Tickets Go On Sale Saturday, Oct. 14, For Seventh Annual Wooden Tradition – Ohio State Buckeyes
10/11/2006 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Oct. 11, 2006
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – Tickets for the 2006 John R. Wooden Tradition go on sale to the public at 10:00 a.m., Saturday, Oct. 14 – on what will be the 96th birthday of the legendary coach for whom the prestigious college basketball doubleheader is named.
For the seventh consecutive year, Pantheon International will host the two-game men’s college basketball invitational, to be held Saturday, Dec. 16, in Conseco Fieldhouse. State rivals Butler and Purdue open the action at 1:00 p.m., followed by an historical rematch of Ohio schools when Ohio State battles Cincinnati on the basketball hardwood for the first time since 1962.
The Ohio State vs. Cincinnati matchup pits a pair of nationally-prominent programs that have not played since the 1962 NCAA National Championship game when UC beat Ohio State, 71-59, to cap a run of back-to-back national championships. In 1961, UC also beat OSU in the title contest, claiming a 70-65 overtime victory. Separated by less than 100 miles, both programs have been regional and national contenders on the basketball court throughout their histories, but have not met in over 40 years. They have met only eight times in history. It will end a span of over 85 years since their last regular-season meeting – Dec. 10, 1921.
This season’s spectacle features a myriad of local story angles, aside from the historical perspective of Ohio State and Cincinnati. Three out of four head coaches have local ties to Indiana, and 15 participating student-athletes call Indiana their home.
– Purdue, the school at which Wooden was a three-time All-American, will make its sixth appearance at the Wooden Tradition. Second-year coach Matt Painter, a former Boilermaker player and a native of nearby Muncie, Ind., returns to the Tradition for a second straight season.
– Butler and coach Todd Lickliter make their first appearance at the Wooden Tradition, as the Bulldogs become the first Indianapolis school to reach this field. Lickliter is a Butler grad and a product of Indianapolis’ North Central High School. The Butler-Purdue matchup marks the first time that a pair of Indiana colleges has ever met in the Wooden Tradition. – A Butler graduate and Lickliter’s predecessor at Butler, Thad Matta guides his top 10-ranked and Big Ten Conference favorite Buckeyes into their first Wooden Tradition appearance. It is Matta’s second appearance at the Tradition, previously leading Xavier to a near upset of Indiana in 2003. With Matta and the Buckeyes will be two of the country’s most highly-touted freshmen, Greg Oden and Mike Conley, who led Indianapolis’ Lawrence North High School to three consecutive state championships.
– Cincinnati plays in the Wooden Tradition for the second time in three years, though it will mark its first appearance under coach Mick Cronin, tabbed to lead the Bearcats last March. A Cincinnati native and UC alum, Cronin was an assistant coach at Louisville when the Cardinals fell to Purdue in the 2002 Wooden Tradition.
Tickets for the basketball doubleheader range in price from $10-$125 per seat. Tickets will be available for purchase beginning Saturday at the Conseco Fieldhouse Box Office, all Ticketmaster locations, including the Internet (Ticketmaster.com or ConsecoFieldhouse.com) or phone at (317) 239-5151, in addition to select state-wide Marsh stores.
Established in 2000, the John R. Wooden Tradition is an annual tribute to the legendary former coach and the excellence he personifies. Similar to the standards established by the Wooden Classic, its California-based sibling founded in 1994, the events host college basketball’s elite programs. The Wooden Tradition is a celebration of the game of basketball. In addition to the doubleheader, this year’s event activities will include the Wooden Tradition Coaches Banquet on Dec. 15 at the Westin Indianapolis, which benefits Special Olympics Indiana.
