been quite successful since 1962. So if they don't want to play us, that's fine."
It took only 11 years for that to change.
"When it first came up, I said you don't have to ask me twice because I've always been a believer that it's the right thing to do for basketball in our state, for the fans, for the kids, for the schools, to have a healthy rivalry game between Cincinnati and Ohio State," Cronin said. "It just makes sense. Fortunately, Chris and everybody at Ohio State wanted to make it happen.
"There's been no change on our part. It's always been a game that's good for Ohio. You've got two top programs in the country, both state schools, the two biggest state schools in the state. They should play."
In the UC press release announcing the series, Holtmann was quoted as saying, "We have great respect for the UC program and Coach Cronin. The idea of challenging ourselves in the non-conference while also providing an attractive game for our collective fan bases certainly made sense to us. We understand the challenge of opening the season on the road vs. a high-caliber opponent with a younger team provides some risk, but we felt like it was the right decision at this time."
UC director of atheltics Mike Bohn said it will be a special game for UC fans.
"When you look at the history of Ohio State and Cincinnati basketball you begin to think of championship games and the big stage that that was on," Bohn said. "Anytime you have the ability to resurrect that type of history and that type of competitive nature, it's something that's important to the state among the two anchor institutions. It's a stage that the Bearcats like to play on and we're looking forward to it."
With the addition of Ohio State to the 2018-19 schedule, the Bearcats will have three marquee nonconference home games during their first season in their new arena. They'll also play UCLA and Xavier at Fifth Third.
"With the landscape of college basketball, if we want to get more of the spotlight on us, we all need to play big games against high-level opponents early in the season," Cronin said. "That's been my focus for the last couple of years since we haven't been in the Big East to get these type of games. We'll continue to work hard at it. The key is to get home-and-home games. It's a lot easier to get neutral. Home-and-home is tough to get.
"That's why this is great for both fan bases. You know, we ask both of our fan bases in the state to support us through season tickets. Well, you want to try to give season ticket holders some quality non-league games. I can promise our fans it's not something that we've just decided to try to do. We've continued to try to do that. To be able to get UCLA and then Ohio State, to have them both at home in the same year is gonna be a great thing for our fan base. The challenge is going to be to try to continue it."
Bill Koch covered UC athletics for 27 years – 15 at The Cincinnati Post and 12 at The Cincinnati Enquirer – before joining the staff of GoBearcats.com in January 2015.
By Bill Koch
GoBearcats.com
CINCINNATI – When Mark Berger, the basketball operations director at the University of Cincinnati, told head coach Mick Cronin that Ohio State might be interested in a home-and-home series with the Bearcats, Cronin was skeptical.
After years of pursuing a regular-season rivalry with the Buckeyes, Cronin had long since assumed it wasn't going to happen, no matter how much sense it makes.
"It's not like we call them every year and keep hearing no," Cronin said. "(Berger) came to me and said, 'An Ohio State guy called and asked if we'd be interested in playing them.' I said, 'You might want to check with him and make sure that he ran that up the flagpole first with their administration. But it was real and really it was easy."
UC announced Tuesday that the two biggest schools in the state will play a home-and-home series beginning with the 2018-19 season when Ohio State will be the Bearcats' opponent in the first game at the renovated Fifth Third Arena. UC will then return the favor the following season in Columbus. That game will also be the first of the season for both teams. Neither date has been set.
"It was their idea to have this game be like an opener," Cronin said. "I think it'll help early- season practice for both teams. Your players know, that hey, our first game is real. Our first game's not a buy game. I've been a part of that before and it does heighten your awareness with your preseason practice."
Next year's game will be the first between UC and Ohio State since March 22, 2012 when the Buckeyes beat the Bearcats, 81-66, in the NCAA Tournament's Sweet 16 in Boston. Before that, their last meeting was during Cronin's first year as UC's head coach on Dec. 16, 2006 in the John Wooden Tradition in Indianapolis. Ohio State, led by 7-foot All-American center Greg Oden, was ranked fourth nationally. The Buckeyes won, 72-50, over a UC program that was starting over under Cronin.
