Cleveland St

State of '08: Ohio

Shawn Siegel — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 08:33:26 -0700

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Duke or Carolina? BC or UMASS? Gonzaga or Washington.. or Washington State? What is the best program in each state? While there's not much competition in Hawaii.. there are great debates to be had in loaded regions like California, North Carolina, and Texas. The State of '08 is a ranking of every program in every state.. based mostly on recent success (the last five years) mixed in with subjective factors such as conference prestige, historical success, and overall program direction.

For more info, check out the State of '08 introduction.

OHIO

OHIO STATE - While Xavier has had more consistent success since 2001, its hard to match Ohio State's 2007 campaign: Reaching the National Title game while finishing 1st in the RPI. OSU has also won 20 games in 8 of 10 seasons and reached 6 Big Dances.

XAVIER - Sean Miller has picked up where Thad Matta left off, and Matta followed the success of Skip Prosser, who continued the foundation set by Pete Gillen. Since 1986, there's been a continual run of impressive postseason success at Xavier, including 2 Elite Eight trips in the past 5 years.

KENT STATE - Pretty much whatever success you see at Kent State can still be attributed to the job Gary Waters did in the late 90's, turning a dormant program into a winner. In the last decade, the Golden Flashes have made 5 NCAA Tournaments and 4 NITs, and have won at least 20 games in each of those seasons. In 2009, Kent State is once again the projected MAC champ.

CINCINNATI - This is obviously a storied program, but the post-Huggins era has gotten off to a slow start. There hasn't been a tourney trip in the past three seasons, nor a finish above .500 in conference play. 2009 should be better, but the Big Dance will most likely have to wait another season.

DAYTON - After a hot start, Dayton stumbled to an 8-8 finish in A10 play, their third season in a row without a winning league record. From 2000-2005, Dayton won at least 9 league games every season, and made 3 NCAA Tournaments and 2 NITs.

6. MIAMI - The RedHawks have never been bad in Charlie Coles lengthy career. In fact, just one time in 11 seasons has his team failed to go at least .500 in the MAC. His last five teams have finished in the RPI Top 100, and this year's squad looks postseason-worthy once again.

7. AKRON - Keith Dambrot's four year tenure has been highly impressive. The Zips have been finished in the RPI Top 75 the past four seasons, consistently challenged for MAC titles, and advanced to two NITs. The team does lose a lot of talent this year, so it might be Dambrot's most challenging season.

8. OHIO - Ohio is a solid program that has never gone more than couple seasons here or there without contending for the MAC title. The Bobcats have won at least 18 games the past four seasons (including the '05 Big Dance), though the off-season departure of 8-year coach Tim O'Shea was puzzling.

9. WRIGHT STATE - We might be in thee midst of Wright State's best run in program history. Brad Brownell led the Raiders to the '07 Tournament in his first season, and followed that up with another 20+ win season last year. This year, WSU should once again contend for the Horizon League title.

10. TOLEDO - The Rockets haven't made the NCAA's since 1980, but it hasn't been all bad in the meantime. In 2001 & 2007, the Rockets won MAC regular season titles, but couldn't get over the conference tournament hump. Last year was disappointing, and new coach Gene Cross will need to elevate the program's overall talent-level.

11. CLEVELAND STATE - Twenty years after last making the postseason, the Vikings made the NIT in Gary Waters' second season. The Vikings won 10 league games and 20 overall games for the first time since 1993, and there's a legitimate shot they could earn their first Tourney trip since 1986.

12. BOWLING GREEN - Falcons basketball peaked in the 60's. The start of Dan Dakich's tenure, from about 99 to 02, looked promising.. but things went down hill. The last three years have featured sub-200 RPI teams, though the 2009 squad looks promising.

13. YOUNGSTOWN STATE - The Penguins basketball teams have never been able to match the football teams accomplishments. There are occasional hopeful seasons, but 2001 was the last time YSU really did any damage.

