Ohio State basketball will face Xavier in regular season for first time

The Ohio State basketball team will have their first matchup with Xavier in the regular season for the first time in school history.

Ohio State basketball fans have wanted more in-state matchups, especially with the premier teams in the state of Ohio. Fans have wanted the Buckeyes to play Dayton, Xavier, and Cincinnati. Ohio State played the Bearcats recently and will now play the Muskateers.

With the Gavitt Games schedule coming out, Ohio State will play Xavier in the regular season for the first time in school history. Despite residing in the same state and just 90 minutes from each other, these two programs have never played a basketball game that wasn’t in the NCAA Tournament.

Of course, everyone remembers the epic showdown in 2007 when the Buckeyes were on their National Championship Game run. After Justin Cage missed a free throw to make it a four-point game, Ron Lewis hit an epic shot to send it to overtime.

Once that Lewis shot went in, I had no doubt that the Buckeyes were going to beat Xavier. When a shot like that goes in, it’s just really hard for the other team to recover mentally. Ohio State ended up winning in overtime and marched to the national title game.

We can only hope that the game this year is half as good as the one back in 2007 was. Ohio State should have the better team but Xavier always fights hard and has a good team almost every year. It should still be a good matchup between two storied programs.

This is the type of matchup that should happen more often. Ohio State needs to schedule more in-state opponents that are close to their level in terms of skill. It’s good for basketball in Ohio and it’s good for the fans to watch. The players will love it too.

This is a game I can’t wait to watch. Basketball season will be here before you know it too.