Feb. 14, 2005

Contact: Brian McCann

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GAME 22
Cleveland State (9-12, 6-7) at Detroit (9-14, 6-7)
Date: Wednesday, Feb. 16, 2005
Time: 7:05 p.m. EST
Site: Calihan Hall (8,295), Detroit, Mich.
TV: Cox Cable (Tape Delay)
(Les Levine & Franklin Edwards)
Game broadcast on Feb. 20 (10:30 a.m. & 9:30 p.m.) & Feb. 21 (7:30 p.m.) on Cox Cable channel 45).
Radio: WKNR, 850 AM (Frank DeMarco)
Series: Detroit Leads, 28-7
Last Mtg.: CSU 69, Detroit 62, Feb. 5, 2005, Cleveland, Ohio

SETTING THE SCENE: For the second straight week, the Vikings will be playing a mid-week road game at a site they have never won at when CSU takes on Detroit on Wednesday, Feb. 16 beginning 7:05 p.m. in Calihan Hall on the Detroit campus. Cleveland State, which won for the first time at Butler last week, is 0-16 all-time in games played in Detroit. The game will be televised on a delayed basis on Cox Cable channel 45 with Les Levine and Franklin Edwards providing the commentary. The Vikings (9-12, 6-7) begin the week in a fourth place tie with Detroit (9-14, 6-7) and Wright State in the league standings. With three league contests left, CSU must finish strong in order to host one of the three first round tournament games. After winning four of its first five league games, Detroit has struggled, going 2-6 since Jan. 20, including a 69-62 loss to CSU in the first meeting on Feb. 5.

PREVIEWING DETROIT: Detroit is in the midst of a rebuilding season, owning an 9-14 overall record heading into Wednesday's game with the Vikings. With just one starter back from the Titan squad that went 19-11 last year and finished fourth in the Horizon League, Detroit struggled to a 1-6 start. The season turned around when Michigan State transfer Brandon Cotton (17.9 ppg) became eligible at the semester break. Cotton, who has led Detroit in scoring in 13 of his 15 games, has helped Detroit go 8-8 over its last 16 games, including a fourth place league showing with a 6-7 mark. The supporting cast around Cotton has been a good one as guard James Thues (10.0 ppg), center Ryvon Covile (8.1 ppg, 5.5 rpg) and forward Torvoris Baker (7.3, 5.5) have each helped offensively. The Titans lead the league in rebounding margin (+5.4) and offensive rebounds (13.6) and are second in field goal defense (.418) and scoring defense (62.0).

FOUR VIKINGS NAMED TO DEAN'S LIST: Evidence of the emphasis that head coach Mike Garland has placed on performing both on and off the court can be found in the academic showing of CSU during the recently completed fall semester. Four players, Mike Redell, Justin Henderson, Doug Barber and Greg Vlosich were named to the Dean's List after recording grade point averages above 3.25. As a team, CSU sported a 2.70 grade point average for the fall semester.

Mike Garland SHOW: The weekly Mike Garland Radio Show is held from 7:00-8:00 p.m. every Monday night through the end of the regular season. The one-hour call-in show airs on WKNR, 850-AM with Jason Gibbs serving as the host for the second straight year.

THE CONVO UNDERGOES A NAME CHANGE: The CSU Convocation Center officially became the Bert L. & Iris S. Wolstein Center on Jan. 21 when the CSU Board of Trustees approved the name change to honor the couple for their $6.25 million commitment to CSU Foundation. Bert Wolstein, who passed away last May, was a graduate of the Cleveland-Marshall School of Law. He was a fixture in the professional sports scene in Cleveland, serving as the founder and owner of the Cleveland Force indoor soccer team, which will continue to play all of its home games in the Wolstein Center.

CSU DRAWS CENTRAL MICHIGAN AS PART OF BRACKET BUSTER POOL: The Vikings have drawn Central Michigan as their opponent for the Feb. 19 game scheduled as part of the third annual Bracket Buster Saturday pool matchups which were announced on Monday (Jan. 31). The game will tipoff at 2:00 p.m. in CMU's Rose Arena. In all 64, teams from 13 Division I conferences are participating in the one-day event. CSU hosted Eastern Michigan in last year's event. As part of the agreement, Central Michigan will also play a non-conference game at Cleveland State next season. The Chippewas have won two of the three games in the series with the Vikings but the two teams have not met since the 1987-88 season.