Last: North Carolina - Next: Oklahoma

State of '08: The Introduction (& State list/links)

Cleveland State Basketball Preview: #53

Joel Welser — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 06:44:59 -0700

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Cleveland State Vikings

Overall Rank: #53

Conference Rank: #1 Horizon

2007-08: 21-13, 12-6, 2^nd

2007-08 postseason: NIT

Coach Gary Waters led Cleveland State to their first postseason berth in 20 years. It will not take another 20 years before the Vikings are playing meaningful games in March. Outside of superstars Cedric Jackson and J’Nathan Bullock, seven players were playing around 15 to 25 minutes per game. Four of them are back and that gives CSU plenty of experienced players to work with this year.

Who’s Out:

Losing Breyhon Watson, Joe Davis and Kevin Francis is not a good thing, but it will not hurt the Vikings too much. Watson rarely put up big numbers, but he was the only player besides Jackson and Bullock to start over 24 games. Joe Davis was the team’s third leading scorer, mostly off the bench, and has opted to transfer. At 6-8 and 200 pounds, Francis was another big body who could come in and grab some rebounds and pick up a few fouls. Guard Nick Weaver has graduated after seeing limited action during his senior campaign.

Who’s In:

None of the newcomers will need to play a huge role this season, but there are a whole lot of them who will be competing for some minutes off the bench. In the backcourt, Jeremy Montgomery, Josh McCoy and Trevon Harmon will be the main backups. Montgomery, a 6-1 combo guard, went under the recruiting radar a bit due to a broken hand, but the Chicago, Illinois product is a crafty player who can handle the ball and score in a hurry. For now he will likely spend most of his time backing up Jackson at the point, learning how to be a scoring point guard in the Horizon League from somebody who knows. Small forward Daitwan Eppinger came on strong at the end of his senior season of high school. If he continued that leap while redshirting in Cleveland during the 2007-2008 campaign, the Vikings will have another great athlete on the floor who can score around the basket and hit the mid-range jumper. The power forward and center spots already have four returning players, but Ethan Anderson, Tim Kamczyc, Joe Latas and Charlie Woods could find a few minutes here and there. Latas, a 6-11 redshirt freshman, and Woods are the two players who will likely earn the most minutes this season.

Who to Watch:

Jackson went from a roleplayer at St. John’s to a star at Cleveland State. In his first year with the Vikings, the 6-3 point guard averaged 13.9 points, 4.9 assists, 4.9 rebounds and 2.6 steals. With a year in the system, the senior should have an even better campaign in 2008-2009. With Bullock at one of the forward spots, the opposing defense has a tough decision to make. Bullock led CSU with 14.8 points and 6.6 boards and the 6-5 senior gives the Vikings two legitimate Horizon League Player of the Year candidates. Jackson is the team’s best three-point shooter. In fact, he is virtually the team’s only returning long range shooter. Bullock who hit less than one three-pointer per game is the team’s second best outside shooter at this point. If the newcomers cannot fill that void, it will become too easy to stop the Vikings from slashing to the basket.

Final Projection:

Norris Cole and D’Aundray Brown are quality players who are ready to step into starting roles, but they have yet to prove that they can be the outside shooters that the team needs. Cole would be the best candidate to fill that role, but he only shot 23.8 percent from beyond the arc last year. Finding a scorer in the frontcourt as well would help CSU open up the outside and give Cole and others open looks. Center Chris Moore is a decent scorer and averaged 4.9 points per game last year, but George Tandy is a much better rebounder and shot blocker and will likely be the starter. If Tandy, now a senior, can consistently score around the basket, Cleveland State’s offense will be difficult to stop. If not, the team will have to depend on Jackson and Bullock too much and that might lead to just another NIT bid.

Projected Post-season Tournament: NCAA

Projected Starting Five:

Cedric Jackson, Senior, Guard, 13.9 points per game

Norris Cole, Sophomore, Guard, 4.9 points per game

D’Aundray Brown, Sophomore, Guard, 4.9 points per game

J’Nathan Bullock, Senior, Forward, 14.8 points per game

George Tandy, Senior, Forward, 4.2 points per game

Complete Top 144 Ranking | 2008-09 Preview & Awards | Coach Interviews | Discuss the Preview

Cleveland State Basketball Schedule: 08-09

Press Release — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 07:44:29 -0700

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A December 15 road game at Syracuse, a site change for the Thanksgiving week CBE Classic and a shakeup of dates for four home games are among the changes in the final 2008-09 Viking men's basketball schedule, which was released on Monday.

