Feb. 13, 2006
Contact: Brian McCann
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GAME 24
Cleveland State (8-15, 4-9) at Wright State (12-11, 8-5)
Date: Wednesday, February 15, 2006
Time: 7:00 p.m. EST
Site: Nutter Center (11,019), Fairborn, Ohio
TV: Ohio News Network (Guy Fogle & Franklin Edwards)
Live video also available online through CSTV at CSUVikings.com
Radio: WKNR, 850 AM (Al Pawlowski & Jason Gibbs)
Series: WSU Leads, 22-21
Last Meeting: WSU 58, CSU 55 (1/5/06 at CSU)
SETTING THE SCENE: Cleveland State takes to the road for the final time during the regular season when the Vikings play at Wright State on Wednesday, Feb. 15 beginning at 7:00 p.m. in the Nutter Center. The game will be televised throughout Ohio on the Ohio News Network with Guy Fogle and Franklin Edwards providing the commentary. The Vikings are struggling, entering the game having dropped six straight league games to fall to 8-15 overall and 4-9 in league play. Wright State has won four of its last five games, including wins over Horizon League frontrunners UW-Milwaukee (59-54) and Butler (86-83 in 2OT) to improve to 12-11 overall and move into third place in the league standings with a 12-11 mark. This will be the 44th meeting between CSU and Wright State with the Raiders using a 58-55 win at CSU on Jan. 5 to take a slim, 22-21 series lead.
PREVIEWING CLEVELAND STATE: After using the same starting lineup for nine straight games, Mike Garland has shaken things up a bit, using three different lineups in the last four games in attempt to find the right combination of players to get CSU out of its six-game losing streak. Purdue transfer Ije Nwankwo (11.9 ppg, 5.2 rpg) has averaged 14.2 points over the last nine games to take over the scoring lead. Junior guard Raheem Moss (10.3 ppg, 3.4 rpg) and freshman forward J'Nathan Bullock (10.2, 4.0) have provided steady scoring while junior Carlos English (7.7 ppg, 4.8 apg) has given the Vikings steady play at point guard. Veterans Patrick Tatham (8.2 ppg, 5.8 rpg), Frashon McGee (5.0, 5.3) and Victor Morris (5.9, 2.7 apg) have proven to be the backbone of the squad, each averaging more than 20 minutes a game. The unusual depth of the Vikings -- CSU plays as many as 12 players every game -- allows Garland to run his high-intensity schemes while giving him additional substitutions for most situations.
TV TIMEOUT: Wednesday's game is the last of five games that will be televised on the Ohio News Network this season. ONN, the 24-hour news, weather and sports channel launched in 1997, is available on every cable system in Ohio. ONN previously televised the games against Albany (Dec. 10), Utah Valley State (Dec. 20), Wright State (Jan. 5) and Youngstown State (Jan. 28).
SOME HOME COURT EDGE: The homecourt advantage doesn't seem to apply this year in Horizon League play if the Vikings are one of the two teams involved in a game. In the 13 league games involving CSU, the home team has gone just 5-8 with CSU winning three of its seven games on the road and dropping five of the six at home. In the league games that haven't involved CSU, the home team is 36-11 and the Vikings are the only Horizon League team to have a losing home record (5-8).
VIKINGS DRAW DELAWARE AS PART OF BRACKETBUSTERS: Cleveland State will host Delaware of the Colonial Athletic Association on Saturday, Feb. 18 beginning at 5:30 p.m. in a pool game that is part of the 2006 BracketBusters presented by ebay. The pairings for the fourth annual event were announced earlier this week with 100 teams representing 18 different conferences taking part in the event. This is the third year that CSU is taking part in the event, hosting Eastern Michigan in 2004 and playing at Central Michigan last year.
NWANKWO HAS AN IMPACT AT THE LINE: Junior center Ije Nwankwo has been of of the big reasons why the Vikings have begun to have an edge at the foul line. In the 15 games since becoming eligible, Nwankwo has made 57 of his 80 free throw attempts (.713). He has gone to the line at least four times in a game 11 times, including 10 free throw attempts against both Akron and Loyola and nine at UW-Green Bay.
. . . ESPECIALLY DOWN THE STRETCH: Ije Nwankwo's free throw shooting has been especially effective late in the game as the junior has made all 17 of his free throw attempts in the final five minutes and overtime of games. That is a stern contrast to the rest of the Vikings, who are shooting just .600 during that time, making 48 of 80 free throws.
. . . AND THE VIKINGS REBOUND AS A TEAM: Free throw shooting wasn't one of the Viking strengths during the early part of the season. In fact, in the first 14 games, CSU was just 28-for-55 (.509) from the stripe in the final five minutes and overtime of games. The Vikings have turned that performance around, making 37 of their 42 free throws (.881) over the last nine games.
MAKING THE GRADE: The Vikings turned in one of their best performances in the classroom in recent memory during the just completed fall semester. The 17 players on the roster combined to post a 2.82 GPA for the semester with Vikings Robert Clark, Steve Kallman, Cory Rojeck and Greg Vlosich each earning a spot on the Dean's List with Clark overcoming knee surgery during the week before finals to record a perfect 4.0 GPA.