TRACKING THE BRACKET: With two weeks to go in the regular season, the bracket for the upcoming Horizon League Championship is getting clearer. UW-Milwaukee is a win away from wrapping up the top seed with the UW-Green Bay (9-4) needing a win over UIC on Monday night to claim the No. 2 seed. UIC needs a win over the Phoenix to challenge for the No. 2 seed but most likely won't finish lower than third. Youngstown State (2-11) will be the No. 9 seed. The remaining five teams are separated by just one game in the loss column with three of those squads claiming home first round games. CSU can be seeded anywhere from third to eighth. Here is a look at the remaining schedules for the teams vying for a first round tournament bye or home game:

School (Record) (Remaining League Games)
UIC (7-5): UWGB (Feb. 14), Loyola (Feb. 17), Wright St. (Feb. 23), at Butler (Feb. 26)
CSU (6-7): at Detroit (Feb. 16), Loyola (Feb. 23), UW-Milwaukee (Feb. 26)
Detroit (6-7): CSU (Feb. 16), at UW-Green Bay (Feb. 23), Youngstown St. (Feb. 26)
Wright St. (6-7): at Youngstown St. (Feb. 16), at UIC (Feb. 23), UW-Green Bay (Feb. 26)
Loyola (6-8): at UIC (Feb. 17), at CSU (Feb. 23)
Butler (5-8): at UW-Milwaukee (Feb. 17), at Youngstown St. (Feb. 23), UIC (Feb. 26)

A RETURN HOME FOR CSU'S MICHIGANDERS: Two Viking players along with head coach Mike Garland will be returning home when the Vikings play two games in Michigan this week. Sophomore Victor Morris is from Inkster, Mich., which is a suburb of Detroit while freshman guard Mike Redell hails from Rockford, Mich., which is located about 40 miles southwest of Mt. Pleasant . Garland was born and raised in Ypsilanti, Mich., which is about 35 miles outside of Detroit, attending high school in nearby Belleville, Mich. He began his coaching career at Belleville High in 1987, remaining at the school until leaving for Michigan State in 1996.

MOSS DELIVERS FROM LONG RANGE: With six straight games of multiple three-point field goals, sophomore Raheem Moss has moved up to third in the Horizon League in three-point field goals made, averaging 2.6 per game. Moss, who is 49-of-122 from three-point this year (.402) needs just 12 more treys this year to break into the CSU single season top 10 and 22 to break the school season record of 70 three-pointers held by Theo Dixon (2000-01) and Damon Stringer (1999-2000).

WESTLEY TRIES FOR A RARE DOUBLE: Senior Omari Westley continues his quest this week to become only the second player in Horizon League history to lead the conference in both scoring and rebounding. Westley, who is averaging 17.1 points and 8.6 rebounds, has a comfortable lead on the rebounding chart but is narrowly ahead of UW-Milwaukee's Ed McCants (17.0) in the scoring race. Evansville's Parrish Casebier is the only player in the 26-year history of the league to accomplish the feat, averaging 25.4 points and 9.5 rebounds in 1991-92. Westley would also be only the fourth player to lead the league in rebounding in consecutive seasons and first since Northern Illinois' T.J. Lux accomplish it in 1995-96 and 1996-97.

RECORD-SETTING COMEBACK VS. DETROIT: The win over Detroit on Feb. 5 set a couple of Cleveland State records for largest deficits overcome. The 24-point comeback -- CSU trailed 47-23 -- was the largest deficit overcome in school history, topping the rallies from 19 points down to defeat UW-Milwaukee (1/29/00) and Middle Tennessee State (12/21/93). CSU also set the record for the largest halftime deficit overcome. The Vikings trailed the Titans, 44-23 at the half, breaking the old school record of 15 points set when CSU rallied for a 71-55 win at Northern Illinois on Feb. 1, 1992.

SNAPPING THE STREAKS: The 2004-05 season has seen the end of several significant losing streaks for the Viking basketball program. The streaks include:

Opponent (Losing Streak Snapped) Hillsdale (Nov. 20): 23-games vs. all opp. (longest in the nation)
Youngstown St. (Jan. 8): 25-games vs. league opponents
@ Youngstown St. (Jan. 22): 24 road games vs. league opponents, 22 road games vs. all opponents
Butler (Jan. 27): 9 straight losses to Butler
Detroit (Feb. 5): 10 straight losses to Detroit
@ Butler (Feb. 10): 10 straight losses at Butler (0-10 all-time)

. . . AND VIKINGS WILL TRY TO END O-FOR-DETROIT: The Vikings will be out to snap the oldest and longest current losing streak when they play at Detroit on Wednesday night. CSU is 0-16 all-time in games played in Detroit, a streak that dates back to the 1935-36 season, the seventh season of basketball in the program's history. The Titans have won by an average of 16.3 points a game with only three being decided by seven points or less.