"It took a little while to put this all together, but I think our fans will be happy with our schedule," CSU head coach Gary Waters said. "The changes that we made ensure that we will play as challenging a schedule as possible and I believe that we have accomplished this.

"Adding Syracuse to the schedule not only gives us a road game against another NCAA Tournament caliber opponent, but it moves the Oakland game to the season opener. Oakland is the favorite to win their league this season and the newspapers are referring to them as the best team in Michigan this year."

The changes to the schedule consist of:

Moving the season-opening home game against John Carroll from Nov. 14 to Nov. 10 and making it the lone exhibition game that CSU will play;

Moving the home game against Oakland, originally scheduled for Dec. 16, to Saturday, Nov. 15 where it will serve as the regular season opener;

Moving the site of the three games at the CBE Classic from Ft. Myers, FL (Forida Gulf Coast) to Miami, FL (Florida International). CSU will now play FIU, Toledo and Tennessee Tech from Nov. 24-26 with the dates and times to be determined in the next two weeks;

Adding home games against La Roche College (Dec. 20) and Notre Dame College (Dec. 27) to complete the home slate for the year.

The changes made gives Cleveland State 15 home games on the calendar, 14 regular season contests and the Nov. 10 preseason match-up against John Carroll.

The addition of Syracuse to the schedule may have a special meaning for the Vikings as CSU will visit The Carrier Dome for the first time since defeating Indiana and St. Joseph's as part of the NCAA Men's Basketball Championship during the 1985-86 season.

The Vikings will play nine games against teams that went to postseason play last season, five against NCAA teams, one vs. an NIT squad (Syracuse) and three against CBI participants (Washington, twice vs. Valparaiso). The five NCAA teams include Kansas State (Nov. 22 ) and Kent State (Dec. 23) at home, a home-and-home series with Butler (Dec. 4 at CSU, Feb. 28 at Butler) and a road game at West Virginia (Dec. 6).

2008 NIT Capsule: Cleveland State

Joel Welser — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 19:05:02 -0700

Cleveland State Vikings

Horizon League (21-12, 12-6)

Seed: #6

RPI: 63

Big Wins: 11/17 vs Florida State (69-66), 1/12 at Wright State (65-63), 1/17 Butler (56-52)

Bad Losses: 11/16 vs Georgia Southern (70-72), 1/27 at Wisconsin Milwaukee (71-79), 2/2 at Loyola Ill (53-65)

Coach: Gary Waters

Probable Starters:

Cedric Jackson, Junior, Guard, 14.0 ppg, 4.9 apg, 5.0 rpg, 2.6 spg

Breyhon Watson, Senior, Guard, 5.2 ppg, 1.4 apg

D’Aundray Brown, Freshman, Guard, 4.8 ppg, 3.8 rpg

J’Nathan Bullock, Junior, Forward, 15.0 ppg, 6.6 rpg

George Tandy, Junior, Forward, 4.2 ppg, 4.2 rpg, 1.2 bpg

Key Roleplayers:

Joe Davis, Sophomore, Guard, 8.4 ppg, 1.1 apg

Norris Cole, Freshman, Guard, 4.8 ppg, 1.5 rpg

Kevin Francis, Senior, Forward, 4.4 ppg, 4.0 rpg

Chris Moore, Junior, Center, 5.0 ppg, 2.7 rpg

Why They Can Surprise:

Cleveland State has a couple dynamic scorers in J’Nathan Bullock and Cedric Jackson who have led the team to the postseason. Bullock, a 6-5 junior, has been the teams leading scorer for the last three seasons. Even at 6-5, Bullock will man the four spot and he will use his 240 pound frame to be extremely effective under the basket. On the offensive end he is a nightmare for most opposing power forwards to guard. He has enough strength to battle with them in the paint and more athleticism and speed than most big men.

Jackson is the lone long range shooting threat on the team. Yet, the former St. John’s starter only hits 1.4 shots per game from beyond the arc. While it is a positive that the Vikings do not play outside of themselves and take a bunch of hasty three-pointers, having more than one option to hit the long ball would certainly stretch out of the defense. Jackson does a whole lot more than hit the occasional outside shot. He dishes out 4.9 assists per game, grabs five rebounds and will use his quickness to score around the basket.

