Tale of the Tape

Here is a brief history of the UK/OSU basketball series.

Kentucky leads 10-8 but the Bucks lead the more important category NCAA Tournament wins 5-0.

The last time they played in March of 1987 Dennis Hopson scored 32 to lead OSU over Rex Chapman, Ed Davender and the Cats 91-77.

On March 16, 1968 The Bucks beat the Cats 82-81 to advance to the Final Four. Dave Sorenson and Bill Hosket led the way over Dan Issel. Sorenson scored on a last second in bounds play for the victory.

In 1962 Jerry Lucas and John Havlicek led the Bucks to a 74-64 win.

In 1961 Lucas and Larry Siegfried led the way over Roger Newman and Bill Lickert 87-74.

In the first Tourney meeting, held in NYC in 1945, the Buckeyes won 45-37.


My Prediction for this one? I think UK will give Sullinger fits underneath and Diebler will have problems shooting over the top of the Cats defenders. But when the dust settles, and Sullinger fouls out, OSU will come out on top with a hard fought 67-61 victory.

The Reversible Fan's Conundrum

Merriam-Webster lists a definition of Conundrum as: an intricate and difficult problem.

Well that is what I have. I have been called the Reversible Fan by our friend in Indiana and I not only accept that nom de pleur but I like it.

For all of my life I have been a fan of the University of Kentucky basketball program. From Adolph Rupp's teams to Joe B. Hall and on to John Calipari I have been a Wildcat basketball fan. Period. End of Sentence. I write them on my brackets in the down years when they didn't make the tournament.

flashback to the fourth grade and my school had three visitors from the OSU Men's team and I had new heroes. And a secondary team.

But I always rooted for the Cats when the two went head-to-head. I was upset when OSU won 82-81 to go to the Final Four but rooted hard for the Buckeyes against North Carolina. They lost, stupid four corners, but rebounded to beat Elvin Hayes and Houston in the third place game. Most people don't remember that Houston lost both games that year to UCLA and the Bucks.

I was also one of the few who rooted for KY when they came to town to face the Clark Kellogg led Buckeyes in the early 80's. Overall the KY-OSU series is 10-8 in favor of the Blue. But the Buckeyes are 5-0 against the Cats in the tournament.

And come next week I will be sad when the game is over for one of my two are going down but not for long. And I will root hard for the survivor to win it all.