WELCOME BACK PATRICK: Sophomore center Patrick Tatham celebrated his return to the starting lineup by scoring a career-high 20 points at Butler last week, going nine-of-14 from the field with a career-best two three-pointers. It was his first start since he went down with an ankle sprain on Jan. 3, causing him to miss seven games.

VIKINGS GET THE POINT. . . BOTH OF THEM: One of the reasons for the recent success of the Vikings has been the play of point guards Walt Chavis and Mike Redell. Early in the season, you rarely saw both players on the court at the same time, but that changed after the holiday break when Redell broke into the starting lineup and Chavis started seeing playing time at the off-guard. Chavis leads the Horizon League in steals (45), is third in assists (4.0) and he is fifth with a 1.75 assist-to-turnover ratio (84 assists, 48 turnovers). Redell, who is third in the league with a 1.79 assist-to-turnover ratio (70-39) and fifth in assists (3.7), has played even better in league play, ranking second in assists (4.2) and fourth in assist-to-turnover ratio (2.12). The duo have started the last eight games together with CSU going 5-3 over that span.

VIKINGS DEVELOP AN INSIDE PRESENCE: An area where the Vikings have been more efficient this year has been in the paint. Five CSU players have seen time in the post this season (Westley, Tatham, McGee, Henderson & Koundoul), combining to average 33.0 points and shoot .509 from the field (248-487). Last year, Viking post players averaged 29.0 points but managed just .440 shooting (305-693).

DOUBLING UP: With four games remaining in the regular season, the Vikings have already more than doubled their win total from the entire 2003-04 season. CSU begins the week with a 9-12 record, which is quite an improvement on the 4-25 mark of a year ago. The school record is an eight win improvement, that coming when CSU won 21 games in 1984-85 and 29 the following year.

VIKINGS PLAY BETTER AT FULL STRENGTH: When sophomore Victor Morris was sidelined for the UIC game with an ankle sprain, it snapped a streak of five straight games during which head coach Mike Garland had his entire roster available to him. Garland has only had his full team available six times this year with CSU owning a 5-1 record in those games. Every CSU player was available for season opener against Hillsdale but Mike Redell missed the next two games with back spasms. Since that time, Raheem Moss (2 games), Tatham (7), Morris (2), Amadou Koundoul (2) and Frashon McGee (4) have each missed games because of injury.

STARTING EARLY: Since the spring semester at Cleveland State started on Jan. 17, Mike Garland has changed the practice schedule of the Vikings around a bit, electing to hold practices at 6:30 a.m. early in the week. This is not the first time that CSU has practiced early in the morning. The Vikings routinely held weight room sessions during the preseason and off-season individual workouts before 8:00 a.m. so as not to conflict with class schedules.

REDELL WARMS TO THE STARTING ROLE: Since being inserted into the starting lineup against North Carolina on Dec. 30, freshman guard Mike Redell has really excelled in his 13 starts. He has averaged 6.9 points, 2.9 rebounds and 4.4 assists per game, scoring in double figures three times. His first start came in front of 18,537 fans against the fourth-ranked Tar Heels and he responded by setting then-career highs for assists (4), rebounds (5) and minutes played (24). In his second start at Wright State on Jan. 6, he made five-of-nine three-pointers to score a career-high 15 points and then followed that up with 10 points, six assists and five rebounds against Youngstown State on Jan. 8.

TURNOVERS HAVE BEEN A TELL-TALE STAT: The other statistical trend that has been a constant this season has been turnover margin. The Vikings are 7-3 in games in which they commit the same number or fewer turnovers and just 1-9 when making more turnovers. CSU averages 12.9 turnovers in its nine wins and 19.0 miscues in its 12 losses.

WESTLEY LEADS McCANTS IN SCORING RACE: Despite scoring just 10 points against UIC on Saturday, Omari Westley was still able to hold on to the Horizon League scoring lead. Westley is averaging 17.1 points a game, which is slightly ahead of UW-Milwaukee's Ed McCants, who is averaging 17.0 points a game. Westley was not ranked in the top 10 in the league in scoring until early January. His 38-point game at UW-Green Bay on Jan. 11 propelled him from sixth to first on the league scoring chart.

OH MY!, OMARI: Omari Westley has never been better than when he poured in a career-high 38 points at UW-Green Bay on Jan. 11 to shatter his personal scoring best. He was 14-of-20 from the field and nine-of-11 from the line against the Phoenix, scoring 19 points in both the first and second halves. The scoring total was the sixth-highest single game total in CSU history and the most since Damon Stringer tallied 47 points at UW-Milwaukee on Jan. 29, 2000. Westley is tied with UW-Milwaukee's Ed McCants for the highest single game total in the Horizon League this year (McCants scored 38 points against Detroit on Jan. 3).