Why They Can Disappoint:

Jackson might dish out 4.9 assists, but he dishes out four turnovers too. Cleveland State is not going to run and gun, so cherishing every possession is a must in any postseason tournament. It is not all Jackson’s fault, as most of the players on the team have a negative assist-to-turnover ratio. That is understandable for the forwards, but everybody will have to do their part to keep the turnovers manageable.

Who To Watch:

Besides Bullock and Jackson, the rest of the usual starters average fewer than six points per game. Sixth-man Joe Davis will come in off the bench and provide a spark, but the Vikings desperately need a third scorer to step up. Breyhon Watson is a defensive stopper, but has only scored over ten points in three games this year. D’Aundray Brown has not been very consistent during his freshman campaign and lacks the firepower to do a lot of scoring at this point in his career. Chris Moore, a 6-9 center, is on the floor for his size and defense, not his offense. There are options, but if nobody else can prove to be an offensive threat, the opposition can concentrate on stopping Bullock and Jackson.

By the Numbers:

Scoring Offense: 67.4 (203^rd in nation, 5^th in conference)

Scoring Defense: 63.5 (59, 3)

Field-Goal Percentage: 44.0 (175, 6)

Field-Goal Defense: 41.9 (85, 3)

Three-Point Field Goals Per Game: 4.5 (316, 10)

Three-Point Field-Goal Percentage: na

Free-Throw Percentage: 70.2 (129, 5)

Rebound Margin: 3.5 (62, 1)

Assists Per Game: 12.2 (247, 6)

Turnovers Per Game: 14.2 (155, 9)

Joel’s Bracket Says: First Round loss to Dayton

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Horizon League Finals: No Upset Here, Butler Wins

Bill Kintner — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 23:58:09 -0700

INDIANAPOLIS – This group of Butler seniors have been ranked since the third week of this season, were ranked most of last year, won last year’s Pre-season NIT, won this year’s Great Alaskan Shootout, knocked off Ohio State, Maryland, Purdue, Tennessee, Michigan, Texas Tech, Gonzaga, Notre Dame, Virginia Tech and Florida State over the last two years, but they never have cut down the nets in the Horizon League Championship.

They can now cross that off of their to-do list since they beat Cleveland State tonight in the Horizon League Championship on their home court 70-55.

Early in the first half it looked like a Butler beat-down of Cleveland State as Drew Streicher hit two 3-pointers and Mike Green, Pete Campbell and A. J. Graves all hit 3-pointers to go up 20-6 at the 13:24 mark.

But Cleveland State (21-12) regained their composure and fought back behind J’Nathan Bullock’s nine points to tie it at 34-34 on two free throws by Cedric Jackson with 1:50 remaining in the half.

Two free throws by Green and another two by Graves sent Butler (29-3) into the locker room up 38-34.

In the second half the Bulldogs came out firing as Green and Streicher both hit 3-pointers to put Butler up 43-36. But a 3-pointer by Bullock and a layup by D’Audray Brown got the Vikings within two points at 43-41.

That is when Butler put the lockdown on Cleveland State, for just about the next 10 minutes Cleveland State was held to just three points as Butler scored 17 points to go up 60-44.

According to Cleveland State coach Gary Waters that was the difference in the game.

“They clamped down a little harder defensively and I thought they did a better job on us in the second half,” said Waters. “For about 10 minutes we had a hard time scoring. I thought that was the difference in the game.”

Butler coach Brad Stevens thought it was some adjustments they made in the second half and rebounding that allowed his team to open up the game in the second half.

“I thought our guys adjusted and did a better job on the glass. I thought the first two processions of the second half when we turned them over set a tone for the rest of the game,” explained Stevens.

From that point on Butler held a double digit lead until the end.

“It is something we talked about from the beginning of the year we were setting our goals. None of us had ever cut down the nets in March, “said a relieved Streicher. “Fortunately we were able to play here at Hinkle. To cut them down here was very special. I think it is something we are going to treasure forever.”

Green led all scorers with 24 points and pulled down 13 rebounds too. Bullock led the Vikings with 21 points.

Notes:

-Butler has been nationally ranked (Top 25) for 33 weeks since November 27, 2006.

-Butler set a new Horizon League record for the best two-year total with 57 victories since the start of last year.

