CINCINNATI SPORTS LAST WEEK

The Bearcats played in downtown Cincinnati on Wednesday night at the U.S.Bank Arena. The Notre Dame Fighting Irish and their faithful were in town. The Cats played one of their best games of the year against a Big East team that doesn't play much defense. The final was 93-83 with Deonta Vaughn scoring 34 and Larry Davis chipping in a career high 21 point. Cincy is now 15-8 on the year and 5-5 in the conference.

On Thursday night at the Cintas Center, Xavier played as good as they needed to against Temple and won 83-74. B.J. Raymond was the big gun again scoring 24 points. B.J. is consistently driving this team to victory. The ninth-ranked Muskies are now 20-2 on the season and 8-0 in the conference.

On Saturday at noon, the Bearcats were in the Washington D.C,. community of Georgetown for a rematch with the Hoyas. The Cats beat them in Cincinnati two weeks ago. This time was the game was similar to the first. It was very close all the way - so close it went into overtime. Cincinnati was tougher down the stretch and won 64-62. Strangely, neither team had a basket during the overtime period-free throws were the difference. Deonta Vaughn had 16 points for Cincinnati.

On Saturday evening, the Musketeers were in Pittsburgh for a matchup with the Dukes of Duquesne. This opponent hadn't beaten a top-ten-ranked team since 1992; hadn't beaten a ranked team since 1997; haven't been to the NCAA tournament since 1977; haven't had a winning season since 1994. I don't know how but they put a loss on Xavier 72-68 and did it without scoring a basket in the last seven minutes of the game. B.J. Raymond had 16 to pace the Muskies.

This off-season it is T. J. Houshmandzadeh that is making the talk show rounds and stirring up controversy. The Bengals breed this into their receivers.