Feb. 21, 2005
Contact: Brian McCann
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GAME 24
Loyola (10-16, 7-8) at Cleveland State (9-14, 6-8)
Date: Wednesday, Feb. 23, 2005
Time: 7:00 p.m. EST
Site: Goodman Arena (8,500), The Wolstein Center, Cleveland, Ohio
TV: None
Radio: WKNR, 850 AM (Frank DeMarco)
Series: Loyola leads, 16-9
Last Mtg.: Loyola 70, CSU 55, Jan. 3, 2005, Chicago, Ill.
SETTING THE SCENE: Cleveland State returns home to close the regular season with back-to-back home games, each of which will play an important role in whether the Vikings can get a first round home game in next week's American Family Insurance Horizon League Championship. CSU opens the week against Loyola on Wednesday, Feb. 23 beginning at 7:00 p.m. in the Wolstein Center. The Vikings are 9-14 overall and 6-8 in league play, in seventh place in the league standings but just a half-game behind Loyola (10-16, 7-8), which has won four of its last five games.
PREVIEWING LOYOLA: The Ramblers have shown considerable improvement since the start of the year. Loyola began the season with just three wins in its first 15 games but has rebounded to go 7-4 since Jan. 15, including wins in four of its last five games. Junior forward Blake Schilb (16.8 ppg, 5.4 rpg, 4.1 apg) has made a strong case to make the All-Horizon League first team while guards DaJuan Gouard (15.1 ppg) and Majak Kou (11.0) have provided good scoring support. Center Tyrelle Blair leads the league with 48 blocked shots.
TRACKING THE BRACKET: Cleveland State's chances of hosting a first round game in the American Family Insurance Horizon League Championship on March 1 took a big hit last week when the Vikings lost at Detroit and Loyola won at UIC. With a 6-8 league mark and games with Loyola (Feb. 23) and UW-Milwaukee (Feb. 26) remaining, CSU will most likely be the No. 7 seed, which would play at the No. 6 seed in the opening round of the tourney. There are several scenarios for the Vikings to get a No. 6 seed and a first round home game. They are:
• CSU must wins both games to finish 8-8 and in the process, give Loyola its ninth loss, moving past them in the standings. If this happens, the Vikings could be be seeded as high as fifth if Detroit also goes 0-2 this week.
• If CSU loses to Loyola and defeats UW-Milwaukee, then the Vikings would need Wright State to lose both games next week. CSU would be tied with the Raiders with a 7-9 record and have the tiebreaker by virtue of the win over UWM.
• If CSU defeats Loyola and loses to UW-Milwaukee, then Butler must win games against Youngstown State & UIC, putting CSU, Loyola and Butler in a three-way tie. CSU would claim the No. 6 seed because it was 3-1 against the Ramblers and the Bulldogs.
VIKINGS DON'T FARE WELL IN TIEBREAKERS: Without a win over UW-Milwaukee next week, the Vikings will not win a tiebreaker with any of the four teams they are battling for the final first round home game. The tiebreaker problems exist because CSU has lost all three games to date against UW-Milwaukee and UW-Green Bay, the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds, respectively.
Opponent: Reason CSU can't win a tiebreaker
UIC: CSU went 0-2 vs. Flames during regular season
Detroit: Detroit split with UW-Milwaukee this year. CSU was 0-2.
Wright St.: WSU split with UW-Green Bay. CSU was 0-2.
Loyola, If CSU wins: Loyola split with UW-Green Bay. CSU was 0-2.
Loyola, If CSU loses: Loyola swept regular season games with Vikings.
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.
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.
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.
MOSS DELIVERS FROM LONG RANGE: Sophomore Raheem Moss had his streak of seven straight games with multiple three-point field goals snapped at Central Michigan when he missed his only attempt. Despite the off game, he ranks third in the Horizon League in three-point field goals made, averaging 2.5 per game. Moss, who is 52-of-130 from three-point this year (.400) needs just nine more treys this year to break into the CSU single season top 10 and 19 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 8.3 rebounds, has a comfortable lead on the rebounding chart but has dropped to third in scoring, trailing UW-Milwaukee's Ed McCants (17.3) and UIC's Cedrick Banks (17.2). 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.
WELCOME BACK PATRICK: Sophomore center Patrick Tatham celebrated his return to the starting lineup by scoring a career-high 20 points at Butler on Feb. 10, 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 (50), is second in assists (4.1) and fourth with a 1.76 assist-to-turnover ratio (95 assists, 54 turnovers). Redell, who is fifth in the league with a 1.74 assist-to-turnover ratio (73-42) and sixth in assists (3.5), has played even better in league play, ranking second in assists (4.1) and third in assist-to-turnover ratio (2.15). The duo have started the last 10 games together with CSU going 5-5 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 32.5 points and shoot .500 from the field (263-526). Last year, Viking post players averaged 29.0 points but managed just .440 shooting (305-693).
DOUBLING UP: With two games remaining in the regular season, the Vikings have already more than doubled their win total from the entire 2003-04 season. CSU enters the Central Michigan game with a 9-13 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 seven times this year with CSU owning a 5-2 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 (3), 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.
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 nine games, CSU has shot .513 (123-240) from the field in the wins and a just .366 (79-216) in the four 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.
TURNOVERS HAVE BEEN A TELL-TALE STAT: Another statistical trend that has been a constant this season has been turnover margin. The Vikings are 8-3 in games in which they commit the same number or fewer turnovers and just 1-11 when making more turnovers. CSU averages 12.9 turnovers in its nine wins and 18.4 miscues in its 14 losses.
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 .472 from the field (58-123) to average 9.1 points a game.
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 366 assists, needs 30 assists to pass Shawn Hood (1983-87), who is seventh with 395 assists.
WESTLEY FROM THE LINE: Omari Westley continues to lead all Horizon League players in free throw attempts, going to the line 192 times in 23 games (8.3 per game). Westley, who ranked third with 175 attempted free throws last year, has attempted eight or more free throws in nine of the last 10 games, including a season-high 16 free throw attempts against Detroit on Feb. 5. Westley is one of only four Horizon League players that have attempted 100 free throws this year with Wright State's DaShaun Wood second with 138 attempts. Westley has attempted 10 or more free throws in a game 11 times during his career, including seven this season.
. . . AND WESTLEY ON THE FREE THROW LIST: Omari Westley enters the Loyola game with 192 free throw attempts this season, the fifth-highest single season total in CSU history. He needs six attempts to move into fourth (197 by Clinton Ransey in 1984-85) and 42 to break the school record of 233 set by Ken McFadden in 1987-88.
LOOKING AHEAD: The Vikings close the regular season on Saturday (Feb. 26) against UW-Milwaukee. The game will be Fan Appreciation Night, with countless prizes being given away to fans in attendance. The contest will also be Senior Night with CSU seniors Omari Westley, Walt Chavis and Amadou Koundoul being honored in a pregame ceremony.
