Feb. 20, 2007

Contact: Brian McCann

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GAME 29
Cleveland State (9-19, 2-12) at Detroit (10-17, 5-9)
Date: Tuesday, February 21, 2007
Time: 7:00 p.m. EST
Site: Calihan Hall (8,295), Detroit, Mich.
TV: None Live
(Highlights available on The Viking Basketball Report, which airs weekly on SportsTime Ohio.)
Radio: WKNR, 850 AM (Al Pawlowski)
(Streaming available at www.WKNR.com)
Series: Detroit Leads, 31-9
Last Meeting: @CSU 63, Detroit 61 (1/13/07)

SETTING THE SCENE: Cleveland State begins the final week of the 2006-07 regular season when the Vikings travel to Detroit for a 7:00 p.m. contest on Wednesday, February 21. CSU (9-19, 2-12) made the most of its trip to the west coast last week, snapping a five-game losing streak when the Vikings rallied from a one-point halftime deficit to upend Cal State Northridge, 85-76, in a BracketBuster contest. Detroit (10-17, 5-9) begins the week in a three-way tie with UIC and UW-Milwaukee for sixth place in the Horizon League, needing a strong final week to host one of the three first round games in the league tourney. CSU claimed the first meeting of the year, a 63-61 decision in Cleveland on Jan. 13.

PREVIEWING CLEVELAND STATE: The Vikings head into the final week of the Horizon League schedule with just nine healthy scholarship players, each of whom factor into the playing rotation. CSU did receive a big boost when guard Victor Morris (7.7 ppg, 2.2 apg) returned to play after missing eight contests with a broken foot suffered against Ohio State on Dec. 5. Joining Morris in the starting unit is senior guard Raheem Moss (10.5 ppg) and forward Patrick Tatham (5.1 ppg, 4.8 rpg), sophomore forward J'Nathan Bullock (13.8 ppg, 6.5 rpg) with freshman Joe Davis (9.4 ppg). Sophomore Bahaadar Russell (6.2 ppg) moves back to a reserve role after starting nine contests with junior Breyohn Watson (2.5 ppg) and sophomores Tristan Crawford (1.6 ppg) and Renard Fields (2.1 ppg, 3.0 rpg) providing depth off the bench.

HEAD COACH Gary Waters: A 32-year collegiate coaching veteran, Gary Waters took over as the head coach of the Vikings in the spring of 2006, bringing with him to Cleveland a head coaching history that included six trips to the postseason in his first 10 years as a head coach. He posted a 92-60 record in five seasons at Kent State, making NCAA appearances in both 1998-99 and 2000-01 and becoming the third coach in Mid-American Conference history to be named league coach of the year in successive years. Waters moved to Rutgers in 2001-02, compiling a 79-75 mark in five seasons, including three trips to the NIT.

A LOOK AT THE HORIZON LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIPS: Cleveland State enters the final week of the regular season knowing that it will be the No. 9 seed in the tourney and will travel to the No. 4 seed for a first round game next Tuesday (Feb. 27). UW-Green Bay (7-8) and Youngstown State (6-8) are the only two possible first round opponents for the Vikings with the Phoenix having the inside shot at the No. 4 seed. UW-Green Bay needs any combination of a win at home on Saturday (Feb. 24) against UW-Milwaukee or a Youngstown State loss to either Wright State on Thursday (Feb. 22) or at CSU on Saturday (Feb. 24). If the two teams finish the year tied, UW-Green Bay would have the tiebreaker based on its sweep of the regular season series.

FINALLY!: Head coach Gary Waters needs to keep a copy of his halftime speech at Cal State Northridge because he finally found one that worked as the Vikings snapped a streak of consecutive games lost after trailing at the half at 14, including 12 games this year. CSU had not come back from a halftime deficit since claiming a 63-56 win at Wright State last year (Feb. 15, 2006), a game which saw the Vikings trail 29-23 at the intermission.

