March 18, 2011
Complete Release in PDF Format 
Game 36
2011 National Invitation Tournament
College of Charleston (25-10) at Cleveland State (27-8)
Date: Saturday, March 19, 2011
Time: 2:00 p.m. EDT
Site: Goodman Arena (8,500), Wolstein Center, Cleveland, Ohio
Radio: WHKW 1220 AM (Cleveland) & WHKZ 1440 AM (Warren) (Al Pawlowski)
TV: ESPNU (Jim Barbar & David Kaplan)
Series: First Meeting
Tickets: $10 & $20
SETTING THE SCENE: Cleveland State highlights a busy weekend of college basketball by hosting College of Charleston in a second round NIT game on Saturday, March 19 beginning at 2 p.m. in the Wolstein Center. The game will be televised live on ESPNU with Jim Barbar and David Kaplan providing the commentary. The game is preceded at 11 a.m. by a CSU women's contest against Chicago State in the second round of the Women Basketball Invitational with one admission price being good for both contests. This is the fourth trip to the NIT for the Vikings, and second under Gary Waters, with CSU owning a 3-3 all-time record in the tourney. Cleveland State is 27-8 this year, the second-highest single season win total in school history. College of Charleston enters the contest with a 25-10 record after defeating Dayton, 94-84, in the first round. The game will be a showcase of two of the nation's top scoring guards in Southern Conference Player of the Year Andrew Goudelock (23.8 ppg) and Horizon League Player of the Year Norris Cole (21.8 ppg). They currently rank No. 4 and No. 11, respectively in the latest NCAA Division I scoring rankings. A victory will send the winner to a third round game against the winner of the Wichita State at Virginia Tech contest, which will be played on Sunday.
CSU IN THE NCAA STATS: Cleveland State received numerous mentions in the most recent NCAA men's basketball statistics, which were released on Thursday (March 17). Individually, Norris Cole ranked 11th in the nation in scoring (21.8), 24th in steals (2.2), 39th in assists (5.3) and 47th in free throw percentage (.857). As a team, the Vikings were in the top 75 in nine categories, ranking 20th in turnover margin (+3.1), 25th in winning percentage (.771), 35th in turnovers (11.6), 45th in scoring margin (+7.8), 56th in scoring defense (63.6), 58th free throw percentage (.730), 62nd in three-point defense (.322), 69th in steals (7.5) and 70th in field goal defense (.413).
DOUBLE PLEASURE FOR VIKING FANS: Saturday's game will be the fifth home doubleheader this year as the CSU women's squad will host Chicago State in a second round game of the Women's Basketball Invitational at 11:00 a.m. CSU has been very successful this year, winning all four games during a doubleheader and helping the Viking teams to claim three sweeps. Going back even further, the two CSU squads have combined to go 29-5 in 15 doubleheaders over the last four years, claiming 12 sweeps. The Viking men are 15-2 with the women going 14-3.
WATERS CLAIMS VIKING WIN NO. 100: It took a last second shot that hit iron four times and the glass once before rolling out, but the 63-60 win over Vermont on Tuesday night (March 15) gave CSU head coach Gary Waters his 100th win as the Viking head coach. He is now 100-70 record in five seasons at CSU and 271-204 in 15 seasons as a head coach.
COLE ONE WIN AWAY FROM VICTORY RECORD: The win over Vermont on Tuesday was the 90th victory in the CSU playing career of Norris Cole, leaving him one win short of the school record of 91 wins set by Ken McFadden from 1985-89. The Vermont win moved him past Eddie Bryant (1983-87) and Clinton Ransey (1983-87), who had won 89 games each, and into second place on the career list. Cole came off the bench in all 34 games as a freshman, helping CSU to a 21-13 record. He then started all 37 games as a sophomore in 2008-09, winning 26 times, and won 16 times as a junior last year.
VIKINGS IN POSTSEASON PLAY: This is the sixth time in program history that the Vikings have taken part in one of the postseason tournaments with CSU owning a 6-5 overall record and advancing past the first round of the tourney in four of the five appearances. CSU is 3-2 in two trip to the NCAA Championship (1986 & 2009) and 3-3 in NIT play (1987, 1988 & 2008).
