Feb. 26, 2010
Contact: Brian McCann
Complete Release in PDF Format 
Game 31
Wright State (19-10, 12-5) at Cleveland State (14-16, 9-8)
Date: Saturday, February 27, 2010
Time: 2:00 p.m. EST
Site: Goodman Arena (8,500), Wolstein Center, Cleveland, Ohio
Radio: WHKW 1220 AM (Cleveland) & WHKZ, 1440 AM (Warren) (Al Pawlowski)
TV: SportsTime Ohio (Mike Cairns & Franklin Edwards)
Promo: Family Value Saturday: Free Kid Zone & Dollar Dogs At Concession Stands.
Series: WSU Leads, 27-24
Last Meeting: @WSU 73, CSU 64 (12/3/09)
Tickets: $8, $15 & $25
SETTING THE SCENE: A first round home game in next week's Horizon League Championship will be on the line when Cleveland State closes out the regular season against Wright State on Saturday, Feb. 27 beginning at 2:00 p.m. in the Wolstein Center. The game will be televised throughout Ohio by SportsTime Ohio with Mike Cairns and Franklin Edwards providing the commentary. The Vikings (14-16, 9-8) come into the game needing either a CSU victory or Detroit loss at Youngstown State in order to host a first round game on Tuesday (March 2). Wright State (19-10), 12-5) has won four straight league games to clinch the No. 2 seed in the tournament, earning themselves a bye through the first two rounds and into the semi-finals. This will be the 52nd series meeting with the Raiders holding a slim 27-24 lead in the all-time series, including a 73-64 decision in Fairborn, OH in early December.
CSU IN THE NCAA STATS: Cleveland State received several mentions in the most recent NCAA men's basketball statistics, which were released on Monday (Feb. 22). As a team, the Vikings are 15th nationally in steals (8.9), 19th in free throw percentage (.745), 22nd in turnover margin (+3.6) and 57th in turnovers per game (12.4). Individually, D'Aundray Brown ranks 13th nationally in steals (2.6 spg).
CHAMPIONSHIP SEEDING: With one game to go in the regular season, the Vikings can still finish as high as third or as low as seventh in the regular season standings. A win over Wright State guarantees the Vikings a first round home game and a seeding from anywhere between No. 4 and No. 6. A loss would drop the Vikings to 9-9 on the year and because they do not have any of the tiebreakers with either Detroit (8-9) or Milwaukee (9-9), the only way CSU can lose and host would be if Detroit loses at Youngstown State on Saturday. If CSU, Milwaukee and Detroit finish tied at 9-9, Detroit would get the No. 5 seed and Milwaukee would be the No. 6 seed, hosting CSU for a first round game. If Milwaukee wins on Saturday and CSU and Detroit finish tied, then the Vikings will travel to Detroit for a first round game.
BROWN STARTS CLIMB UP STEALS LIST: With two steals against Detroit, junior D'Aundray Brown increased his league-leading season total to 77. In the process, he moved past Clinton Ransey (76 in 1986-87) and into seventh on the single season steals chart. With at least two games to go, Brown could do some additional damage on the CSU chart. At his current rate of 2.6 steals a game, he could challenge Kenny Robertson for third place on the chart (90 steals). In fact, Brown can impact the league marks as well. Cedric Jackson holds the top two efforts in Horizon League history, a record 112 last year and 88 in 2007-08.
SENIOR-LESS NIGHT: Saturday's game against Wright State will be the final regular season home game for the Vikings, a day that is usually set aside to honor those seniors who will be leaving the program. That ceremony won't be needed however as the Vikings have no seniors on the roster, which is something that has not happened at CSU since the 1984-85 season.
COLE PASSES CONSECUTIVE GAME MILESTONE: The Wright State game will mark the 102nd consecutive game in the playing career of junior Norris Cole, the ninth-longest streak in school history. The streak covers his entire career as he played in 33 games off the bench as a freshman and has started 68 straight games over the last two seasons (7th longest starting streak in program history).
. . . AND HE PASSED THE 1,000 MINUTE MARK: With 39 minutes played against Detroit on Thursday, junior Norris Cole became only the third player in school history to record multiple seasons playing 1,000 minutes or more. Cole, whose 1,213 minutes played last season was the second highest single season total in CSU history, has played 1,014 minutes in 30 games this year, joining Cedric Jackson and J'Nathan Bullock, both of whom accomplished the feat in 2007-08 and 2008-09.
