Last Night's Xavier-Cincinnati Game Started In A Remarkably Different Manner Than Last Year's Ended

Cincinnati continued its undefeated run to start the 2012-2013 college basketball season with a 60-45 win last night over Xavier in the Crosstown Rivalry. Of greater interest than the final score, though, is that the game happened at all—and in such cordial fashion. Last year's UC-X game, of course, ended much uglier than the bro-hugs that launched last night's bout:

Basketball in the Queen City is religion, with allegiances even stronger than those for Cincinnati's eponymous chili. (We prefer Gold Star, for the record.) While incidents like last year's rumble are great for sports blogs, they're bad for a sport that's already lost one of its great annual rivalries.