WATERS IN THE NIT: This year's NIT appearance marks the ninth time in 15 years as a head coach that Gary Waters has taken a team to post-season play and his sixth appearance in the NIT, owning a 8-5 record in those appearances. He was 2-1 while at Kent State, taking the 2000 team to the quarterfinals. Waters' Rutgers teams made three appearances, losing in the opening round in 2002, going 4-1 to finish in second place in 2004 and making a second round visit in 2006. In his only appearance with the Vikings, CSU dropped a 66-57 decision to Dayton in 2008.
COLE IS TWO AWAY FROM CONSECUTIVE FREE THROW MARK: Since missing the final free throw againsy Green Bay in the regular season finale on Feb. 26, Norris Cole has gone a perfect 30-for-30 from the foul line to move within two free throws made of the school record for consecutive free throws made. Damon Stringer set the school record with 32 consecutive free throws made in 1999-00 and Trey Harmon had a streak of 29 straight snapped earlier this year.
VIKINGS APPROACH WIN MARK: The Vikings enter the College of Charleston game with 27 wins, the second-highest single season win total in school history. It is the eighth 20-win season, and the third in the last four years. The 1985-86 Vikings set the record by winning 29 games and CSU also won 26 games in 2008-09.
COLE NAMED TO TWO ALL-DISTRICT TEAMS: The honors poured in for Cleveland State senior guard Norris Cole last week as he was named to the all-district team by both the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) and the United States Basketball Writer's Association. The USBWA District V team, which consists of players from the midwestern states, consisted of Ben Hansbrough (Notre Dame), Tu Holloway (Xavier), Matt Howard (Butler), JaJuan Johnson and E'Twaun Moore from Purdue, Jon Leuer (Wisconsin), Kalin Lucas (Michigan State), Demetri McCarney (Illinois) and Jared Sullinger (Ohio State) and Cole. The team was determined in balloting of USBWA members within the district. The NABC District 12 squad, which is comprised of players from the Horizon and Summit Leagues and determined through a balloting of the coaches within the district, consists of Oakland's Keith Benson, IUPUI's Alex Young, Valparaiso's Brandon Wood, Butler's Howard and Cole.
COLE A FINALIST FOR THE BOB COUSY AWARD: Cleveland State senior guard Norris Cole has been named as one of five finalists for the 2011 Bob Cousy Award, which is presented by the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame to the nation's top collegiate point guard. He is joined by BYU's Jimmer Fredette, Nolan Smith of Duke, Wisonsin's Jordan Taylor and Kemba Walker of Connecticut. Cole was initially named as one of 72 candidates for the award in early December and the list was pared down by the selection committee to 20 in January and to 10 in February. The most recent balloting included an online voting that was open to fans nationwide with that vote being used to help trim the list from 10 to five. Cole finished third among the 10 nominees with 13 percent of the vote. The winner of the 2011 Bob Cousy Award will be announced on April 1 with the award presentation coming at the Final Four on Monday April 4 as part of the Basketball Hall of Fame Class Announcement.
COLE NAMED HORIZON LEAGUE PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Viking senior Norris Cole capped off a championship season when he was named the 2010-11 Horizon League Player of the Year in a balloting of league coaches, sports infromation directors and media. He is only the second player in school history to be named league player of the year (Ken McFadden in 1987-88) but the first since CSU joined the Horizon League in 1993-94. Cole has been nothing short of brilliant this season, scoring 19 points or more 24 times this year to lead the Horizon League with a 21.8 scoring average. More importantly, he has shown his leadership skills on the court by also leading the league in steals (2.2) and free throw percentage (.857) while ranking second in assists (5.3), third in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.94) and minutes played (35.6), fourth in defensive rebounds (5.2) and seventh in rebounding (5.9). He has twenty 20-point games this year, giving him 39 in his career, to raise his CSU career scoring total to 1,960 points to rank third on the CSU chart.