-This is Cleveland State’s first ever appearance in the Horizon League Finals.

-As strange as this may seem this is the first time Cleveland State and Butler have met in the Horizon League Tournament.

-Former Wright State coach Ed Schilling was in attendance sitting next to his father former Butler player and Hall of Famer Big Ed Schilling.

-Cleveland State had maybe 50 enthusiastic fans in attendance which would be the most fans the Vikings have produced at a league tournament road game since they joined the Horizon League in 1994.

-This is Butler’s first Horizon League Championship they have won on their home court.

-At the end of the game about 40 Butler students from the Dawg Pound ran on to the court for the obligatory celebration on ESPN, the other few hundred of the Dawg Pound Students stayed in their bleachers at the end of the court and cheered like this was just another win. The Dawg Pound had just a few hundred students tonight instead of the usual thousand or so they usually have. Their numbers are a little low since it is Spring Break on campus.

-Brad Stevens had a little piece of the net in his pocket during the game tonight from 2001, Butler’s last Horizon League Championship.

-This is Butler 5th championship since 1997, second only to Xavier’s six championships.

-The all-tournament team:

Mike Green -MVP - Butler
Matt Howard - Butler
J’Nathan Bullock - Cleveland State
Drew Streicher - Butler
Jarryd Lloyd - Valpo

Horizon League Semis: Clevelend State Advances

Bill Kintner — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 10:26:11 -0700

INDIANAPOLIS – When Valparaiso beat Wright State yesterday for the third time this year, three was the magic number. Tonight three was the magic number for Cleveland State as they beat Valpo for the third time this season 78-73 to advance to the Horizon League Championship game.

Cleveland State started the game on fire going up 10-2 at the 17:09 mark. At that point Valpo (21-13) looked like a team was playing for the second time in 24 hours. Their shots were falling a little short and they seemed to be a step behind the Cleveland State players.

The Vikings’ lead was up to 18 points when J’Nathan Bullock popped in a 3-pointer with 6:38 left in the half.

Cleveland State (21-11) was led by Cedric Jackson’s 11 first half points as they shot 51.7 percent (15-29) including 53.3 percent (8-15) from 3-point land in the first half.

At the same time Valpo was just 3-12 (25 percent) from 3-point land and shooting just 39.3 percent (11-28) for the first half.

Valpo’s Shawn Huff was amazed at how Cleveland States players were hitting outside shots as his team packed it inside to try to stop them from dominating inside.

“They were just making shots. Everyone was making shots, everyone who came in made a shot,” said a dejected Huff. “They shot over 50 percent from threes. We didn’t want them to dominate the inside and we were going to take our chances with that and they made us pay.”

The Crusaders did manage to work the deficit down to six points by half time at 39-33 by going on a 15-3 run over the last six minutes of the half.

Coming out to start the second half the Vikings went on a 9-0 run over the first 1:47 to make it 48-33 that ended when Valpo’s Shawn Huff made a layup.

At the 6:16 mark Jackson made a jumper to put Cleveland State up by nine at 63-54. Seven seconds later Valpo’s Jarryd Lloyd made a 3-pointer.

Bullock responded with a layup, then a 3-pointer by Huff, another by Lloyd followed by a layup by Lloyd and the score tied for the first time at 65-65.

Breyohn Watson came right back and hit a 3-pointer to give Cleveland State the lead for good.

“That play developed off Cedric’s (Jackson) penetration and he ended up finding me. I stepped into it and knocked it down,” explained Watson.

A few seconds later a jumper by Norris Cole and then two foul shots by Cole got the Viking lead up to seven at 72-65 with :44 left.

Two late 3-pointers by Lloyd got the score down as close as three points at 76-73 with :08 remaining but when Valpo fouled Cole he made both free throws and that was how it ended with the score at 78-73.

Cleveland State coach Gary Waters felt fortunate that his team withstood the runs that the Crusaders made.

“Let me just say that we had some big plays down the stretch by a number of people to finish that game out,” said Waters. “Even though we had leads in the game I have to give Valparaiso credit because they never gave up.”

