History goes to Cincy but recent Tourney Success and Attendance leans to Xavier.

Which BB program in SW Ohio is the Alpha Dog?

From the outside looking in, I see them as equals.

Are you talking who has the largest presence in Southwest Ohio? It is Cincinnati by a mile. UC has over 250,000 living alumni and Xavier is a small private university. UC is also the largest employer in the region.

Last year they played the Crosstown Shootout (renamed Crosstown Classic but will always be the Shootout) downtown at a "neutral" site. The crowd was overwhelmingly UC. Plans are for the game to be hosted there in the future but XU wants the game moved because they know it is basically a UC home game.

Cincy personally, though its lost something since Huggy Bear left

Xavier has averaged more fans for the last seven or eight years. Possibly longer, but I have only ever looked back at attendance since the new, err old, Big East was formed in 2005. Food for thought

(08-15-2013 09:29 AM)TexanMark Wrote:  History goes to Cincy but recent Tourney Success and Attendance leans to Xavier.

Which BB program in SW Ohio is the Alpha Dog?

X has a nice program, but relative to fans and media attention this is
a UC market. Although Butler has had some incredible success, Indy
is overwhelmingly IU, Purdue, then ND. Father Graham has told Mack that
he can't bring in any trouble makers.

trying to take the objective view here... and speaking only basketball ...regarding who owns the city .


I would say during the Huggins era is was 80/20 - UC

After Nancy Zimpher president came into UC to "clean house" and in the terrible manner it was handled ... in the 5 years following ... id say 60/40 Xavier

In the UC rebuilding era of Mick Cronin , I feel it has slowly and steadily swung back the other way . Xavier has had many off court issues recently that has not shined too well in the media


Xavier's superiority in recent years attendance wise can be attributed to consistent success on the court and a relatively new arena , during a rebuilding period of UC basketball program.

Both are strong programs , and as much as we b*tch about each other , both are huge assets to the city and region.

(08-15-2013 09:50 AM)adcorbett Wrote:  Xavier has averaged more fans for the last seven or eight years. Possibly longer, but I have only ever looked back at attendance since the new, err old, Big East was formed in 2005. Food for thought

If we had their arena it would help. Attendance is pretty close, I think we averaged 8,500 and X 10,000? We probably average 11,000-12,000 for conference games.

i love this rivalry.

cincy fans used to torment xavier fans because they were big east & X was not.

one 180 degree turn later.......

(08-15-2013 10:02 AM)SuperFlyBCat Wrote:  

(08-15-2013 09:50 AM)adcorbett Wrote:  Xavier has averaged more fans for the last seven or eight years. Possibly longer, but I have only ever looked back at attendance since the new, err old, Big East was formed in 2005. Food for thought

If we had their arena it would help. Attendance is pretty close, I think we averaged 8,500 and X 10,000? We probably average 11,000-12,000 for conference games.

for the 12-13 season...

43. Xavier 9,781
48. UC 9,253

(08-15-2013 10:05 AM)john01992 Wrote:  i love this rivalry.

cincy fans used to torment xavier fans because they were big east & X was not.

one 180 degree turn later.......

New Big East minus Louisville, Pitt, WVU, Cincy, Cuse, UConn etc., isn't the same. Still a good conference though. I am a Cincy fan and we don't torment any other fan base, most certainly we did not torment or brag entering the Big East because our former pres imposed a death penalty and the team was not good for years. If anything their fans tried to torment us.

(08-15-2013 10:08 AM)Bearcat2012 Wrote:  

(08-15-2013 10:02 AM)SuperFlyBCat Wrote:  

(08-15-2013 09:50 AM)adcorbett Wrote:  Xavier has averaged more fans for the last seven or eight years. Possibly longer, but I have only ever looked back at attendance since the new, err old, Big East was formed in 2005. Food for thought

If we had their arena it would help. Attendance is pretty close, I think we averaged 8,500 and X 10,000? We probably average 11,000-12,000 for conference games.

for the 12-13 season...

43. Xavier 9,781
48. UC 9,253

The gap has closed the last couple of years but they have lead nearly every year (I don't remember the numbers, put I had put them together a while back for something else). Also to my knowledge neither team averages a capacity crowd so arena size, at least now, is not the issue.

In and of itself it doesn't answer the question, but when one team leads in attendance in the same city every year for close to a decade, well it's hard to just write them off. That's all I am saying.

