CINCINNATI -- It is good to be home.
That's where the college basketball game belongs. It's where Cincinnati vs. Xavier belongs. The rivalry deserves to have its name -- The Crosstown Shootout -- back after two years of being rebranded as "The Crosstown Classic." Sorry, but Shootout works just fine for this game.
The Bearcats and Musketeers will play for the 82nd time in their history Wednesday night at Fifth Third Arena on the UC campus. For the last two seasons the game has been played downtown at U.S. Bank Arena. It was a compromise solution to a compromising situation after the game three seasons ago at Xavier's Cintas Center ended nine seconds short of the final buzzer sounding because of a brawl that happened in front of the UC bench.
Xavier won the game, 76-53. No one won the brawl, least of all the fans of the two programs. Maybe the timeout from campus was good. Maybe it taught everyone a lesson.
It's time for the game to be back on campus.
"I'm looking forward to getting the game back on campus because of the energy that the students bring," said Xavier athletic director Greg Christopher, who started talking with former UC counterpart Whit Babcock about bringing the game back to campus and finalized the deal with current UC AD Mike Bohn.
It won't be Christopher's supporters bringing the energy on Wednesday; there will be few wearing blue among the sellout crowd of more than 13,000 that will be inside Fifth Third Arena. That's the way this rivalry is supposed to be.
"It felt right to us from a departmental standpoint for both Xavier and Cincinnati and it felt right to our fans," said Christopher. "A big part of college athletics, period, and the fabric of college athletics is great rivalry games. Rivalry games are often dictated by geography, and this would be one of the best examples of that. This game is really the city of Cincinnati's game.
"For us, for both institutions, we're a vehicle of civic pride with this game and it's our responsibility to make sure it's done well for all involved."
****If multimedia does not appear click refresh****
Christopher was hired at Xavier in May 2013. He replaced Mike Bobinski, who left to take the AD job at Georgia Tech, just as Xavier was preparing to enter into the new configuration of the Big East. Bohn has been on the job at UC for just over one year, being hired on Feb. 6, 2014, to take over when Babcock left to take the AD job at Virginia Tech.
The two newcomers have been at the forefront of the return to campus.
"I anticipate a great environment," said Bohn, who previously was the AD at Colorado. "For the entire community it's very positive. It's an opportunity for us to do some good things and add some credibility to basketball in a mid-week game, a non-conference game late in the year, which is something many programs aspire to have."
There are only five players on the current rosters who were on the rosters on Dec. 10, 2011, and only two of them played. Xavier point guard Dee Davis was a backup to Tu Holloway. UC forward Jermaine Sanders was also coming off the bench. They each played two minutes, and neither had anything but zeros along their stat lines. UC junior forward Shaq Thomas was redshirting his freshman season.
UC center Octavius Ellis and guard Ge'Lawn Guyn (who is not playing now because of an injured finger) did manage to get themselves suspended because of their roles in the brawl. Ellis served a six-game suspension, while Guyn was suspended for one game.
The incident has been put in the past, although it remains a lesson.
"We're a couple of years away from the incident that happened the last time it was on campus," said UC associate head coach Larry Davis. "We addressed it. Any time there's an emotional game you have to deal with that adversity. We want to represent the University of Cincinnati the right way. Just like defense and rebounding, it's a foundation for us. Being Bearcats and representing your school the right way, and representing your family and yourself the right way, that's something we talk about not only this game but we try to talk about it all the time."
UC leads the overall series 49-32. The majority of the series has been played at an off-campus site, either downtown at U.S. Bank Arena or at the Cincinnati Gardens. Both programs played their home games off-campus for numerous years before building their current facilities. This will be the 12th time they've played at Fifth Third Arena, where UC holds a 7-4 advantage. The Bearcats won the last time the game was played there, 66-46 on Jan. 6, 2011.
"It's a college basketball game. It should be on a college campus," said Davis. "If we were moving it down there (U.S. Bank Arena) because we needed more seats, that would be one thing, but I think it's good because it belongs on a college campus. That's where it belongs."
