Ohio St. v. Cincinnati

One of my favorite facts about the OSU Buckeyes is that they have not lost to a team from the state of Ohio since 1921, when they were beaten by . . . Oberlin.  Since then, they've gone undefeated against the rest of the state.  Of course, for much of that time they generally refused to play the rest of the state.  But they do have close to 50 wins against Ohio competition since that Oberlin defeat.

The Bucks don't play Cincinnati much at all.  They have an all-time record of 14-2 against the Bearcats.  UC lost three games in a row to OSU between 1893 and 1895, then beat the Bucks in 1896 and 1897.  Since then, they've only met 11 times, and OSU has won them all.  OSU and UC didn't meet at all from 1931 to 1999.  However, this will be their sixth meeting since then.

Of course, no reference to OSU and Cincinnati is complete without a discussion of one of the most dramatic rivalries in the history of college basketball.  In the late 1950's and early 1960's, OSU would not play UC in college hoops, even though the Bearcats had one of the best teams in the country -- due in part to their willingness to play African-Americans like Oscar Robertson, who weren't exactly welcome at schools like OSU and Kentucky.  In 1960, OSU won the NCAA championship with a loaded team featuring sophomores Jerry Lucas and John Havlichek.  Since those two guys were back for their junior and senior years, and since they're both Hall of Famers, the Buckeyes were in really good shape.  And sure enough, OSU returned to the national championship game in both 1961 and 1962.  But both times, Cincinnati was waiting for them -- and both times, Cincinnati beat the team that refused to play them in the regular season.

Anyway, the bookmakers have installed OSU as a 15 point favorite in a game where the over-under is 52.  That would imply a final score of something like 34-18 for the Buckeyes.  Given that UC beat UCLA 24-14 last week, that would be a solid outcome for OSU.