TATHAM IMPROVES OFFENSIVE PLAY: No Viking player has shown greater improvement this year than Patrick Tatham, whose offensive advances since his freshman season have been nothing short of incredible. Playing most of the season with a knee that eventually needed surgery, Tatham averaged 3.8 points and shot .293 from the field (29-99). He has increased those numbers this season, shooting .491 from the field (55-112) to average 9.6 points a game.

. . . AND THE ROAD BACK WAS A LONG ONE: To say that Patrick Tatham was limited last year by a knee injury is an understatement. The pain, which began during the opening weeks of the season, gradually grew to the point where he played most games late in the year on just one leg, and he spent a great deal of time daily in the training room. He finally gave way to season-ending knee surgery with six games left, after which time he was on crutches for six weeks, during which time he was not allowed to place any pressure on the rebuilt knee. He was finally allowed back on the basketball court in late June. The surgery also cost him the opportunity to play for the Canadian national team at the Under 21 Tournament of the Americas last July.

WARMING UP FROM THE FIELD: One statistic that has stood out in the Vikings' recent success has been field goal shooting. In winning five of its last seven games, CSU has shot .513 (123-240) from the field in the wins and a just .355 (43-121) in the two losses. The Vikings are 8-1 in games in which they shoot better than their opponents this year, including a 5-1 mark when shooting over 50-percent.

CHAVIS PASSES REED, HOOD NEXT: A six assist performance against Wright State on Jan. 29 allowed senior Walt Chavis to move past current CSU athletic director Lee Reed and into an eighth place on the CSU career assist chart. Reed accumulated 339 assists when he played for the Vikings from 1979-83. Chavis, who now has 355 assists, needs 41 assists to catch Shawn Hood (1983-87), who is seventh with 395 assists.

WESTLEY PASSES HIS BOARDS: Omari Westley is well on his way to claiming his second straight Horizon League rebounding title as the senior is almost two rebounds a game ahead of his closest competitor. Westley, who has grabbed 10 or more rebounds seven times this season, is averaging 8.6 rebounds a game, putting him well ahead of second place Adrian Tigert from UW-Milwaukee, who is averaging 7.1 rebounds a game. To put the the margin into better perspective, Westley has grabbed nine more rebounds than Tigert despite playing three less games. Westley also leads the league with 3.8 offensive rebounds a game. He led the league in both offensive (3.1) and total rebounds (8.6) a year ago.

WESTLEY FROM THE LINE: Omari Westley continues to lead all Horizon League players in free throw attempts, going to the line 166 times in 21 games (7.9 per game). Westley, who ranked third with 175 attempted free throws last year, has attempted eight or more free throws in seven of the last eight games, including a season-high 16 free throw attempts against Detroit on Feb. 5. Westley is one of only three Horizon League players that have attempted 100 free throws this year with Wright State's DaShaun Wood second with 123 attempts. Westley has attempted 10 or more free throws in a game nine times during his career, including five this season.

THE STARTING LINEUP SHUFFLE: In an effort to find a combination that will get the Vikings started quickly, CSU head coach Mike Garland has used 10 different starting lineups in the 21 games this year. The Vikings used the same starting combo in three of the first four games (Chavis, Morris, Moss, Westley & Tatham) with the lone change coming in the Norfolk State game when Raheem Moss came off the bench after being sick for several days before the game. The lineup changed seven times over the next 10 games as Moss, Patrick Tatham and Frashon McGee each missed time with injuries. The 10th lineup came on On Feb. 10 at Butler when Tatham returned to the lineup for the first time in 12 games after spraining his ankle in early January. Ten of the 11 Vikings regulars have started a game this year with Amadou Koundoul the lone player kept out of the starting lineup. Last year, CSU used 10 different starting lineups in 29 games.

A TURNAROUND FROM THE LINE: The Vikings have corrected one of its Achilles Heels from a year ago. . . free throw shooting. Cleveland State, which ranked last in the Horizon League a year ago with a .646 team free throw percentage (411-636) has moved up to third in the league with a .696 percentage this year (304-436). CSU set season highs for free throws made (24) and free throw percentage (.857) against Youngstown State on Jan. 8. As a team, seven of the 11 players who have attempted free throws this year are shooting .700 or better.

LOOKING AHEAD: The Vikings play their second straight game in the state of Michigan when they travel to Mt. Pleasant to face Central Michigan on Saturday (Feb. 19). CSU then closes the regular season with home games against Loyola (Feb. 23) and UW-Milwaukee (Feb. 26).