I say Cincy...see Cincy fans I don't hate you guys

(08-15-2013 10:24 AM)OldGoldnBlue Wrote:  I say Cincy...see Cincy fans I don't hate you guys

hey dont let the Xavier posters on here see that . Oh wait there are none.

Kinda reminds me hearing a sports talk radio host in town address the fact on why they never talk Xavier basketball much on the show... When he did there were no Xavier people that would call in .

(08-15-2013 10:08 AM)Bearcat2012 Wrote:  

(08-15-2013 10:02 AM)SuperFlyBCat Wrote:  

(08-15-2013 09:50 AM)adcorbett Wrote:  Xavier has averaged more fans for the last seven or eight years. Possibly longer, but I have only ever looked back at attendance since the new, err old, Big East was formed in 2005. Food for thought

If we had their arena it would help. Attendance is pretty close, I think we averaged 8,500 and X 10,000? We probably average 11,000-12,000 for conference games.

for the 12-13 season...

43. Xavier 9,781
48. UC 9,253

But X didn't have marquee programs coming in during the conference season like Cincy does over the past 10 years.

Cincinnati by a mile or more. X almost never heard from outside of the city most years until tournament time. Might change being in a higher profile conference now.

Both have great programs. XU is supported by a very loyal, but much smaller segment of Cincy. They do a great job of supporting their team. Their fans are basically XU alums and they love the Muskies as it is their only sport etc. UC is supported by their vast alums, enormous student body and the city of Cincinnati in general. UC also has Football and is very successful, so XU is not even part of the late Summer and Fall in the city. The city supports Basketball no less than in Lexington and Louisville it is just we happen to have two teams! We put on avg about 18 to 21k in seats
when both teams are playing at the same time. Many XU fans even support UC Football as much as we hate each other in BBALL... LOL

(08-15-2013 10:51 AM)TexanMark Wrote:  

(08-15-2013 10:08 AM)Bearcat2012 Wrote:  

(08-15-2013 10:02 AM)SuperFlyBCat Wrote:  

(08-15-2013 09:50 AM)adcorbett Wrote:  Xavier has averaged more fans for the last seven or eight years. Possibly longer, but I have only ever looked back at attendance since the new, err old, Big East was formed in 2005. Food for thought

If we had their arena it would help. Attendance is pretty close, I think we averaged 8,500 and X 10,000? We probably average 11,000-12,000 for conference games.

for the 12-13 season...

43. Xavier 9,781
48. UC 9,253

But X didn't have marquee programs coming in during the conference season like Cincy does over the past 10 years.

So what?

There is a reason why the home of both schools (700WLW) puts UC over XU when they have conflicting schedules. XU gets moved to a secondary station.

I had a WLW sales rep tell me once that they couldn't sell advertising to XU home games because "every XU fan in town is at the game." Says something to me... fan bases are nowhere close, but Zimpher really put a negative spin on UC basketball while she was here. It has taken a while to clean up the Huggins mess she created.

(08-15-2013 11:12 AM)Bearcat T Wrote:  Both have great programs. XU is supported by a very loyal, but much smaller segment of Cincy. They do a great job of supporting their team. Their fans are basically XU alums and they love the Muskies as it is their only sport etc. UC is supported by their vast alums, enormous student body and the city of Cincinnati in general. UC also has Football and is very successful, so XU is not even part of the late Summer and Fall in the city. The city supports Basketball no less than in Lexington and Louisville it is just we happen to have two teams! We put on avg about 18 to 21k in seats
when both teams are playing at the same time. Many XU fans even support UC Football as much as we hate each other in BBALL... LOL

It is actually quite funny. The Cincy Enquirer XU beat reporter tries to throw in the obligatory XU article in the Summer and Fall to try and keep them relevent.

The overall fan interest of the city is definately pro-UC. As it should be, because they are the larger University. But I will give credit where credit is due. The XU fan base is more loyal and will show up regardless of the opponent. Plus, you can't argue with head to head success. They definately have UC's number, and that includes during the Huggins years.

Someone mentioned the 180 degree on the conference. Carefull what you wish for. It's one thing to basically know you have a good chance of winning your rinky dink conference and ending up with a decent NCAA tourney seed because of it every year. It's quite another to have some real dog fights night in and night out in your own conference. UC has seen both sides of that fence.