By Dustin Dow
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Saturday's Crosstown Shootout at the Shoemaker Center between Cincinnati and Xavier is a classic rivalry game, one where rankings and records seem to have little effect on the final outcome. Just playing each other brings out the best in each team.

But rankings are still there, and for the first time since the 1997-98 season, No.16 Xavier enters the Skyline Crosstown Shootout as the higher ranked team. Cincinnati isn't even ranked after losing 75-69 at Dayton Nov.29.

That could work in the Bearcats' favor on Saturday. In the last 10 years, when just one of the teams was ranked in the Top 25, the unranked team has pulled off an upset. All three times, however, that team has been Xavier, including two upsets of No. 1 UC teams in 1999 and `96.

The 71-69 Xavier win in 1996 vaulted the Musketeers into the Associated Press Top 25 for the first time that season at No.23 the week after the game. They stayed in the poll the rest of the season and finished No.13, highest in school history. Both losses in '96 and '99 dropped the Bearcats from the top spot to No. 4.

The only time that both teams were ranked was during the 1993-94 season. Cincinnati entered at No.19, while Xavier was 22nd. The Musketeers won 82-76, but lost three days later to Evansville, and Xavier and UC fell out of the poll.

Of course, Cincinnati now is well aware of what a win could do for its ranking. Last season both teams were unranked, but Cincinnati used the momentum from a 75-55 win at Xavier to debut in the poll at No.25. It ended the year at No.5.

After falling from No.23 last week, this could be the Bearcats' chance to re-enter the poll.

"We're just trying to get a victory," UC guard Leonard Stokes said. "If we get back in (to the Top 25), fine. If we don't, then we just have to keep going."

Xavier coach Thad Matta said it's hard to predict what's going to happen with the polls, especially because UC is unranked, but that this game is certainly important.

"(Cincinnati) loses at Dayton, and falls out of the Top 25. I think that's almost amazing that that would happen," Matta said. "They got beat by a pretty good team and probably didn't play particularly well."

But it really doesn't matter what either team's ranking is, Matta said. Both want to win badly.

"There's so much that goes into this game, that it's a little bit different," he said. "If we were 0-4 right now and Cincinnati was 0-4, it would still be a heated contest."

That is why Stokes doesn't understand why XU would be an automatic favorite to win just because the Musketeers are the ranked team.

"We don't worry too much about (the ranking)," Stokes said. "Last year, nobody gave us a shot to win, and we went in there and won. This year, I don't think anyone is giving us a chance either."