March 28, 2007

Contact: Brian McCann

Runway To The Fashion 4 Bracket
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Cleveland State men's basketball coach Gary Waters must have made a lasting impression during his first season on the sidelines as head coach of the Vikings as the 33-year collegiate coaching veteran has earned a No. 1 seed in the Midwest Region of the 2007 Runway to the Fashionable 4, which is being conducted online by collegeinsider.com.

The brackets were released on Wednesday with the competition scheduled to take place online through the end of the NCAA Men's Final Four in Atlanta on April 2.

Waters will square off with Southeastern Louisiana head coach and No. 16 seed Jim Yarbrough in the opening round and faces a second round pairing against either No. 8 Orlando Early from Louisiana-Monroe or No. 9 Milan Brown from Mount St., Mary's. Virginia's Dave Leitao and North Carolina's Roy Williams are the No. 2 and No. 3 seeds in the Midwest Region, respectively.

Waters, who is the only Horizon League representative in the 65-coach field, is joined by Louisville's Rick Pitino (Southeast), Bruiser Flint from Drexel (East) and Rice's Willis Wilson (West) as the number one seeds in the tourney.

"This is a well-deserved honor for Coach Waters," CSU Director of Athletics Lee Reed said. "He takes everything about basketball seriously and dressing the part is no exception.

"If a blue-chip recruit is considered a diaper-dandy, than Gary Waters is a dapper-dandy," Reed added.

Virginia Tech head coach Seth Greenberg will be providing commentary online for the 2007 Fashion Royale with ESPN's Dick Vitale naming his Top 5 Best-Dressed Coaches.