Three Stars of the Day: Bullock, Kemp, Mundweiler

Shawn Siegel — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 06:38:12 -0800

Three Stars of The Day

We handpick the best performances of the day, whether it be stat lines that make you drool, or clutch performances. Either way, its our way of showing the love:

J'Nathan Bullock - Cleveland State

The Vikings junior, who has hovered around 12 ppg most of his career, exploded for 39 points on 13-14 shooting against UWGB

Marcelus Kemp - Nevada

Set a season-high of 35 points as the Wolf Pack picked up an important win over WAC-leading Utah State

Joey Mundweiler - Wagner

Besides hitting the game-tying three to send the game to OT, also paced his team with 19 points and played well in the extra session

Other Top Performers

Jeremy Caldwell - Jackson State - The junior had his best-ever statistical game with 22 points, 15 rebounds, and 2 blocks in a win

Reggie Williams - VMI - Another big output for the contender for the scoring title, 38 against Charleston Southern

Previous Stars of the Day

February 10th - Tyler Hansbrough, UNC

February 9th - Hasheem Thabeet, UCONN

February 7th - Ronald Ramon, Pittsburgh

February 6th - Michael Beasley, Kansas State

February 4th - Todd Golden, Saint Mary's

February 3rd - Tyler Hansbrough, UNC

January 30th - Chase Budinger, Arizona

January 29th - Beasley/Walker, Kansas State

January 28th - Chris Godzinski, Wofford

January 27th - DeMarcus Nelson, Duke

January 26th - Hackett/Lewis/Mayo, USC

January 24th - Jerryd Bayless, Arizona

January 22nd - Patrick Patterson, Kentucky

January 21st - DJ Augustin, Texas

January 20th - Dezmon Harris, Weber State

January 19th - James Gist, Maryland

January 18th - Abbott/Harden, Arizona State

January 17th - Dionte Christmas, Temple

January 14th - Roy Hibbert, Georgetown

January 11th - Lester Hudson, Tennessee-Martin

January 9th - DJ White, Indiana

January 8th - Lester Hudson, Tennessee-Martin

January 7th - Wayne Ellington, UNC

January 6th - Shan Foster, Vanderbilt

January 5th - Damon Huffman, Brown

January 4th - Luke Harangody, Notre Dame

January 3rd - Damon Huffman, Brown

January 2nd - Martin Zeno, Texas Tech

November/December Star of the Day Archive

Daily Dribble: Friday Report Card

Shawn Siegel — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 09:45:44 -0800

The Report Card

A new series, the Daily Report Card tells you all you need to know about the day in college hoops. From good to bad and bad to worse, I'll be laying down the law.

A - Cleveland State

Beating #12 Butler is a nice accomplishment in itself. This is something that Florida State, Ohio State, Southern Illinois, Texas Tech, and Virginia Tech couldn't do. But beyond that, the Vikings get an A for somehow managing to be 6-0 in Horizon League play, with a 2-game advantage over the Bulldogs in the loss column. This is a program that hasn't won more than 10 games in forever, so this year's 13-5 record is shocking. Transfer Cedric Jackson has been a key addition, but this is a true team success story. CSU basically goes 10 deep, and 8 guys average over 19 minutes per game (an amazing statistic).

B - Saint Louis

This is what you call a pity B. The Bills have taken their lumps nationally thanks to their 20-point game, but they did beat ranked Rhode Island last night 68-61 so I felt the need to show some love.

C - Minnesota

I haven't given the 12-4 Gophers much respect this year so they deserve some for taking #10 Indiana down to the wire. But here's why I give them a C: They forced Indiana into 26 turnovers, only committed 10, and still lost despite a crazy high +16 turnover ratio. Its hard not to win when you do that.

D - Vance Walberg

In the midst of a struggling 6-12 season, Pepperdine's head coach has resigned. I recently covered a game in Malibu where the Wave got destroyed by Gonzaga.. so maybe it was something I said? Seriously though, he cited "family issues", but for whatever reasons the media doesn't necessarily buy that. Most get the sense he simply was unhappy with the way things were going in his efforts to build a strong program. Either way, the future at Pepperdine is somewhat bright, and all it will take is a new positive coach, and more importantly, a strong set of backcourt recruits to get this program back near the top of the WCC. Of course, if all the losing and turmoil forces quality freshmen like Malcolm Thomas and Tyrone Shelley to leave, then things wont be so easy.