SENIORS TO BE HONORED ON SATURDAY: Saturday's regular season finale against Youngstown State will serve as the final home games in the playing careers of six Viking seniors, who will be honored in a pre-game ceremony. Current starters Victor Morris, Raheem Moss and Patrick Tatham, each of whom have spent the last four seasons at CSU, have combined to play in 303 games in their career, earning 211 starts and scoring 2,179 points with 1,275 rebounds and 469 assists. The Vikings will also lose point guard Carlos English, who has been ineligible this semester, along with juniors Luke Murphy and Greg Vlosich, each of whom will graduate this spring and bypass their final season of eligibility.

THE TURNOVER TALE: One area that the Vikings have shown a considerable improvement in this year is taking better care of the ball. CSU is averaging 13.5 turnovers a game this year, 2.6 fewer turnovers a game from last year's 16.1 average. The Vikings have been even better lately, averaging just 10.0 miscues over the last seven games. CSU has committed 10 or fewer turnovers in a game eight times this year, including in five of the last seven games. The Vikings matched their season-low with eight in consecutive games vs. Butler (Feb. 8) and Wright State (Feb. 14) over the last week.

MORRIS PLAYS IN 100TH GAME: When senior Victor Morris played a season-high 37 minutes against Wright State on Feb. 14, he became the 26th player in school history to play in 100 games as a Viking. In addition, he also became the 20th Viking to total 2,500 career minutes played. Morris has now played 2,556 minutes in 101 games during his four seasons. Teammate Patrick Tatham should also reach the 100-game mark shortly, entering the week with 98 games played. Senior Raheem Moss has already played in 104 career games, but 26 of those came as a freshman at Bowling Green, giving him 78 games in three seasons at CSU.

A FREE THROW REVERSAL: Cleveland State has displayed a total reversal of fortunes at the free throw line this year. Last year, CSU was last in the Horizon League in free throw percentage, making just 355-of-547 attempts (.649). This season, CSU ranks sixth in the league, shooting .705 from the line (359-509). Included in that total was a 16-for-17 (.941) effort in the win over Delaware and a 23-for-28 afternoon (.821) in the win over Miami (Fla.) on Nov. 19 and a 12-for-14 showing (.857) vs. Butler on Feb. 8.

. . . AND BULLOCK LEADS THE CHARGE: J'Nathan Bullock has undergone a metamorphosis at the foul line since late last season. Bullock shot just .597 from the line as a freshman (83-139), including a dismal .511 in the first 22 games (47-92). He finished the year strong, shooting .766 over the last six games (36-47) and then carried that improvement over to this season as he has made 113 of his 151 attempts this year (.748) to rank 11th in the league. Bullock was nine-for-10 from the line against Wright State and 10-for-12 against Miami (Fla.), including a five-for-six effort in the final four minutes. Over his last 34 games, Bullock is 149-197 from the line (.756).

. . . A BETTER EXAMPLE OF BULLOCK'S IMPROVEMENT: A better way to show Bullock's improvement at the foul line is that the sophomore made 20 more free throws this year in his first 139 free throw attempts compared to last year. He was 83-for-139 from the line for his entire freshman season. He surpassed his freshman total against Butler on Feb. 8, making 103 free throws in his first 139 attempts. He has cut his missed free throws from 56 as a freshman to 38 this season, attempting 12 more free throws this season.

NOT A BAHAAD SUBSTITUTE: With Carlos English out of the lineup, sophomore Bahaadar Russell has made the most out of his opportunity for increased playing time. Russell, who moved into the starting lineup for the Detroit game despite having scored just 10 points this season and 23 in his career, has been on fire, averaging 11.9 points to become one of the team's top offensive options. Against Detroit on Jan. 13, he obliterated his previous career scoring high (of five) by totaling 21 points to key the win over the Titans. Russell connected on seven of his 13 field goal attempts and both of his free throws to lead CSU in scoring for the first time in his career. He came back on Jan. 18 to add 17 points against Wright State and 11 vs. Youngstown State on Jan. 20. He keyed the win at UIC on Jan. 27, scoring nine of his team-high 15 points in the last three minutes to seal the win. At UW-Milwaukee on Jan. 29, he scored 20 points to lead CSU back from a 12-point first half deficit and force overtime. In his nine starts this season, he is shooting .371 from the field (36-97) and .343 from three-point (23-67), averaging 29.0 minutes a game. In his first 27 games, he was just 3-for-29 from behind the arc (.103).

