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Vikings Close Regular Season Against UW-Milwaukee

Vikings Close Regular Season Against UW-Milwaukee
Posted: Feb 25, 2005

Feb. 25, 2005

Contact: Brian McCann

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GAME 25
UW-Milwaukee (21-5, 13-2) at Cleveland State (9-15, 6-9)
Date: Saturday, Feb. 26, 2005
Time: 5:30 p.m. EST
Site: Goodman Arena (8,500), The Wolstein Center, Cleveland, Ohio
Promo: Senior Night & Fan Appreciation Night
TV: None
Radio: WKNR, 850 AM (Frank DeMarco)
Series: Series Tied, 11-11
Last Mtg.: UWM 85, CSU 65, Jan. 20, 2005, Milwaukee, Wis.

SETTING THE SCENE: Cleveland State closes the 2004-05 regular season at home against Horizon League champion UW-Milwaukee on Saturday, Feb. 26 beginning at 5:30 p.m. in the Wolstein Center. The contest is Fan Appreciation Night, with fans in attendance being eligible to win a number of prizes that will be handed out throughout the evening. It will also serve as Senior Night with CSU seniors Walt Chavis, Amadou Koundoul and Modibo Niakate being honored in a pregame ceremony. The game is the fifth doubleheader of the year for the Vikings with the CSU women's team facing Wright State beginning at 3:00 p.m. Cleveland State takes a 9-15 overall and 6-9 Horizon League record into the game, needing a win over the Panthers and a Wright State loss to UW-Green Bay to host a first round game in next week's American Family Insurance Horizon League Championship. UW-Milwaukee (21-5, 13-2) has not played since winning at Hawai'i last week.

PREVIEWING UWM: The Panthers (21-5, 13-2) enter their regular season finale having clinched their second straight Horizon League title, recording their third straight 20-win season. The Panthers are driven by guard Ed McCants, who is second in the league in scoring (17.3 ppg) and first in three-point field goals (85). He is joined in the starting lineup by forwards Joah Tucker (14.6 ppg, 6.0 rpg) and Adrian Tigert (9.3, 7.0) and guards Boo Davis (10.1 ppg) and Chris Hill (7.9 ppg, 3.0 apg). As a team, UWM leads the league in nine statistical categories, including scoring offense (74.5), scoring margin (11.4) and field goal defense (.408).

SENIOR DAY: Saturday's game will mark the final home game in the playing careers of seniors Walt Chavis and Amadou Koundoul. The duo, along with Modibo Niakate whose eligibility ran out in early January, will be honored in a pre-game ceremony. Niakate, who is currently playing professionally in Germany, will not be at the ceremony but will return to CSU this summer to complete his degree. Chavis has been a starter at guard in 66 games during his career, ranking eighth in school history with 343 assists. Although Koundoul has been limited because of injuries during his three years at CSU, his contributions to the team in motivation and leadership can't be measured statistically.

TRACKING THE BRACKET: Six of the nine seeds for next week's American Family Insurance Horizon League Championship are still up for grabs heading into the final weekend of regular season play. The three seeds determined already are UW-Milwaukee (13-2) and UW-Green Bay (10-4) will be the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds, respectively, and Youngstown State (2-12) will be the No. 9 seed. The rest of the schedule for this weekend is:

School (Record): Remaining League Schedule
UIC (8-7): at Butler (Feb. 26)
Detroit (8-7): Host Youngstown State (Feb. 26)
Loyola (8-8): Regular season complete
Wright St. (7-8): Host UW-Green Bay (Feb. 27)
CSU (6-8): Host UW-Milwaukee (Feb. 26)
Butler (6-9): Host UIC (Feb. 26)

. . . AND TRACKING THE VIKING CHANCES: The possibilities for Cleveland State's potential seeding and opponent for the first round of the American Family Insurance Horizon League Championships next week have gotten pretty clear. Heading into the regular season finale against UW-Milwaukee on Saturday, the Vikings can be seeded anywhere from No. 6-8 and play only Wright State or Loyola in the first round. If CSU is the No. 6 or No. 7 seed, it would play Wright State in the first round. If the Vikings are No. 8, it can only play at Loyola in the first round. The only possible scenarios are:

