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Win vs. Kentucky Would Bolster Ohio State's Strong NCAA Resume

No. 5 Buckeyes face No. 6 Widcats in CBS Classic in Las Vegas

Bruce Hooley

Win vs. Kentucky Would Bolster Ohio State's Strong NCAA Resume
Win vs. Kentucky Would Bolster Ohio State's Strong NCAA Resume /

There has, of course, been the requisite film study and deep dive into personnel match-ups in advance of fifth-ranked Ohio State's 5:15 p.m. tip-off against No. 6 Kentucky Saturday in the CBS Sports Classic in Las Vegas.

But rest assured, OSU coach Chris Holtmann needed no advance scouting on the large shadow the Wildcats' program casts in college basketball, both now or in the past.

Holtmann grew up in Nicholsville, Ky., a 12-mile drive from Lexington, the epicenter of Big Blue Nation and all it's entailed as one of the sport's handful of consistently great programs of Holtmann's lifetime and surely the longest-enduring kingpin.

Duke, North Carolina, Louisville and UCLA belong in that group over the past 40 years, but none has the enduring excellence of Kentucky.

Holtmann could give a dissertation on that as a kid who grew up with a Rex Chapman poster on his wall, but he has more pressing matters at hand now with his Buckeyes trying for another impressive non-conference win.

OSU (10-1) bounced back from its only loss Sunday at Minnesota to defeat Southeast Missouri State on Tuesday, but UK (8-2) will present a much stiffer challenge in spite of a Wednesday loss to Utah.

Holtmann has never gone against Kentucky as a head coach in his stops at Gardner-Webb, Butler or Ohio State, but he's shown an ability already this season not to be deterred by the resume of a storied opponent.

The Buckeyes blew out Villanova (76-51) at home and North Carolina (74-49) on the road in games against the Big East's and ACC's annual national-championship aspirants, so a win over Kentucky would add another brick in OSU's already-solid NCAA Tournament resume.

"These are pretty big opportunities against big programs I've been watching on TV for a long time," freshman forward E.J. Liddell said. "...It's going to be fun. Everybody on the team is competitive. I love competition. That's why we're all looking forward to big games like Saturday."

This will be the 21st game in the OSU-Kentucky series with UK owning an 11-9 advantage.

Ohio State upset the No. 4 Wildcats in Brooklyn in December of 2015 in the CBS Sports Classic.

Kentucky's biggest upset in the series came in the NCAA East Regional semifinals in 2011, when OSU was the Tournament's No. 1 overall seed.

Brandon Knight's late shot in the lane lifted the Wildcats to a 62-60 win, giving Big Blue some measure of revenge for losses to Ohio State in the 1961, 1962 and 1968 Mideast Regionals.

"We want to play games like this,” Ohio State senior Andre Wesson said. “To be the best, you gotta beat the best, and over the years Kentucky has been one of the best programs.”

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Bruce Hooley
BRUCE HOOLEY

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