Cincinnati is an habitual town, arguably even a stiff-necked, stodgy town. It is accustomed to having things a certain way:

1) There was, is and will be spaghetti in the chili. Don't question it, just eat it.
2) The Redlegs are America's oldest Major League baseball club, and will continue to play ball until the sport vanishes from the Earth.
3) The Bengals are the only football franchise immune to the sudden-success fever that has swept the NFL in the last decade, and seemingly will remain immune as long as Mike Brown is the boss. Which could be forever.
4) Xavier was, is and will be the underdog when it plays Cincinnati in one of America's most splendid college basketball rivalries.

	For the first time in his four years at Cincinnati, senior Leonard Stokes' team isn't favored to beat Xavier.

Um, wait a minute. This must be a disconcerting week for the creatures of habit in the Queen City. Certainty No. 4 has come unglued.

Saturday marks the 70th meeting between Xavier and Cincinnati. It marks just the third time out of 70 that the Musketeers have been ranked higher in the polls than the Bearcats.

What next? Pete Rose advocates the feet-first slide? Bob Huggins takes up smiling on the sidelines?

Since even before Oscar Robertson put on a Cincinnati uniform -- and averaged 35 points and 15 rebounds in his first year as a varsity Bearcat -- the public school has been the dominant basketball school. (Jack Twyman, anyone? Averaged nearly 25 points a game for the 1955 NIT champions, back when being NIT champs meant something.)

During one stretch, when Cincy was winning national titles, the huge commuter school beat the small Catholic school 22 times in 24 meetings. And even though X has managed to look UC in the eye for more than two decades now -- the Musketeers actually have won 12 of the last 23 games -- Huggins has managed to keep the Bearcats more nationally prominent.

Except for this year.

This year, X is the team generating national heat. X is the team starting the season in just about every top 10. X is the team with the All-American, David West.

Not even a Preseason NIT upset at Stanford -- the latest injustice done to a non-BCS conference school, sending Top 10 Xavier out west to play a Cardinal team not in the top 25 at the time -- has cost X the upper hand heading in. That's thanks largely to the fact that Cincy has wobbled out of the gate, creating headlines only because of the coach's near-death experience in late September.

The Bearcats are 3-1, but struggled past Tennessee Tech and Florida A&M before being whipped by Dayton. They showed some of their old ferocity in blasting Valparaiso Tuesday. That might be an indicator that they're ready for the fight Saturday, but their body of work to date makes them a legitimate underdog.

As if that matters in this game. And neither coach thinks it does.

"Unless you've been here, you can't understand," Huggins said. "It's like the Super Bowl of Cincinnati. For a day, it captivates the city."

Xavier coach Thad Matta found that out last year, his first at the school after coaching Butler. His Musketeers were gored by 20 points, their worst loss in the rivalry since 1965.

"I learned that this is a little bit more than your average game on the schedule. That is the thing I walked away with," Matta said. "You're driving to work, and that's all you hear about on the radio.

"I think when you go into this game, everything is out. Records are out. If we were both 0-4, I don't think it would change anything."

No, role reversal really shouldn't matter that much. In recent years, Cincy's big-dog status hasn't saved it from some memorable losses to X, including two upsets when ranked No. 1 in the country. So it likely won't be any great comfort to Xavier this year.

It won't keep West from being a marked man in the middle. He could be headed for an enticing head-to-head matchup with Cincinnati strongman/jumping jack Jason Maxiell -- if the coaches allow them to guard each other.

"I don't think they're going to have West anywhere near Max," Huggins said, momentarily a bit chesty. "Why would they?"

For the record, Matta was non-committal on matchups. But it would certainly be one of the more enticing athletic pairings of the early season.

After a slow start, the 6-foot-7, 235-pound Maxiell finally broke out a bit against Valpo, though Huggins would like to see him rebound better. He and wingman Leonard Stokes are the star-quality players for Cincy, as it transitions into Life After Steve Logan.

"They're just such good guys that sometimes they overdo things because they want to do things right," Huggins said of Maxiell and Stokes. "Sometimes they're trying too hard."

Their counterparts are West and Romain Sato, who are combining to average just under 38 points a game, but Xavier's edge might be senior point guard Lionel Chalmers. When Purdue went after Sato and held him without a field goal Tuesday, Chalmers (15 ppg) stepped up with 24 points.

"He's starting to come into his own," Matta said.

The Xavier program could be coming into its own, to the point that it has made Cincinnati the underdog in the Crosstown Shootout. We'll see whether that amounts to anything come Saturday.

Games of the Week

South Florida at Florida, Sunday The Bulls are hot, winning their first two games in decent fashion. The Gators are not, losing two of their last three. But you'd expect a reversal of fortunes here. South Alabama at Louisville, Saturday The latest branch on the Rick Pitino family tree is new Jaguars coach John Pelphrey, who was a veritable coach on the floor for Pitino at Kentucky and coached under Pitino protégé Billy Donovan at Marshall and Florida. Pelphrey would seem to have the makings of a great head coach someday, but not before he gets his red head handed to him by Rick on Saturday. South Carolina at N.C. State, Sunday Matchup of two versatile, all-court players: the Gamecocks' Chuck Eidson and the Wolfpack's Julius Hodge. Winner has a victory that might count for something come NCAA Tournament selection time in March.

Blueblood Battle
The two winningest programs in history meet when Kentucky visits North Carolina Saturday. All those wins are why both coaches came into this season feeling some heat, and the loser will feel fresh flames at his feet.

Tubby Smith has been hearing it for years now, as the afterglow from his 1998 national title continues to recede. The chorus broke out again after losing to Virginia in Maui and will be quick to renew again if the Wildcats don't make it three in a row over the Tar Heels. Matt Doherty is hoping momentum from the Preseason NIT title isn't undermined by back-to-back losses to Illinois and Kentucky.

Kentucky's biggest task will be overcoming the loss of quickness and ball-handling that came with junior-college transfer Antwain Barbour's broken hand last week. Without Barbour the Cats went big against High Point on Tuesday, moving power forward Chuck Hayes to small forward and insterting 6-11 Jules Camara at the four spot to play alongside Marquis Estill. Those two played very well together in Maui, but Kentucky's front line will have its quickness tested by Carolina.

Without Barbour, Kentucky is down to nine scholarship players, and none of the reserves has played meaningful minutes in an atmosphere like the Dean Dome. December won't get any easier without Barbour, as Michigan State, Indiana and Louisville loom on successive Saturdays. He's not expected to be back for any of those games.

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