Gary Waters Position: Head Coach Alma mater: Ferris State, '75

As he begins his fourth season as men's basketball coach at Cleveland State, Gary Waters can look back on his coaching tenure with the Vikings knowing that he has achieved his initial goal of turning a program that had posted winning seasons in just three of the previous 13 campaigns into one that brought a much-desired championship to the City of Cleveland.

The accomplishments for Waters and the Vikings in his first three seasons have been significant: • Back-to-back 20-win seasons for the first time since 1986-88, including 26 wins in 2008-09, the second-highest win total in program history.
• Consecutive post-season appearances, an NIT invitation in 2008 and the school's second NCAA bid in 2009.
• The first two trips to the Horizon League Championship game in school history, including the tourney title in 2009.
• A 4-5 record against ranked opponents, including a 3-1 mark last year. (CSU was just 1-24 against ranked teams before his arrival.)
• Ten of the 11 seniors who have left the program have done so with their degree. The 11th is still playing professional basketball overseas.
• A 25-4 record in the Wolstein Center, including a building record 13 wins in 2008-09.

Although the accomplishments to date have been appealing, Waters now has his eyes set on achieving his biggest goal, that is, sustaining the success the program has found so that year in and year out, the Vikings are championship contenders, and do it on a national stage.To Waters, success is not important if the program has been built the wrong way and is unable to sustain it.

In the three years since being named the head coach at Cleveland State, Waters has systematically gone about building a new program. He painstakingly put together a recruiting plan for the first four seasons, knowing that he needed to build the program with a solid foundation and evenly spread the resources in order to help assure that success would be constant instead of fleeting.

That initial recruiting plan focused on three periods. The first was the 2006-07 season and stressed the importance of putting the first building blocks in place to stabilize the program. The second was the period from 2007-09, during which Waters envisioned success because of a heavy upper class roster.

The final and perhaps most important period that Waters focused on starts this year. Having to replace five seniors who were the backbone of the two postseason teams, he knew that it would take a lot of hard work in order to make sure that the success of the last two seasons is extended further.And his efforts have paid big dividends.

The Vikings enter the 2009-10 campaign with a 14-player roster that is high on talent but relatively low on experience, the majority of whom will be around for at least the next three seasons and are capable of keeping the Vikings at the top of the league standings.

By being picked to finish third in the Horizon League by the panel of coaches, SIDs and select media despite losing the majority of his lineup, it shows the level of respect that Cleveland State has developed throughout the conference.

The break-through season that the Vikings enjoyed in 2008-09 allowed Waters to put the exclamation point on his first three seasons.

By winning the Horizon League Championship and the automatic bid to the NCAA Championships that went with it on Butler's home floor, Waters sent a message to the rest of the league that CSU was here to stay.

By dominating fourth-seeded and 11th ranked Wake Forest in the opening round of the NCAA Championship, Waters captured the attention of the nation and woke up the college basketball fans in northeast Ohio.

With a 26-11 record, the 2008-09 Vikings recorded the second-highest win total in school history. It was the seventh 20-win season for the program and second straight.

As he worked his way through his first three Viking seasons, Waters individually crossed off the goals accomplished with each one leading him closer and closer to a championship.

Heading into his second season, he said that he needed to have a home court advantage. CSU responded by setting a Wolstein Center record with 12 wins in 2007-08 and improved on that this past year with a 13-2 mark. All told, the Vikings are 25-4 on campus over the last two years, quite an improvement over the 25-42 record compiled over the previous five seasons.

Waters likes to say that to be the best, you have to play the best and he hasn't been afraid to put together a challenging schedule. Despite owning just one win over a ranked opponent in school history, Waters did not shy away from playing ranked opponents. Consequently, last year's 26 wins included a spectacular 72-69 win at Syracuse, the Horizon League title game victory over Butler and the NCAA first round rout of Wake Forest.

Ever the teacher, Waters also used the end of the 2008-09 preseason to take the Vikings on an 11-day tour of Spain, going 3-1 against club and professional teams in the country while more importantly, giving the CSU players a bonding and cultural experience that he hopes will be remembered for the rest of their lives.

In 2007-08, CSU became one of at least 18 teams in NCAA Division I history to go from winning 10 games or fewer in one season to 20 or more in the next. And yes, it was planned.

Waters sent CSU into the campaign with the goal of "Flipping The Script", or taking the 10-21 mark of 2006-07 and turning it around. The Vikings, who were picked to finish ninth in the Horizon League the season before, accomplished their goal, shocking the league by winning their first seven conference games en route to a second place finish.

Included in that opening run was a 56-52 win over 12th-ranked Butler that gave the Vikings only their second victory ever over a ranked opponent.

Cleveland State recorded 21 wins during the year, marking the sixth 20-win campaign in school history and the first since 1992-93. The 12-6 league mark allowed the Vikings to set the school standard for league wins in a season and by beating Valparaiso in the semi-finals of the league tournament, CSU advanced to the championship game for the first time since joining the Horizon League.

