July 29, 2004
Contact: Brian McCann
Complete Release in PDF Format
Download Free Acrobat Reader
2004-05 Basketball Schedule (PDF)
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A return trip to North Carolina, 12 home games including a visit from Kent State, and a game in the annual Bracket Buster Saturday highlight the 2004-05 Cleveland State men's basketball schedule, which was released on July 29th.
"This will be a very good schedule for us to play this year," head coach Mike Garland said. "It will definitely create some challenges for our young team."
"The first few games at home will hopefully allow us the opportunity to learn how to be successful while the rest of the non-league games should prepare us to play our Horizon League schedule.
"It's not ideal that we are away from home for such an extended time in the middle of the season, but there were some facility conflicts early in the league schedule that necessitated that we play on the road in January," Garland added.
The Vikings will play three of their first four games at home, opening the 2004-05 campaign at home against Hillsdale College on Saturday, Nov. 20.
The final five games of the non-league slate are all against opponents that CSU played a year ago, including the Dec. 30 game at North Carolina, a team that early prognosticators are ranking among the top 10 teams in the nation.
"The games with Kent State and Akron are important to us because we have developed some pretty good rivalries with those teams," Garland said.
Season tickets and other ticket packages for the 2004-05 season are now available through the CSU Athletic Ticket Office. The office can be reached at (216) 687-4848.
Some notes on the 2004-05 schedule:
CSU will play six games against teams that advanced to postseason play last year, three each vs. NCAA and NIT squads. The three games against NCAA teams include a Dec. 30 contest at North Carolina and a home-and-home league series with Illinois-Chicago. The three games against NIT teams are a Dec. 11 home game vs. Kent State and home-and-home series against UW-Milwaukee.
After opening the season with four of the first five games at home, the Vikings play nine of the next 10 games on the road, including opening Horizon League play with six of the first seven contests away from home.
The Vikings follow-up the extended road swing by closing the year with seven of the last 10 games at home.
CSU will face area rivals Akron and Kent State within a span of four days, traveling to Akron for a Dec. 8 contest before returning home to host Kent State on Dec. 11 in the annual Homecoming game.
Saturday will be a great day to see the Vikings in action as CSU will play eight of its 12 home contests on Saturdays during the year, including five of the eight home league games.
The Vikings will take part in the third annual Bracket Buster Saturday, which will be held on Feb. 19 and is sponsored by ESPN. After hosting a game last year, CSU will play a road game this year against an opponent to be decided by the tournament committee in early February.
CSU will have a rematch of the meeting with 2004 Bracket Buster opponent Eastern Michigan when the Vikings travel to Ypsilanti, Mich. for a Dec. 23 game. It will also serve as a homecoming for Garland, who is a native of Ypsilanti, and CSU Director of Athletics Lee Reed, who worked at Eastern Michigan from 1995-2002.
The CSU men's and women's basketball teams will play a total of six doubleheaders during the year, including three during the month of February.
The preseason schedule has a new look as well. Instead of playing the traditional two preseason games, the Vikings will play just one, against a non-Division I opponent to be determined in the next month. Garland has elected to forego a second exhibition in favor of a controlled scrimmage against a Division I school.
The annual Horizon League Championship will begin play at campus sites on March 1 leading up to the championship game on March 8.
