Jerrod Calhoun Aiming To 'Dominate' Xavier In Crosstown Shootout Moving Forward

The excitement continues to build around the brand-new Jerrod Calhoun coaching tenure for Cincinnati Bearcats basketball. The veteran coach jumped on The Legends Unplugged Podcast with Terry Nelson and Corie Blount after his introductory press conference on Wednesday and made some notable comments about the biggest rivalry in this city.

The 2004 UC grad knows what the Crosstown Shootout is all about, and he wasted no time stating his program needs to start dominating this rivalry. Cincinnati has beaten Xavier just once this decade and still hasn't won at the Cintas Center since 2001.

Domination Time

Cincinnati head coach Jerrod Calhoun speaks during a press conference announcing him as the head men's basketball coach at Fifth Third Arena in Cincinnati on Wednesday, March 25, 2026. | Albert Cesare/The Enquirer / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

UC leads the all-time series 52-41, but has won just three times since a 60-45 victory in 2012.

"I think we need to dominate, right?" Calhoun said on the show. "Cincinnati is Cincinnati basketball. We should be running the city right. We need to have a swagger. We need to have a confidence. We need to have appreciation for how good Xavier is and respect for their program. But at the end of the day, man, we need to run the city ... Cincinnati basketball not only needs to run this the city, but on a national level, and then definitely in the state of Ohio. That's what we're all used to.

"That's what we've seen. That's why the drought of the NCAA Tournament has been very difficult on all of us. Listen, things happen. College basketball changes. You get bad breaks, injuries, whatever it is, but we need to be back in that tournament, and we need to be advancing, right? It's not, 'hey, we want to get to the tournament.' It's how far are we going in the tournament this year, right? Like we're just scraping and clawing to try to get back. We need to have major aspirations here."

Calhoun is saying all the right things so far and leaning into the rivalry in an important way.

This is not some throwaway game. You don't treat this game like every other game on the schedule. Beating Xavier is a massive part of Cincinnati basketball's identity, and as mentioned above, things have slipped heavily compared to the 90s and 2000s. UC has one win at the Cintas Center, while Xavier has seven victories at the Shoemaker Center/Fifth Third Arena.

Calhoun wants Cincinnati to instill "fear" in Ohio teams. He knows it's hard to do that to a whole state if you don't scare your rival right up the road.

Check out the full interview with Calhoun below:

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