F - Marquette

Okay, being 13-3 isn't the worst thing in the world and losing road games in league play isn't that big a deal.. but someone has to fail here, and this was as good as I could come up with. The Golden Eagles are 10-0 at home, but just 3-3 away from Milwaukee, and they haven't come close to winning their Big East road games. They lost by 15 at West Virginia and by 20 at Louisville. With a road game coming up at UCONN, they better figure things out fast or the Top 20 respect they've earned will be gone..

Previous Best / Worst

January 17th - Drake / HP Laptops

January 14th - Roy Hibbert / Michigan State

January 10th - Tony Bennett / Saint Louis

January 9th - DJ White / CSTV

January 8th - Robert Morris / Schedule Makers

January 7th - Wayne Ellington / Illinois

January 6th - Herb Sendek / Kentucky

Live Coverage: Cleveland State Upends Wright State

Bill Kintner — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 00:27:29 -0800

DAYTON – When a team out-shoots its opponent from the field, from 3-point land and from the foul line you would expect that team to win.

Well, except if that team is the Wright State Raiders.

The visiting Cleveland State Vikings managed to steal a win 65-63 over Wright State and send 6477 fans home sad.

First the stats. Wright State 54.1 % FG (20-37), 63.6 % 3FG (7-11) and 72.7% (16-22). Cleveland State 39.7%FG(23-58), 29.4% 3FG(5-17) and 70%(14-20)

Want more stats?

The Vikings out rebounded Wright State (9-6, 2-4 HL) 34-24 but here is the killer, they got 21 offensive rebounds.

Wright State coach Brad Brownell pointed out rebounding as the one area that his team under-performed in tonight and that was probably the difference in the game. “They were bigger and stronger. That is the only area we didn’t play well,” said a dejected Brownell. “I thought our kids played pretty hard but we were worn down a little bit.”

A thin Raider team played just seven players tonight and two of the players played single digit minutes compared to Cleveland State’s 10 players seeing action.

In an ironic twist Cleveland State (12-5, 5-0 HL) a team not known for good 3-point shooting team, usually preferring to pound it down inside won this game on a 3-pointer by Kevin Francis with 11.9 seconds left to play.

Wright State called a timeout to set up the final play. Vaughn Duggins brought the ball down drove over near the Raider bench and passed it to Todd Brown, he got tied up and Cleveland State’s J’Nathan Bullock knocked the ball away, when Brown recovered and called another timeout, there was only 1.2 seconds left.

The inbound pass to Wright State’s Jordan Pleiman got knocked out of bounds with .5 seconds left. The Vikings prevented Wright State from getting anything that resembled a shot off and Cleveland State held on to first place in the Horizon League.

The game started off with Wright State on fire as they went up 11-1 and then 16-3. But the Vikings went on an 11-0 run that was propelled by two 3=pointers by Francis. A 3-pointer by Duggins got the Raiders back on track as they built their lead back up to 12 points when Will Graham hit two free throws.

Cleveland State got back to within three when Bullock out-muscled Pleiman to tip a loose ball in and make it 34-31. Two more free throws by Graham got the lead back to five points at 36-31 going into halftime.

“We won the game at the end of the first half when we fought back, said Cleveland State coach Gary Waters. “When teams hit threes on us we aren’t playing our defense right. Our guys worked them pretty hard and they (Wright State) were tired. We play 10 or 11 guys, the whole purpose is to wear our opponents down.”

Brownell was happy with his team’s effort and fast start. “I thought we were ready to play we made shots early. They made some adjustments and went with a smaller line up.”

The second half went back and forth. There were 11 lead changes and the score was tied six times. Duggins didn’t use Wright State’s thin numbers as an excuse for tonight’s loss.

“Even though our numbers our kind of limited we have confidence in our guys,” explained Duggins. “Cleveland State is a good team that plays hard all the time. Great teams respond and they responded.”

Notes:
-Cleveland State has an almost new team this year with 10 new players.
-Gary Waters came out and gave thanks to God and he said he does that after every game.
-For Wright State this is the 12th game this year to be decided by single digits.
-Wright State leads the all-time series
-Wright State has played more games against CSU than any other team.
-Cleveland States next game is at Butler Thursday at 7 p.m.
-Wright State’s next game is Thursday at UIC at 8 p.m.