Overall, Ohio State holds a 6-4 edge over UC, but in the two biggest games of the series – the 1961 and 1962 national championship games – the Bearcats prevailed. They beat OSU, 70-65, in overtime in Kansas City in 1961 and 71-59 in Louisville in 1962. Both times Ohio State was the top-ranked team in the country. The only time UC and Ohio State have met on UC's campus was in 1920 when they played at Schmidlapp Gym. The Bearcats lost, 15-13.
After the '62 title game, the Buckeyes had steadfastly refused to play UC during the regular season until they met on a neutral court in 2006. But when Thad Matta was forced out at the end of last season as OSU's head coach and replaced by former Butler coach Chris Holtmann, the door swung open for a renewal of a rivalry that has lain mostly dormant for more 55 years. The seeds for this series might have been planted during the last two years when Holtmann was the head coach at Butler and scheduled a home-and-home series with UC.
"Chris and I have a good relationship," Cronin said. "We have a lot of respect for each other. We both believe that we run programs the way they're supposed to be run and we have respect for the way each other run our programs and what we stand for. So therefore you're willing to compete with that person in a series. It's common sense. I would think that Chris probably got in there and said this would be a good game. There's no shame if we lose to them."
When the 2006 game was scheduled to be played in Indianapolis, there was some optimism among UC officials that it would lead to a regular-season series.
"I'd like to play them home and home," Cronin said at the time. "Being part of the Wooden Tradition is an honor, but I don't understand why we haven't played in the regular season in 44 years."
But based on Matta's evasive answers in the days leading up to that game, it was obvious that he had no interest in scheduling UC.
"I'm not going to beat a dead horse," Cronin said. "From the comments the last few days, it's pretty clear they're not interested. They caught us when we were down. Cincinnati basketball has a great tradition and it has been quite successful since 1962. So if they don't want to play us, that's fine."
It took only 11 years for that to change.
"When it first came up, I said you don't have to ask me twice because I've always been a believer that it's the right thing to do for basketball in our state, for the fans, for the kids, for the schools, to have a healthy rivalry game between Cincinnati and Ohio State," Cronin said. "It just makes sense. Fortunately, Chris and everybody at Ohio State wanted to make it happen.
"There's been no change on our part. It's always been a game that's good for Ohio. You've got two top programs in the country, both state schools, the two biggest state schools in the state. They should play."
In the UC press release announcing the series, Holtmann was quoted as saying, "We have great respect for the UC program and Coach Cronin. The idea of challenging ourselves in the non-conference while also providing an attractive game for our collective fan bases certainly made sense to us. We understand the challenge of opening the season on the road vs. a high-caliber opponent with a younger team provides some risk, but we felt like it was the right decision at this time."
UC director of atheltics Mike Bohn said it will be a special game for UC fans.
"When you look at the history of Ohio State and Cincinnati basketball you begin to think of championship games and the big stage that that was on," Bohn said. "Anytime you have the ability to resurrect that type of history and that type of competitive nature, it's something that's important to the state among the two anchor institutions. It's a stage that the Bearcats like to play on and we're looking forward to it."
With the addition of Ohio State to the 2018-19 schedule, the Bearcats will have three marquee nonconference home games during their first season in their new arena. They'll also play UCLA and Xavier at Fifth Third.
"With the landscape of college basketball, if we want to get more of the spotlight on us, we all need to play big games against high-level opponents early in the season," Cronin said. "That's been my focus for the last couple of years since we haven't been in the Big East to get these type of games. We'll continue to work hard at it. The key is to get home-and-home games. It's a lot easier to get neutral. Home-and-home is tough to get.
"That's why this is great for both fan bases. You know, we ask both of our fan bases in the state to support us through season tickets. Well, you want to try to give season ticket holders some quality non-league games. I can promise our fans it's not something that we've just decided to try to do. We've continued to try to do that. To be able to get UCLA and then Ohio State, to have them both at home in the same year is gonna be a great thing for our fan base. The challenge is going to be to try to continue it."
Bill Koch covered UC athletics for 27 years – 15 at The Cincinnati Post and 12 at The Cincinnati Enquirer – before joining the staff of GoBearcats.com in January 2015.