. . . RUSSELL HAS ALSO BEEN A STEAL: Russell has also more than made up for the defensive hole that was created in the lineup when English, who has made 68 steals in 48 career games, was sidelined. Russell has made 17 steals over the last nine games, another considerable jump from the nine steals that he made in his previous 28 games.

WELCOME BACK VICTOR: The Vikings received good news on the injury front on Jan. 18 when senior guard Victor Morris returned to the lineup just 34 days removed from foot surgery. Morris suffered a Jones fracture in his right foot in the second half against Ohio State on Dec. 9 and had a screw implanted into his foot during surgery on Dec. 15. He was cleared to practice on Jan. 16 and has 23.4 minutes in the nine games since.

. . . MORRIS FINDS HIS SCORING TOUCH: It took Victor Morris a couple of games to regain the scoring range that he had before injuring his foot in early December. In his first five games back, the senior scored just 10 points, going five-for-17 from the field (.294) and missing all three of his three-point attempts. In his last four games however, he is averaging 11.0 points, 2.7 rebounds and 2.7 assists, shooting .429 from the field (15-35) and .444 from three-point (8-18). He had his best post-injury performance against UW-Green Bay on Feb. 3, scoring 16 points with five rebounds and five assists and making a career-high four three-pointers. He followed that up with 12 points against Butler and 10 at Wright State.

IT WAS A FIELDS DAY: The Feb. 1 loss to Loyola overshadowed the most dominating performance in the young career of sophomore Renard Fields, who set career highs for points (12), rebounds (16), blocks (5) and steals (2) despite playing just 25 minutes off the bench. It was the first double-double of his career (his previous highs were only eight points and seven rebounds). The rebounding total was the most by a Viking since Pape Badiane's 18 rebound game at Florida A&M on Nov. 25, 2003.

BULLOCK'S IN-N-OUT SPECIAL: Like the famed hamburger chain on the west coast, sophomore J'Nathan Bullock has become noted for his ability to turn out the double-double, recording the seventh of his career (and team-best fourth of the season) on Jan. 27 when he scored 14 points with 10 rebounds in the win at UIC. Bullock previously had double-doubles against Detroit (10 points, 10 rebounds), at Delaware (17, 11) and at home against West Virginia Tech (17, 14).

. . . AND ANOTHER 20-POINT EFFORT: Bullock's 21 point effort against Wright State on Jan. 18 was the sophomore's eighth career 20-point effort. Bullock was six-for-12 from the field and made nine of his 10 free throws to surpass the 20-point mark for the fifth time this season.

2,000 MINUTE MEN: Raheem Moss and Patrick Tatham each reached a career milestone in the games around the Christmas break, surpassing the 2,000-minute plateau for their collegiate playing careers. Moss leads the way with 2,454 career minutes played, 304 of which came in 2002-03 as a freshman at Bowling Green. All of Tatham's 2,392 minutes have come at Cleveland State as the senior forward has averaged 20 minutes a game in each of his four seasons. The duo joins teammate Victor Morris, who has played 509 minutes this year to raise his career total to 2,556.

. . . TATHAM STARTING STREAK HITS 63: Senior center Patrick Tatham enters the week having started in 63 straight games, the sixth longest streak in school history. This is quite an accomplishment, especially considering that the Brampton, Ontario native missed 13 of his first 44 games as a Viking because of various leg injuries. He needs to start three more games to catch Eddie Bryant, who started 66 straight games from 1985-87. Tatham leads all active CSU players with 85 career starts.

