Feb. 20, 2006
Contact: Brian McCann
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GAME 26
UIC (13-14, 6-8) at Cleveland State (10-15, 5-9)
Date: Wednesday, February 22, 2006
Time: 7:00 p.m. EST
Site: Goodman Arena (8,500), The Wolstein Center, Cleveland, Ohio
Sponsor: Junction Auto
TV: None. Live video available online through CSTV at CSUVikings.com
Radio: WKNR, 850 AM, (Al Pawlowski & Jason Gibbs)
Series: UIC Leads, 29-27
Last Meeting: CSU 87, UIC 83 (1/19/06 at UIC)
Tickets: $8, $10 & $14
SETTING THE SCENE: Cleveland State closes the 2005-06 regular season by hosting a pair of games this week that it needs to win in order to host a first round game in next week's Horizon League Championship. The Vikings (10-15, 5-9) open the week by hosting UIC on Wednesday, Feb. 22 at 7:00 p.m. in the Wolstein Center. CSU snapped a six-game losing streak last week, winning games at Wright State (63-56) and at home against Delaware (52-40). UIC (13-14, 6-8), which has been up-and-down all season, is fresh off a win over first place UW-Milwaukee last week.
PREVIEWING CLEVELAND STATE: After using the same starting lineup for nine straight games, Mike Garland has shaken things up a bit, using five different lineups in the last six games in attempt to find the right combination of players to get CSU back on track. Purdue transfer Ije Nwankwo (11.8 ppg, 5.1 rpg) has averaged 13.5 points over the last 11 games to take over the scoring lead. Junior guard Raheem Moss (10.3 ppg, 3.4 rpg) and freshman forward J'Nathan Bullock (10.5, 4.3) have provided steady scoring while junior Carlos English (8.1 ppg, 4.7 apg) has given the Vikings steady play at point guard. Veterans Patrick Tatham (8.0 ppg, 6.0 rpg), Frashon McGee (4.7, 5.3) and Victor Morris (6.2, 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.
TRACKING THE BRACKET: With the Horizon League Championship slated to start next week, the possibilities of the Vikings hosting a first round game have become crystal clear. CSU, which enters the final week of the regular season in eighth place in the Horizon League, needs to win both games this week to assure itself of hosting a first round game. Anything short of two wins, and CSU can be seeded no higher than seventh and will travel for a first round game. The list of possible opponents is also shrinking. If the Vikings play at home, they could host UW-Green Bay, UIC or Loyola. A road game would most likely be to either Loyola, UIC or UW-Green Bay.
RIVALRY WEEK: When CSU faces UIC on Wednesday and UW-Green Bay on Saturday, the Vikings will be playing two of their top five opponents all-time (by games played). Wednesday's game will be the 57th all-time against the Flames, making UIC the fourth most-often played series all-time. The UW-Green Bay game will be the 50th in the series, ranking it fifth on the all-time chart.
. . . AND REPEAT WEEK: The Vikings close the regular season at home this week with a repeat schedule of their most successful road swing of the season when CSU claimed road wins at UIC (87-83) and UW-Green Bay (66-63). It was the first league road sweep for the Vikings since defeating UIC and Loyola on Feb. 1 & 3, 2001.
ALUMNI GAME SET FOR FEB. 25: Alumni from the first 74 seasons of basketball at Cleveland State and Fenn College will play an Alumni Basketball game on the Wolstein Center court prior to the Feb. 25 regular season finale against UW-Green Bay. The alumni game will tip-off at 3:00 p.m. that day and last for about an hour. Fans wishing to watch the game can enter the Wolstein Center through Gate A.
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 14 league games involving CSU, the home team has gone just 5-9 with CSU winning four of its eight 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 37-15, and the Vikings are the only Horizon League team to have a losing home record (5-8).
ANOTHER STATE BITES THE DUST: Saturday's win over Delaware was CSU's first-ever game against a team from the state of Delaware, the 39th different state that the Vikings have played at least one contest against. Still left on the list are games against teams from Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Maine, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Nevada, North Dakota, Washington and Wyoming.
NWANKWO HAS AN IMPACT AT THE LINE: Junior center Ije Nwankwo has been one of of the big reasons why the Vikings have begun to have an edge at the foul line. In the 17 games since becoming eligible, Nwankwo has made 62 of his 86 free throw attempts (.721). He has gone to the line at least four times in a game 12 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 .628 during that time, making 59 of 94 free throws.
. . . AND THE VIKINGS ACCURACY IS GETTING MUCH BETTER: 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 48 of their 56 free throws (.857) over the last 11 games to raise their season shooting to .685 (76-111).
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.
MORRIS CLOSES IN ON 2,000 MINUTES: Junior guard Victor Morris enters Wednesday's game needing just 44 minutes played to become just the 30th player in school history to play 2,000 career minutes. Morris has totalled 1,956 minutes in the 78 games that he has played in, starting 41 times.
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 46 steals. Patrick Tatham has 29 and both Raheem Moss and J'Nathan Bullock have 26. A fifth Viking -- Frashon McGee -- is just off the one steal a game pace, having 22 steals in 24 games.
ANOTHER LINEUP SHUFFLE: After using the same starting group in a personal high nine straight games, Mike Garland has used five different lineups in the last six games, giving CSU 11 different starting lineups in 25 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 most of the league schedule nine games (Carlos English and Raheem Moss at guard, J'Nathan Bullock and Patrick Tatham at forward and Ije Nwankwo at center) but an illness to Raheem Moss forced changes in each of the two games last week.
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 11 games, Nwankwo has averaged 13.5 points and 5.8 rebounds, shooting .505 from the field (49-97) and .718 from the line (51-71).
. . . 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 17 of the 25 games (68.0 percent), would currently rank eighth in blocks (0.8), 14th in both rebounding (5.1) and free throw percentage (.721) and 15th in both field goal percentage (.463) and scoring (11.8).
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 second on the team in scoring (10.5), posting double-figure scoring efforts 14 times this year. Although he has started 19 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.
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 8.4 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 (24.9 mpg) and Frashon McGee (21.4), who have been used mostly off the bench this season, are two of the seven players averaging more than 20 minutes a game.
NEXT UP: The Vikings close the regular season at home on Saturday (Feb. 25) against UW-Green Bay.
