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Sports See other Sports Articles Title: UK beats UC!!!! On eve of showdown, the insults were flying NDIANAPOLIS - The long wait is over. Cincinnati fans get their chance tonight to see if their beloved Bearcats can knock big, bad Kentucky out of the NCAA Tournament. And Kentucky fans are eager to dispose of pesky UC on the way to yet another Sweet 16 appearance. It's more than a matchup between two successful college basketball programs. It's a showdown that fans in Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky have been clamoring for since the teams last played more than 14 years ago. The seventh-seeded Bearcats (25-7) face No. 2-seeded Kentucky (26-5) at 8:10 p.m. today at the RCA Dome in Indianapolis. The game was set up by the NCAA Tournament selection committee, which placed both teams in the same quarter of the 64-team bracket announced Sunday night. The teams, separated by roughly 85 miles, haven't played since 1990, making the game one of the most anticipated college basketball games in recent years in a region whose loyalty is generally divided by the Ohio River. Even though CBS moved the game to prime time because of its attraction to a nationwide audience, people outside the area don't realize how much this game means to fans in the region and how polarizing it can be. "The Civil War is still going on in parts of Kentucky," said Hyde Park resident Rick Hiatt, 33, a UC fan. "They hate anything from Ohio, and college basketball is not exempt." "Even (Thursday), sitting in a Mount Lookout watering hole, I could hear the blue-clad patrons rooting against UC. Their animosity is matched only by their arrogance, and I hate to hear it in my back yard." Further south, say Lexington, there is no debate about which team is the home team. But in Cincinnati, the clash between UK and UC pits friends, co-workers and in some cases family members against each other. "I don't like it," said Andy Furman, host of SportsTalk from 6 to 9 p.m. weeknights on WLW-AM. "It's divisive for the region because of the hatred between the fans coming from both sides. In UK fans' minds, UC has something to prove because UK fans have been, like: 'You can't come up to our throne. You can't touch us.' And then a UC fan calls up and goes right back at them. It has gotten ugly, and I don't think that's good." Even though the teams don't play each other in the regular season, a rivalry exists here about which team is No. 1 in fans' hearts. In Ohio, there's no question that the Bearcats rule, but cross the Brent Spence Bridge heading south, and suddenly, it's a whole new college-basketball world. "This is Wildcat country," said Major Taylor, 29, of Erlanger, who works at Builders FirstSource in Erlanger, where employees' loyalty is evenly divided between UK and UC. "No it ain't," fired back his older brother Darrell Taylor, 32, of Florence. "Bearcats all the way." The company is a virtual cross-section of the region, except that UC fans and UK fans are all in one place to snap back and forth at each other. They were gathered in the company's conference room this week, royal blue T-shirts clashing with red and black attire. The banter was all in good fun, but it flew passionately from fan to fan, with UK supporters mocking UC's early NCAA Tournament exits. UC rooters needled Kentucky fans by referencing painful memories of Christian Laettner and Eddie Sutton, unmentionables among Kentucky fans who value their team as if it's another family member. "A UK game is the only good reason Kentucky fans have to put in their teeth and put on shoes," said Dave Sharp, an executive account manager of Builders FirstSource wearing a Jason Maxiell jersey. "Yeah, and if UC fans want to watch a game, they have to put up bail and get out of jail," responded employee Ron Goins, an obvious UK fan. Johnny Gregory, a UK fan and brother of Darrell and Major Taylor chimed in, "They should print on UC's jerseys: 'There's always next year.' " Darrell doesn't care about next year, and neither does his co-worker Dan Hoffman. They want UC to win today for neighborhood bragging rights. Hoffman lives on a block full of UK fans in Latonia and would like to be able to hang out a UC flag in front of his house after a win today, even though he knows the chances of it staying there aren't good. "A UC win would be terrible for the neighborhood," said Hoffman, who claims his wife switched allegiances from UK to UC to maintain harmony in their relationship. "I'll tell you, though, every time I put a UC flag on the front door, it's gone the next day. I know it's the UK fans doing it." In Lexington, they understand why Cincinnati is so caught up in making today's game all about a rivalry, but they just don't care as much. Monday, the day after the brackets came out, most talk in Lexington centered on UK's first-round matchup with Eastern Kentucky, coached by former UK player Travis Ford. In Cincinnati, fans immediately fast-forwarded past the first-round games to the dream matchup of UK vs. UC. Outside Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky, UK fans would rather not play Cincinnati, Lexington sports radio talk-show host Jim Tirey of WLAP-AM said. "UK fans think there's no advantage to playing UC," Tirey said. "They see this game as more worrisome because of the kind of basketball that will be played, because Cincinnati plays so physical. ... Now, if Cincinnati wins, that might change UK fans' viewpoint that this is more about a rivalry." That's true, said Kris Morgan, a UK fan from Edgewood who said this game is big for the region, "but people in Lexington don't have a clue" about the intensity of the rivalry between UC and UK fans in Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky. One thing is for sure, Morgan said: Kentucky has far more to lose from today's game than UC. "Part of me is hesitant because we are the favorite," Morgan said. "And if we don't win, it looks really bad." That's what UC fans are hoping for. They'd love nothing more than to embarrass Kentucky on national television while advancing to the Sweet 16 at the same time. Even more high-profile UC fans, such as Cincinnati native Nick Lachey of MTV's "Newlyweds," appreciate the emotional stakes of today's matchup. Kentucky and its fans in the area have been highfalutin in their attitude toward the Bearcats for long enough, Lachey said. Today is payback time. "All of Cincinnati has waited for this game," Lachey said. "They have a certain air about Kentucky basketball where they feel like they're the superior ones in the region. "I feel like it's our chance to come out on national television and prove they're wrong." E-mail ddow@enquirer.com. Bill Koch and Shannon Russell contributed to this story. ********* I HAVE to gloat!!!
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