CSU Would Be The No. 6 Seed (& Host Wright State In First Round) If. . . : the Vikings defeat UW-Milwaukee and Wright State loses to UW-Green Bay. That would leave CSU and Wright State tied with 7-9 records with the Vikings winning the tie-breaker because of its win over UW-Milwaukee. Butler could also finish tied with CSU and Wright State in this scenario, but the Vikings would still win the tie-breaker because CSU is 3-1 against those teams (WSU is 2-2 and Butler is 1-3). The other possibilities are:

CSU Would Be The No. 7 Seed (& Play At Wright State In The First Round) If. . . : either CSU and Wright State win or CSU and Butler lose. If CSU and Wright State win, the Wright State would be 8-8 and CSU would be 7-9). If CSU and Butler lose, then CSU and Butler would finish tied at 6-10 and the Vikings winning the tiebreaker by virtue of their sweep of Butler during the regular season.

CSU Would Be The No. 8 Seed (& Play At Loyola In The First Round) If. . . : CSU loses to UW-Milwaukee and Butler defeats UIC. This would mean that Butler is 7-9 and CSU finishes at 6-10.

. . . MORE WHAT IFS: The four remaining games in the Horizon League regular season each have a bearing on the pairings for the upcoming tournament as only one game separates the four teams in the middle of the bracket. The possibilities are:

--UW-Milwaukee has clinched the No. 1 seed. UW-Green Bay will be No. 2 and Youngstown State is No. 9.
--Detroit (8-7) can claim the No. 3 seed with a home win over YSU.
--If Detroit loses to YSU, then UIC (8-7) needs a win at Butler to be the No. 3 seed and Detroit would be the No. 4 seed.
--If Detroit loses to YSU and UIC loses to Butler, then Detroit is the No. 3 seed.
--If UIC loses to Butler, then Loyola (8-8), which is idle, would be the No. 4 seed and UIC No. 5.
--If UIC wins against Butler, then Loyola is the No. 5 seed.
--If Wright State defeats UW-Green Bay on Sunday, then the Raiders are the No. 6 seed, regardless of whatever the rest of the league does.

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 (51), is second in assists (4.3) and fifth with a 1.74 assist-to-turnover ratio (102 assists, 58 turnovers). Redell, who is fourth in the league with a 1.76 assist-to-turnover ratio (76-43) and sixth in assists (3.5), has played even better in league play, ranking third in both assists (4.1) and assist-to-turnover ratio (2.18). The duo have started the last 11 games together with CSU going 5-6 over that span.

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.

MOSS DELIVERS FROM LONG RANGE: Sophomore Raheem Moss extended his streak of league games with multiple three-point field goals to eight with a five trey effort against Loyola on Wednesday. He ranks third in the Horizon League in three-point field goals made, averaging 2.6 per game. Moss, who is 57-of-143 from three-point this year (.399) needs just four more treys this year to break into the CSU single season top 10 and 14 to break the school season record of 70 three-pointers held by Theo Dixon (2000-01) and Damon Stringer (1999-2000).

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.

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 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 32.0 points and shoot .501 from the field (273-545). Last year, Viking post players averaged 29.0 points but managed just .440 shooting (305-693).

DOUBLING UP: With one game left in the regular season, the Vikings have already more than doubled their win total from the entire 2003-04 season. CSU enters the UW-Milwaukee game with a 9-15 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.

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 11 games, CSU has shot .513 (123-240) from the field in the wins and a just .378 (104-275) in the six 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 8-4 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 18.1 miscues in its 15 losses.

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 373 assists, needs 23 assists to pass Shawn Hood (1983-87), who is seventh with 395 assists.

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 .477 from the field (62-130) to average 9.1 points a game.

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 16 starts. He has averaged 7.4 points, 2.9 rebounds and 4.0 assists per game, scoring in double figures four 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 then-career-high 15 points and then followed that up with 10 points, six assists and five rebounds against Youngstown State on Jan. 8.

LOOKING AHEAD: The Vikings will open play in the 2005 American Family Insurance Horizon League Championship on Tuesday, March 1 with the site and opponent to be determined by the final league standings.