Wright State 68 - Cleveland State 55

Bill Kintner — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 09:19:42 -0800

DAYTON – It took until the 9:31 mark of the second half for Wright State to finally grab the lead for good, but once the Raiders got the lead they turned on the jets to pull away from the pesky Cleveland State Vikings 68-55 to get their 20th win of the year.

At the half the Raiders led by six at 33-27. But Cleveland State (8-19, 2-12 HL) came out strong as Joe Davis hit drove to the basket then put in a lay up and Vaughn Duggins fouled him. He hit the foul shot to cut the lead to three points at 33-30.

Wright State’s Drew Burleson hit a lay up and then the Vikings’ J’Nathan Bullock hit a 3-pointer to get the deficit down to two points.

“This team (Cleveland State) is very aggressive defensively and offensively. They are going to make runs. Just like the first game when we got up and then they made their run,” said Wright State’s DaShaun Wood. “The game is about a set of runs. It is all about who can stop their run from being the longest.”

At the 12:23 mark Cleveland State’s Patrick Tatham hit 3-pointer and the
Vikings had a two point lead which was their largest lead of the second half.

Tatham rarely shoots a 3-pointer and when Wright State Coach Brad Brownell saw it go in he thought it might be a long night.

But Wright State’s Todd Brown who scored nine points in the first half, rolled up his sleeves and went to work. In addition to the five points he had in the second half already, he hit a jumper and two 3-pointers that finally put the Vikings away and led all scorers with 22 points.

Now before you say the Raiders came out flat and they were not ready to play Brownell pointed out that Wright State (20-8, 13-2 HL) had a large lead halfway through half.

“Some people are going to wonder if we were ready to play. We were ready to play. We came out and we had an 11 point lead in the middle of the first half. I don’t think you do that if you are not ready,” stated Brownell. “Unfortunately Cleveland State is a team with great spurtability. They sometimes dig themselves a hole and then, boom, boom, boom, they make two or three 3-pointers back to back and they are right back in the game.”

Early in the first half the Vikings jumped out to a five point lead at 11-6 with 13:40 left. Then the Raiders dug in, made some stops and went on a 14-1 run to a 20-12 lead.

The lead for Wright State got up to the 11 points mentioned by Coach Brownell but a 3-pointer and a jumper by Davis got the lead down to six points at the half.

For the Vikings it was their fifth straight loss but veteran Cleveland State Coach Gary Waters felt his team hard against a very good Wright State team that featured DaShaun Wood.

“They are playing good basketball, I have to give them credit, they are doing some good things and they are going to their people. I thought Wood did a good job. He wasn’t scoring but he found other people. That shows you leadership and how good he is,” said a tired Waters. “I thought we played hard and I told them that in the locker room, I just don’t think we played smart.”

Wood scored below is average of 19.3 ppg with just 14 points, but he had six assists and no turnovers. Burleson also put in 13 points and pulled down nine rebounds.

The Vikings shot 42.3 percent (22-50) for the game including 24 percent (6-25) from 3-point land compared with the Wright State’s 44 percent (23-47) for the game and 43.8 percent (7-16) from 3-point land.

The Raiders also shot an outstanding 93.8 percent (15-16) from the foul line.

For the Vikings Tatham and Davis had 12 points and Victor Morris had 10 points.

Notes:

*Wright State leads the all-time series 24-22.

*Wright State students put Valentine Day cards on all the seats of the Cleveland State bench. No word as to if any of the guys in the WSU student section secured dates with any of the CSU players.

*Still plenty of room on the bandwagon--the 10,827 fans who packed the Nutt House on Saturday against Butler must not have been too impressed with the Raiders because tonight’s game attracted just 4781.

*On finger action—Veteran Dayton Daily News Columnist Tom Archdeacon types with just one finger. He has typed thousands of columns during his career, all with one finger. He is always the last writer finished after a game. He says it has severed him well for 33 years and he plans to change. In case of injury to his typing finger he says he has another typing finger he holds in reserve.

*Cleveland State’s team plays at Cal State Northridge on Saturday at 10 p. m. in the Bracket Buster game.

*Wright State plays at home against Cal State Fullerton on Saturday at 8 pm in the Bracket Busters.