PETTY THEFT: The emphasis on defense is illustrated well by the steal totals of the Vikings players. Not only is CSU leading the league averaging 8.4 steals a game, but four CSU players are averaging at least one steal a game. Carlos English leads the way with a league high 44 steals. Raheem Moss has 26, Patrick Tatham has 25 and J'Nathan Bullock 24. A fifth Viking -- Frashon McGee -- is just off the one steal a game pace, having 21 steals in 22 games.
STREAMING VIDEO AVAILABLE ONLNE OF CSU GAMES: Under a new plan put in place during the off-season, all Horizon League men's and women's conference games will be available either via over-the-air or cable television or via video streaming on the League's official web site at www.horizonleague.org. All games not cleared on television will be shown live on the web through a new partnership with College Sports TV Online, which also is the web provider for five League schools and the conference office. The service is available for free once a guest registers and can be accessed by clicking on the link on CSUVikings.com. Each broadcast will feature the radio play-by-play of the host school and video taken from at least three different camera angles. Although not a league game, Saturday's matchup with Delaware has been added to the streaming lineup.
ANOTHER LINEUP SHUFFLE: After using the same starting group in a personal high nine straight games, Mike Garland has used three different lineups in the last four games, giving CSU nine different starting lineups in 23 games this year. The season started with the Vikings employing a different starting unit in each of the first six games. Things settled down after that as Garland used two different groups over the next 14 games before shaking things up last week. Garland went back to the lineup for the UW-Milwaukee game that he used for a personal-high nine games, starting Carlos English and Raheem Moss at guard, J'Nathan Bullock and Patrick Tatham at forward and Ije Nwankwo at center.
NWANKWO SETTLES IN: It took junior center Ije Nwankwo a couple of games to get settled, but his play of late has ignited the Vikings at both ends of the court. Over the last nine games, Nwankwo has averaged 14.2 points and 6.2 rebounds, shooting .513 from the field (41-80) and .708 from the line (46-65).
. . . AND RANKING IJE: Junior Ije Nwankwo will not qualify for the Horizon League statistical rankings this year because by missing eight games early in the year, he will not be able to play in the required 75 percent of CSU's games. Nwankwo, who has played in 15 of the 23 games (65.2 percent), would rank seventh in blocks (0.8), 13th in rebounding (5.2) and 15th in scoring (11.9) and both field goal (.462) and free throw percentage (.713).
TATHAM GETS NEW STARTING ROLE: After starting at center in 39 games during his first three seasons at CSU, junior Patrick Tatham has played a different role since the Horizon League schedule started, moving to small forward. The change came when Mike Garland inserted Ije Nwankwo into the starting lineup at center, allowing Tatham to move to his more natural position. Small forward is nothing new to Tatham, who has seen time at the spot this year when Justin Henderson or Renard Fields were in the game.
THE PROOF IS IN THE MINUTES: The depth of the Vikings this year is evident in the playing rotation. CSU currently has 10 players averaging 8.9 minutes or more a game with all except Ije Nwankwo -- who was not eligible for the first seven games -- having seen action in at least all but three games this year. Victor Morris (24.3 mpg) and Frashon McGee (21.2), who have been used mostly off the bench this season, are two of the seven players averaging more than 20 minutes a game.
THE BABY BULL-OCK: Freshman forward J'Nathan Bullock is living up to the expectations that has made him one of the top newcomers on the team this year. Bullock is third on the team in scoring (10.2), posting double figure scoring efforts 12 times this year. Although he has started 18 games, he has had some of his best efforts off the bench. He matched his career high with 21 points at Detroit on Feb. 2, going seven-for-11 from the field and seven-for-10 from the line. He came back on Feb. 4 at Loyola to make seven of his nine field goals en route to a 17 point game. Earlier this year, he led CSU with 15 points, six rebounds and three steals at North Carolina (Nov. 22). As a starter, he originally set his career high with 21 points at Kent State on Dec. 3 and later posted a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds against Utah Valley State on Dec. 20.
GOING OVERTIME: After not playing an overtime game during the first two seasons under head coach Mike Garland, the Vikings have played two this year, winning both. The most recent came against Detroit on Jan. 12 when CSU rallied from 12 points down in the second half. The Dec. 20 win over Utah Valley State was similar as the Vikings trailed by 13 with 12:11 left. The overtime periods have been a different story as CSU has trailed for just 17 seconds in the two wins. Cleveland State is now 36-30 all-time in games extended to overtime, including 22-14 in home games.
Mike Garland SHOW: The weekly Mike Garland radio show returns for a third season on WKNR (850-AM) with the broadcast schedule being lengthened to cover the entire season. The one-hour call-in show airs every Monday night from 7:00-8:00 p.m. with Jason Gibbs and Viking play-by-play voice Al Pawlowski serving as the hosts.
NEXT UP: The Vikings close the regular season with three straight home games, starting with a BracketBusters pool game matchup against Delaware on Saturday, Feb. 18.