CONSECUTIVE TREYS AT 260 & COUNTING: Cleveland State has made at least one three-pointer in all 28 games this season to extend its streak of consecutive games with at least one trey to 260, a streak that began following an 0-for-8 shooting effort in a 60-57 win over Detroit on Feb. 21, 1998. The men's milestone is nothing when it is compared to what the CSU women's team accomplished. The women set an NCAA record by making a three-pointer in 408 straight games before being held without a trey on Feb. 3 vs. UIC.

MOSS MOVES UP THREE-POINT CHART: Raheem Moss continues to make his mark as one of the most prolific three-point shooters in Viking history. He enters the week ranking third on the CSU charts in three-point field goals made (164) and fourth in three-pointers attempted (454). Moss needs six three-pointers to catch second-place Jamaal Harris (170 from 1998-02) and 21 attempts to reach third place Jamaal Harris (477 from 1998-02).

BULLOCK TAKES OVER SCORING ROLE: Forward J'Nathan Bullock has lived up to the preseason billing that made him a preseason second team All-Horizon League choice. He leads the Vikings and ranks 12th in the Horizon League in scoring (13.8), shooting .748 from the line (113-151).

. . . BULLOCK FINDS HIS MARK IN OTHER WAYS: One of the most impressive statistics about J'Nathan Bullock this year has nothing to do with shooting the basketball. In 28 games this year, Bullock has handed out 33 assists, including a career high five assists vs. West Virginia Tech, to surpass the assist total that he compiled during his entire freshman season. Last year, Bullock had only nine assists in 28 games (and 707 minutes).

THE VIKING BASKETBALL REPORT: A new addition to the television lineup this year is The Viking Basketball Report, a weekly half-hour show that includes game recaps, highlights and features on players and other elements featuring information about the CSU program. The show, which is hosted by Mike Cairns with commentary from head coach Gary Waters, airs several times each week on SportsTime Ohio. (A complete schedule is available online at www.sportstimeohio.com).

WAITING IN THE WINGS: CSU fans may have to wait until next fall to see the true strength of the Viking recruiting class as three of the seven newcomers are transfers from other Division I schools and have had to sit out the 2006-07 season to meet NCAA transfer guidelines. The trio -- each of whom are juniors and will have two years of eligibility remaining -- includes guard Cedric Jackson and forwards Chris Moore and George Tandy. Jackson is the most experienced of the group, starting 35 games the last two years at Big East Conference member St. John's, while Tandy, a native of Indianapolis who played his senior year of high school at Cleveland's Lincoln West High, was named the Ohio Valley Conference Freshman of the Year in 2004-05 while playing at Eastern Illinois. Moore, who lives in the Cleveland suburb of Lakewood and attended St. Edward High, returns home after playing two seasons at UC Santa Barbara.

. . . AND CSU ADDS THREE DURING EARLY SIGNING PERIOD: Keeping a promise that he made at his introductory press conference, head coach Gary Waters stayed local, signing three players from northeast Ohio, including two from the greater Cleveland area, during the early signing period. The signees included:

D'Aundray Brown (Youngstown, OH/Ursuline)
A 6-4 guard, Brown averaged 14.2 points, 8.6 rebounds and 5.1 assists per game as a junior, earning first team all-league and all-district honors. He averaged 13.8 points and 6.3 rebounds as a sophomore.

Daitwan Eppinger (Garfield Heights, OH)
A 6-6 wing, Eppinger averaged 18 points, nine rebounds and three blocks a game as a junior, earning first team all-league and all-region honors. Eppinger, who is coached by former Viking standout Sonny Johnson, is ranked as one of the top five prospects in the city and among the top 15 players in Ohio by Prep Spotlight.

Joe Latas (North Olmsted, OH/St. Peter Chanel)
A 6-11 center, Latas averaged 11.0 points, 10.5 rebounds and 3.1 blocks a game as a junior. He is rated as the No. 4 center in Ohio this year by Hoopscoop and was tabbed as a "Standout" at the 2005 Five Star Basketball Camp.

NEXT UP: The Vikings return home to close the regular season against Youngstown State on Saturday, Feb. 24. The game will serve as both Fan Appreciation Night and Senior Night, with the six CSU seniors being honored in a pre-game ceremony.