. . . AND VIKINGS DOMINATE DEFENSIVE AWARDS: In addition to earning league player of the year honors, Norris Cole was also tabbed as the Horizon League Defensive Player of the Year while Trey Harmon was named to the five-player all-defensive team. Cole, the first player in league history to earn player of the year and defensive player of the year honors in the same season, led the league in steals with 78 while Harmon was fourth with 54 steals. In addition, the duo was the focal point of the Viking defense with Harmon routinely shutting down the opposing point guard and Cole covering the top player among the guards. Cole joins Cedric Jackson (2009) as the only Vikings to earn defensive player of the year honors in the Horizon League
COLE BREAKS SCORING RECORD: The 27 points by Norris Cole against Vermont allowed the Viking senior to extend his CSU single season scoring total to 762 points. Cole broke Ken McFadden's season record of 708 points (set in 1986-87) in the first round of the league tourney on March 1. Cole, who had 539 points last year, joined Franklin Edwards, Ken McFadden and Clinton Ransey to become the fourth player in program history to score 500 points or more in multiple seasons.
COLE BREAKS SECOND FREE THROW MARK: A 30-for-30 performance at the line in the four post-seaon games allowed Norris Cole to break the school record for free throws attempted in a season. Cole, who is now 221-for-258 from the stripe, broke Ken McFadden's record of 233 attempts, which was set in 1987-88. Cole has shattered Ken McFadden's school record of 177 free throws made, which he set in both 1986-87 and 1987-88. Cole has also set the Horizon League record for free throws made in a season and is 11 attempts away from the single season mark as well. Milwaukee's Shannon Smith held the records with 212 free throws made and 268 attempted in 1994-95.
CSU BREAKS HOME WINS MARK: Part of the reason for the successful season this year has been CSU's ability to play well at home. The Vikings enter the College of Charleston game with a 17-2 home record, the most home wins in a season in program history. It broke the old mark of 15, which was set in both 1985-86 and 1987-88. CSU played every game in Woodling Gym in 1985-86 and 11 of the 15 games in Woodling in 1987-88 with the other four contests being held in Public Hall. The 17 wins in the Wolstein Center breaks the old mark of 13 wins, which was set in 2008-09.
. . . AND VIKINGS CREATE A HOME COURT EDGE: When Gary Waters took over as head coach at CSU, he talked about the importance of creating a home court advantage by winning at home. Waters has done that as the Vikings have won 12 or more games in the Wolstein Center in each of the last four years, going 55-11 (.833) at home during that span.
MONTGOMERY & HARMON ARE CHASING 1,000: With the 2010-11 season winding down, juniors Jeremy Montgomery and Trey Harmon are working their way towards becoming the 19th and 20th players in school history to score 1,000 career points. Montgomery enters the College of Charletson game with 986 points while Harmon has 915 points.
COLE TAKES OVER THIRD PLACE ON CAREERT SCORING CHART: A 27-point effort against Vermont in the NIT first round allowed Norris Cole's to move into third place on the CSU career scoring chart with 1,960 points. He passed Clinton Ransey (1,946 points from 1983-87).
FINISHING IT IN REGULATION: The Vermont game extended Cleveland State's school-record streak of consecutive games without an overtime contest to 135. The last time CSU played an overtime tilt came on Nov. 17, 2007 when the Vikings toppled Florida State, 69-66, at the Glenn Wilkes Classic in Daytona Beach, Fla. In the 134 games since, Cleveland State has gone 88-47 (.652).
FREE THROWS: After setting a school record by shooting .749 from the foul line last year, the Vikings have come back to shoot .730 (592-811) this year, the second-best effort in program history. Included in that total was a 22-for-23 (.957) performance against Iona on Nov. 13, the fourth-highest single game percentage in school history, and a .920 performance (23-25) vs. Wright State on Jan. 22. For the year, CSU ranks third in the league.
. . . AND VIKINGS ARE WARMING UP WHEN IT COUNTS: The Vikings have shot .700 or better from the line in 10 of the last 11 games. Cleveland State has made 197 of its 254 free throws during that stretch (.776), including five games of .800 or better.
NEXT UP: A victory over College of Charleston would send the Vikings to the NIT third round. CSU would face the winner of Sunday's Wichita State at Virginia Tech game with a trip to the tourney semi-finals in Madison Square Garden on the line.
(A complete set of notes and stats is on the attached PDF)
