OSU-Bearcats? It's time
By Larry Phillips
Gannett News Service
PERRYSVILLE -- Larry Siegfried knows the Ohio State-Cincinnati rivalry as few others do. He's played in it.
As a starter on an undefeated Buckeye team that fell to the Bearcats in the 1961 NCAA title tilt, the game cost him a second consecutive national championship. The following year, after Seigfried graduated, UC again beat Ohio State in the NCAA final, and the Buckeyes took their ball and went home for the next 44 years.
So, Siegfried, a former All-Ohioan at Shelby and All-American at Ohio State, understood the implications when in-formed the two would renew hostilities next season, Dec. 16, 2006, during the Wooden Tradition. The game will be played at a neutral site, Conseco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, and effectively end a 44-year Cold War. "When I was in school it was a rivalry, a big rivalry," Sieg-fried said. "Unfortunately, after we lost those two championships, I think it became an administrative thing. I don't know, maybe they were concerned about the fans not handling it right.
"It's not the same though. Without (Bob) Huggins down there, Cincinnati has its own problems. I don't know that beating them now will mean anything."
It would've meant everything to the Buckeyes had they been able to come up with a win in either the 1961 or 1962 NCAA championship games.
The first of those contests was played in Kansas City. It was Siegfried's senior year and Ohio State was undefeated and ranked No. 1 in the nation. They were heavily favored to stay that way when they ran into an inspired Bearcats team and dropped a stunning 72-65 overtime decision.
"Our club was in a fog, we just couldn't get untracked," Siegfried said. "They had everything to gain and nothing to lose.
"Ed Jucker was a good coach, a good tactician and some of the strategy moves he made took away our strengths."
According to Siegfried, one of those moves was stationing Cincinnati guard Ron Bonham on the perimeter to draw his defender, Ohio State's John Havlicek, away from the basket, where he was an excellent rebounder alongside Jerry Lucas.
"We had more talent, a lot of firepower. We had five guys that could shoot the basketball," Siegfried said of a team that featured himself, Lucas, Havlicek and Mel Nowell. "It's pretty tough when you go undefeated all that way, get to the finals and get beat at the end.
"That was a bad scene in Kansas City ... I sure would've liked to have played them again."
Siegfried graduated, but Lucas, Havlicek and Nowell returned the following year, along with Bob Knight and the rest of a talented senior class. The entire season was pointed at gaining revenge against the Bearcats.
It looked as though that script would play out, too. But when Lucas injured his knee in the NCAA semifinals, he was nowhere near normal form in the title game. As a result, the second-ranked Buckeyes were no match for top-ranked Cincinnati, and fell 71-59.
Since then the two schools have not been on speaking or playing terms when it comes to basketball.
"It became a turf war," Siegfried said. "Ohio State wants to be considered the top program in Ohio and when Huggins was down there, they didn't know if they could beat him.
"Now with these new kids they're getting from Indianapolis (7-0 center Greg Oden and 6-1 Mike Conley) they're ready to play them."
Siegfried said meeting Cincinnati won't be nearly as much fun without Huggins on the sidelines.
"It's kind of sad. If you're going to play somebody like that, you want them at their best," Siegfried said. "I don't think they're going to be at their best.
What would've been interesting would've been to play against Huggins."
A former Ohio State assistant, Huggins rejuvenated the struggling Bearcat program in the 1990s and turned UC into a national power.
Early in his tenure, the two programs competed for the signature of Cincinnati prep star Damon Flint. OSU won the recruiting battle, but lost the war when it was hit with NCAA violations involving his recruitment. Flint ended up in Cincinnati and many in Columbus believe it was Huggins who blew the whistle on the Buckeyes.
To this day he vehemently denies that charge. That stoked the fires of what had become a bitter non-rivalry. Former Ohio State athletic director Andy Geiger absolutely refused to schedule Cincinnati, claiming such a game would overshadow the Buckeyes' Big Ten schedule.
Still, it appeared the two would meet in the 1992 NCAA semifinals in Minneapolis. Unfortunately, the Buckeyes fell in overtime to Michigan, a team that dumped Cincinnati in the Final Four.
The scenario was repeated in 2000. It looked as though Ohio State would play the Bearcats in a Sweet 16 game in Texas. But No. 1-ranked UC lost center Kenyon Martin to an injury and dropped a second-round contest. Ohio State was upset by Miami (Fla.) on the same day and another chance was gone.
Since then, both schools have changed coaches. Jim O'Brien's lawsuit continues to drag on and Huggins, a born and bred Ohioan, was forced out this past offseason. Geiger is also out of the picture.
Hence, when the Wooden people came calling, Ohio State finally answered.
"It will be an important game," Siegfried said. "For recruiting, it's a turf war. But it would've been more interesting to play them at full strength."
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