Feb. 26, 2007
Contact: Brian McCann
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GAME 31
2007 Horizon League Championship
Cleveland State (10-20, 3-13) at UW-Green Bay (16-14, 7-9)
Date: Tuesday, February 27, 2007
Time: 7:00 p.m. CST
Site: Resch Center (9,729), Green Bay, Wisconsin
TV: None Live
(Live Video Streaming available through the Horizon League Network at Horizonleague.org.)
(Highlights available on The Viking Basketball Report, which airs weekly on SportsTime Ohio.)
Radio: WKNR, 850 AM (Al Pawlowski), Sirius Radio, Channel 147)
(Streaming available at www.WKNR.com)
Series: UW-Green Bay Leads, 32-20
Last Meeting: UWGB 79, @CSU 66 (2/3/07)
SETTING THE SCENE: Cleveland State opens play in the 2007 Horizon League Championship as the No. 9 seed and will travel to No. 4 seed UW-Green Bay to play on Tuesday, February 27 beginning at 7:00 p.m. CST in the Resch Center. The Vikings (10-20, 3-13) finished the regular season strong, winning two of their last three games and also had the lead late in each of their last two losses. UW-Green Bay (16-14, 7-9) swept the season series from the Vikings this year, but struggled late in the season, especially at home. After winning nine of their first 10 homes contests, the Phoenix lost four of their last five home games to end the regular season, including decision against Butler (68-58) and UW-Milwaukee (74-73) last week. This will be the fourth time that CSU will face UW-Green Bay in the postseason with the Vikings owning a 1-2 record in those games.
PREVIEWING CLEVELAND STATE: The Vikings head into the conference tournament playing some of their best basketball of the season. Despite having just nine healthy scholarship players, CSU was able to win two of its final three regular season games. CSU received a big boost when guard Victor Morris (7.5 ppg, 2.1 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 (10.6 ppg) and forward Patrick Tatham (5.4 ppg, 4.8 rpg), sophomore forward J'Nathan Bullock (13.7 ppg, 6.5 rpg) and sophomore Bahaadar Russell (6.6 ppg). Freshman Joe Davis (9.2 ppg) moves back to a reserve role after starting 18 straight contests with junior Breyohn Watson (2.4 ppg) and sophomores Tristan Crawford (1.6 ppg) and Renard Fields (2.1 ppg, 3.0 rpg) providing depth off the bench.
CSU IN THE HORIZON LEAGUE TOURNEY: Tuesday's game at UW-Green Bay will mark the 12th year that the Vikings have played in the Horizon League Championship, owning a 3-11 record in those games. CSU has lost six straight league tourney contests, with the last win coming on March 3, 2001 when the Vikings outlasted UIC, 62-61 in a game played at Wright State.
. . . AND CSU VS. UW-GREEN BAY: This will be the fourth time that the Vikings and the Phoenix will square off in conference tournament play with CSU owning a 1-2 record in those games. The only previous meeting against the Phoenix as a member of the Horizon League came on Feb. 28, 1998 when CSU fell, 82-53, in a first round game in Green Bay. CSU also faced UWGB twice as a member of the Mid-Continent Conference, winning 85-67 in an opening round game in Cleveland on March 6, 1984 and losing 93-63 in a second round game on March 7, 1994 in Chicago.
CSU IN ALL CONFERENCE TOURNEYS: The Vikings carry into Tuesday night's game a 13-17 record in 18 years of conference tournament postseason play. CSU has claimed one tourney title (1985-86), finished second twice (1983-84 & 1986-87) and third once (1984-85).
VIKINGS SHUT OUT OF HORIZON LEAGUE AWARDS: When the Horizon League post-season honors were handed out on Monday (Feb. 26), the Vikings found themselves without a representative on either of the three different squads for only the third time in 23 seasons of conference play (1996 & 2006 were the other years).
SENIORS TO BE HONORED: The Horizon League Championship will serve as the final games in the playing careers of six Viking seniors, who were honored in a pre-game ceremony before the season-ending Youngstown State contest. 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 309 games in their career, earning 217 starts and scoring 2,236 points with 1,302 rebounds and 480 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.
VIKINGS TO PLAY 31ST GAME: Tuesday's game will be the 31st game of the season for CSU, marking only the fourth time in the 76-year history of the program that the Vikings will play 31 games or more. The school record for games played in a season is 33, which was set in both 1985-86 and 1986-87. Most recently, the Vikings played 32 games in 2000-01.
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 10.6 miscues over the last nine games. CSU has committed 10 or fewer turnovers in a game nine times this year, including in six of the last nine contests. The Vikings matched their season-low with eight in consecutive games vs. Butler (Feb. 8) and Wright State (Feb. 14) and then again vs. Youngstown State last week.
MORRIS PLAYED 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 2,617 minutes in 103 games during his four seasons.
. . . TATHAM JOINED THE GROUP ON SATURDAY: When senior Patrick Tatham started the Youngstown State game on Saturday, he joined Morris as the 27th Viking to play in 100 career games. Tatham has started 87 of his 100 career games, playing 2,443 minutes.
. . . AND TATHAM'S STARTING STREAK HITS 65: Tatham also enters the Horizon League Tourney having started in 65 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. By starting on Tuesday at UW-Green Bay, he will catch fifth-place Eddie Bryant, who started 66 straight games from 1985-87. Tatham leads all active CSU players with 86 career starts.
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 fifth in the league, shooting .711 from the line (383-539). 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 120 of his 161 attempts this year (.745) to rank 12th 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 36 games, Bullock is 156-207 from the line (.754).
. . . 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 41 this season, attempting 22 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 11.3 points over his last 12 games 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. 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 10 starts this season, he is shooting .379 from the field (39-103) and .329 from three-point (23-70), 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 22 steals over the last 11 games, another considerable jump from the nine steals that he made in his previous 28 games.
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: A victory over UW-Green Bay would advance CSU to Friday's second round game at Wright State against the winner of the Detroit at Youngstown State game.
