COLUMBUS, Ohio - Soon after Ohio State's tip against Cincinnati, former Ohio State basketball alum Jerry Lucas, who helped lead the Buckeyes to their only NCAA championship in their basketball program history and who's name hangs from the rafters of Value City Arena, was honored as part of the festivities for Ohio State's season opener.

Beyond Lucas' obviously impressive accomplishments at Ohio State and in the NBA, he has an interesting connection to Cincinnati from him time playing for Ohio State. As of Wednesday night's game, the Buckeyes and Bearcats have now played six games all-time with the Buckeyes holding a 4-2 edge in those games. The four wins have all come in the past few years dating back to 2006, but before that? Well, ask Jerry Lucas.

During his time at Ohio State, Lucas and the Buckeyes matched up twice against the Bearcats, both games in the NCAA title game, and both times Cincinnati came out on top. Lucas dropped 27 points in 1961, but after sustaining an injury prior to the 1962 title game and still insisting on playing, Lucas had only 11 points on 5-of-17 shooting in what would be his last collegiate appearance.

All this to say, even if these two teams haven't played very often, there is still a deep rivalry that spans generations, and after the game, Chris Holtmann was asked what he thought Lucas was thinking watching the Buckeyes beat Cincinnati 64-56 for the second consecutive year.

"It's a great question. I'd be curious to know because he's got a pretty impressive mind, those who know Jerry. I'd be curious to know. I know I got a couple calls and voicemails this week from guys that it does matter to them, so...and like we talked about, nine straight NCAA Tournaments, it's a really high quality program," Holtmann said. "I think they're in terrific position and shape with John leading the program now. Again, I don't know when this will continue, if it will continue, but I know that it looks they're a high quality program and their consistency speaks itself."

Beyond even the ticket sales and hype of a rivalry game, these types of non-conference games have helped Ohio State near the end of the season. Holtmann has said multiple times that early season wins last year over Cincinnati and Creighton ultimately decided the Buckeyes fate for their NCAA tournament status, so for a multitude of reasons, Holtmann would support continuing this series between Ohio State and Cincinnati.

"I think I do. I think it's good for us and good for both programs. Now, you know, people are also going to ask about Xavier and Dayton, that those are going to be the questions they're going to come up with," Holtmann said. "You're playing UC, why aren't you playing Xavier and Dayton? So, you know, scheduling is complicated. We've talked about that. But I think it'll be something we revisit. I'm sure."

While it would certainly require working through some red tape and poltiics, the idea of an Ohio Crossroads Classic is floated every year when discussing schedules for these Ohio teams that never seem to face each other. For the uninitiated, the Crossroads Classic is a yearly tournament featuring four Indiana schools - Indiana, Butler, Purdue and Notre Dame - who otherwise wouldn't see each other.

The Buckeyes haven't played Xavier since 2007, and the Dayton Flyers haven't been found on Ohio State's schedule since their NCAA tournament game in 2014, so it's been a while since a team has been able to establish bragging rights in the state of Ohio.

On the flip side, it would be understandable if Cincinnati head coach John Brannen didn't want to continue this series. Not only was this a tough loss for the Bearcats, but Cincinnati has now lost four consecutive games against the Buckeyes and have gone 0-2 in the recent home-and-home series.

Despite Wednesday's loss only being Brannen's first game coaching the Bearcats, he still acknolwedges the history between these two teams, though he may prefer moving it away from the first game of the season.

"I think it's a great rivalry. I think I'd love to play it," Brannen said. "I'm not sure we want to do it the first game of the year, I think Chris would probably second that. It's a tough challenge, doing it the first game."

With little movement yet to spur a matchup between Ohio State and Cincinnati for next season, it seems unlikely at this point that the two teams will meet in 2020, but given the positive reaction from fans, players and coaches, it would be surprising to not see this in-state rivalry come roaring back at some point in the future.