SOMETHING ABOUT MILWAUKEE: Although the Vikings have done a great job of taking care of the basketball this season, ranking 54th nationally in the latest NCAA stats by committing just 12.4 turnovers a game, there is something about Milwaukee that makes them do an even better job. In the two games against the Panthers this year, CSU has tied the school record for fewest turnovers in a game in both contests, committing just five each night. The total equals the previous mark set against both Utica (1/5/85) and Brooklyn (12/30/82).
WOODS FINDS THE RANGE: Cleveland State has received a big offensive boost off the bench recently from redshirt freshman Charlie Woods. Woods, who scored just 10 points in the first 24 games of the season, has erupted for 28 points over the last six games (4.7 ppg). Included in the total was a career-high 15 points against Toledo on Saturday, a game in which Woods connected on all five three-point attempts he made. During his current hot streak, Woods has made eight of his 12 three-point attempts, to improve to .500 (10-20) for the season.
NOTES FROM SCOTT: CSU athletic historian Scott Yaeger provides these notes of interest for this week: • With his five-for-five effort from three-point against Toledo, Charlie Woods set the school record for three-point percentage. Jamaal Harris held the old record of .875, making seven of his eight attempts against Green Bay (1/25/01). • Woods also became the 12th CSU freshman to make five treys in a game. The last freshman to accomplish it was Jeremy Montgomery at UIC, 2/5/09. • When Lance James made a trey against Toledo, he became the 10th different Viking to make one this year, tying the school record set in both 2004-05 and 2006-07. • CSU's average of 12.36 turnovers a game this year barely trails the school record of 12.27 set last year. • The Vikings have eight games with single digit turnovers this season, the most in school history. It tops the old high of seven set in 2008-09.
COLE PICKS UP 61ST WIN AS A VIKING: The win over Toledo on Feb. 20 marked the 61st time (in 100 career games) that Norris Cole has emerged victorious as a Viking. Just a junior, Cole is six wins away from breaking into the career top 10 list in the category and 31 wins shy of Ken McFadden's school record of 91 from 1985-89.
JAMES IS BACK: The Vikings got a little good news on the medical front on Saturday when junior guard Lance James returned after missing the last 21 games following surgery to repair a broken foot. He suffered a Jones fracture of the left foot in practice on Dec. 2 and had surgery on Dec. 11. His return was a strong one as he scored seven points in 11 minutes, going two-for-three from the field, making his only trey and both free throw attempts.
FOR BETTER OR WORSE: Although coaches always claim that turnovers are a key to winning and losing, a look at the trends that have developed this year show that turnovers have no role in a games outcome. The two items that have played a role in determining wins and losses this year for CSU is halftime score and shooting percentage. The Vikings are 12-3 in games it led at halftime, losing leads to Virginia, at Butler and at Green Bay, and 1-13 in games it trailed at halftime, coming back from a 39-30 deficit to defeat Milwaukee in Cleveland. The shooting stats have a similar outcome as CSU is 12-1 in games it has shot a higher percentage than its opponent, losing only to Virginia. The Vikings are also 3-14 in games in which was out-shot, claiming both wins over Loyola and the home victory over Milwaukee.
HARMON FROM THE STRIPE: Sophomore Trey Harmon has developed into one of the top free throw shooters in the league, making 61 of his 72 attempts to rank fourth shooting .847. After starting the year making 22 of his 32 attempts in the first 16 games (.688), he has come back to make 39 of his 40 attempts over the last 11 games (.975), including 23 straight.
. . . AND COLE WARMS UP AS WELL: After going just two-for-six at the foul line in the win at Loyola on Feb. 6, junior Norris Cole regrouped to find the shooting form that made him one of the most accurate shooters in the Horizon League. Over his last five games, Cole has made 32 of his 34 free throw attempts (.941). He had a streak of 23 consecutive makes snapped with a second half miss vs. Detroit on Thursday. Cole has raised his season percentage to .803 (118-147), good for eighth in the Horizon League.
