The Big Blue Nation, as everyone knows, is a vast nation that spreads from coast to coast. It always amazes me how Big Blue Fans travel and how every neutral site game turns out to be a home game for the Cats. I recently spoke with Mo Egger, the afternoon show host on [URL=”http://www.homer247.com/pages/mo.html”]1530Homer in Cincinnati[/URL], and asked him to do an article on the effect of Kentucky basketball in Cincinnati; Kentucky fans in Cincinnati, if UK basketball is a hot topic on the radio, and if there would be interest of the Xavier or UC people wanting to play the Cats in a series. Go and check out his blog, especially if you like looking at hotties!!
By Mo Egger
Of all the markets UK has a large presence in, I’m not sure there’s a more unique area than Cincinnati. The city itself isn’t in Kentucky, and has two Division-1 programs of it’s own. But the Cincinnati metro area is made up of Boone, Bracken, Campbell, Gallatin, Grant, Kenton, and Pendleton County in Kentucky.
Roughly 500,000 people live in those counties. Those ain’t Bearcat fans. They’re not Muskie fans. They don’t bleed the scarlet and gray. Those are, without question, UK fans. It’s odd, in a large chunk of the Cincinnati metro area, it’s an oddity to see the colors of the “home” team when you go out anywhere.
They’re as passionate as the fans in Lexington, and as loyal and opinionated as the UK fans in other parts of the state, they just have to share. Kentucky fans don’t like to share.
What I’ve found, in this day and age, is that local UK fans go where they don’t have to share. It’s easy in 2010 to go the the Herald-Leader’s website, or stream Lexington radio stations, or read blogs like this one that cater specificially to them and provide exlcusive coverage of, and opinions on, their favorite team.
Thus, the volume of UK calls to talk radio has diminished. You’re not as likely to call the guy in Cincinnati as you are to call the guy in Lexington. The interest in the program, however, has not.
A UK/Cincinnati or UK/Xavier series would be incredible. It might not matter much to the people in Lexington, or around the state, but in our area few college basketball discussions end without someone comparing the programs. Just about every fan would like to consistently see those discussions and debates end on the scoreboard.