COLE MOVES INTO 14TH PLACE ON SCORING CHART: An 18-point effort against Toledo on Saturday has moved junior Norris Cole past both Anthony Reed (1,123 points) and Andre Battle (1,129) and into 14th on the CSU career scoring list. Cole enters the Wright State game with 1,156 points, 12 points short of catching 13th place Dave Kyle (1,168 points from 1974-77). Cole, the 18th player in CSU history to score 1,000 points in a career, reached the milestone in the Jan. 24 win over Milwaukee. He is only the eighth player to accomplish it as a junior. In 30 games, he leads the team and ranks second in the league, averaging 16.6 points a game (497 total).
A TOUGH SCHEDULE: The 2-8 record that CSU put up against non-conference Division I teams this year is a little misleading. After all, not only were four of the teams ranked in the top 15 at the time CSU played them (Kentucky No. 5, West Virginia No. 6, Ohio State No. 12 & Kansas State No. 12), but the 10 opponents have combined to post a 94-37 (.718) record in non-conference games. The College Basketball RPI ranks CSU's non-conference schedule the third-toughest in the nation, trailing only California (1) and Long Beach State (2).
CHARITY STRIPE HAS BEEN KIND: One strength of the Vikings this year has come at the foul line where CSU is on pace to challenge the school record for free throw percentage. Through 30 games, the Vikings have gone 426-for-572 from the line (.745), which is ahead of the record .724 set in 1979-80. Jeremy Montgomery (74-87, .851), Trey Harmon (61-72, .847) and Norris Cole (118-147, .803), rank third, fourh and eighth in the league, respectively, in free throw percentage. D'Aundray Brown (39-50, .780), Jared Cunningham (24-32, .750) and Tim Kamczyc (23-32, .719) are each above 70-percent but have not taken enough free throws to qualify for the league stats. CSU ranks 19th in the nation in free throw percentage in the latest NCAA stats.
. . . BUT THEN WHAT DO YOU EXPECT: It is no concincidence that the Vikings are shooting at a record pace from the foul line this year, especially when you consider the track record of teams coached by Gary Waters. A quick check of the CSU record book shows that CSU entered the year with just five seasons of shooting .700 from the line or better. The school record of .724 came in 1979-80 with the next three efforts all coming during Waters first three years at CSU. CSU shot .713 in Waters first season in 2006-07 to rank second all-time. In 2007-08, CSU was .702 to rank third and then followed that up with a .701 effort last year to rank fourth.
IT HAS BEEN A STEAL: The Vikings have found success predicated on their defense over the last three seasons and the season results to date have been extraordinary. In 30 games, CSU has forced 480 turnovers (16.0 tpg), making 267 steals (8.9 spg). D'Aundray Brown leads the league and ranks 11th nationally with 77 steals (2.6 spg) while Norris Cole is fourth with 53 thefts (1.8 spg) and Trevon Harmon is seventh with 45 steals (1.6 spg). In addition, Jeremy Montgomery has 32 steals (1.0). Norris Cole made seven steals vs. Wilmington, the seventh-highest single game total in school history, and Brown turned in a six theft game against Youngstown State (1/30/10). CSU's 8.9 steals a game is easily tops in the Horizon League, ranking 15th nationally in the latest NCAA stats.
SUCCESS 401: The fourth edition of Success Class under Gary Waters is utilizing the book The 17 Essential Qualities of a Team Player by John Maxwell as the course text. Instituted at CSU in the summer of 2006, Waters uses Success Class to teach the Viking players the finer points of what it takes to succeed. Success Class 101 used John Wooden's book, The Pyramid of Success. In 2007-08, Waters relied on John Maxwell's book Talent Is Never Enough to instruct the Vikings and then turned to former Indianapolis Colts head coach Tony Dungy's book, Quiet Strength for a text last year. The non-credited class is taught weekly by Waters to the Viking players over the summer and preseason months.
THE FIFTH DEGREE: All five of the Viking seniors on last year's roster have graduated. J'Nathan Bullock, Cedric Jackson, Renard Fields and George Tandy each earned their sheepskin during spring commencement ceremonies with Chris Moore picking up his degree in August after taking a couple of classes during summer session.
NEXT UP: The Vikings will play a first round game in the Horizon League Championship on Tuesday, March 2. The site and opponent will be determined after Saturday's games.