Despite falling in the Horizon League title game at 12th-ranked Butler, Cleveland State was rewarded for its performance during the season by receiving a bid to play in the National Invitational Tournament, marking the program's fourth post-season appearance and first since the 1987-88 campaign.

The Vikings accomplished the turnaround with hard work. CSU finished among the top three teams in the league in every hustle statistic -- scoring defense, rebounding, offensive rebounding, steals and blocks -- and became the first team in league history to go from finishing last in rebounding margin one season to first the next.

Waters was rewarded for his effort by being tabbed as the Horizon League Co-Coach of the Year, marking the third time that he received the honor during his coaching career.

More importantly, Waters saw some of the most important building blocks -- fan attendance and exposure -- improve as well. Attendance at home games was up over 26 percent, with the average crowd size being the largest since the 1999-2000 season and the total home attendance being the most since 1998-99.

Waters' accomplishments at Cleveland State are nothing new. A 13-year head coaching veteran, he has amassed 228 wins and led teams to post-season play eight times during that span. He has rebuilt programs before, first at Kent State and then at Rutgers.

Named the 15th head coach in Cleveland State University history on April 6, 2006, Waters gave a little insight into his plan for the program at his hiring press conference. "Cleveland is a great city and has great resources," he told the media. "To get this done we need to make a commitment to the City of Cleveland and let it be part of this program. We have to build this program around players from this area so that we can give our fans something that they truly can be proud of."

Waters is quick to point out the three characteristics that a successful program must have to find success. . . a vision, a plan and quality people. Every decision that he has made has kept those three points in mind as he began the process of building the Viking program.

"Part of the foundation was already in place here at Cleveland State," Waters said. "We had quality people -- both in the program and supporting the program -- already here and ready to take this team to the next level." Using the insight of legendary UCLA head coach John Wooden, Waters personally taught a class in success to the CSU players in 2006-07, using Wooden's Pyramid of Success as the textbook for the class. Waters uses the course to instill upon the Viking players what is necessary to become a winner, both on the court and in life. He challenged them to build their own pyramid, identifying the traits and qualities that are needed to bring the CSU program to national prominence.

Year two of the success class had Waters using John Maxwell's manuscript, Talent Is Never Enough, and he turned to former Indianapolis Colts head coach Tony Dungy and his book, Quiet Strength, as his inspiration in 2008-09, deriving from it this year's team motto, `Do what we do, but do it better.' This year, Waters has returned to Maxwell, picking his book, The 17 Essential Qualities of a Team Player to help educate the Vikings.

Waters is also known for his personal style, annually ranking among the nation's top dressers on the sidelines. In fact, he edged Villanova's Jay Wright to win the national title in the 2008 Runway To The Fashionable Four, an online fashion rankings similar to the NCAA Tournament that is conducted annually by CollegeInsider.com. In 2007, he lost in the national semi-finals.

A Gary Waters-led basketball program places a strong emphasis on character and discipline and his family-oriented approach, combined with an up-tempo game that relies on fundamentals and relentless defensive pressure have paid huge dividends during his coaching career.

Waters, who has coached at the collegiate level for the last 35 years, first came to northeast Ohio in the spring of 1996 when he took over as head coach at Kent State University. He led the Golden Flashes to a 92-60 record in five seasons from 1996-2001, including a 70-25 mark over his final three campaigns.

Inheriting a program that had managed just one winning season in the previous seven years and had never been to the NCAA Tournament and made just three NIT appearances in its first 80 seasons, Waters went to work building a program that continues to win even after he left the campus eight seasons ago.

Waters' impact on the Kent State program became evident in his third season (1998-99) when he guided the Golden Flashes to a school record 23 wins (23-7), winning the Mid-American Conference tournament championship for the first time and receiving its first-ever NCAA Tournament bid. The Flashes went on to drop a 61-54 decision to 20th-ranked Temple in a first round game in Boston.

Kent State matched the program record for wins in 1999-2000, posting a 23-8 record that included a trip to the NIT quarterfinal round.

Waters is one of only three coaches in the history of the Mid-American Conference to earn MAC Coach of the Year honors in successive seasons, receiving the award in both 1999 and 2000.

Waters made his last season at Kent State (2000-01) a memorable one, leading the Flashes to a school-record 24 wins (24-10 overall) and the Mid-American Conference regular season and tournament championships. KSU provided the NCAA Tournament with one of its biggest upsets that year as the 13th-seeded Flashes upended fourth-seeded Indiana, 77-73. KSU fell to No. 2 seed Cincinnati in the second round.

Waters moved to Rutgers for the 2001-02 season and the Scarlet Knights made a quick improvement, going 18-13 in his first season, making only their third post-season appearance in 11 seasons when they faced Yale in the first round of the NIT.

Two years later (2003-04), Rutgers won 20 games for the first time since 1981-82, claiming wins over Temple, West Virginia, Villanova and Iowa State to advance to the championship game of the NIT.

In his final season in Piscataway (2005-06), Waters led Rutgers to 19 wins and its third NIT appearance in his five seasons, upending Penn State in the first round before falling to Saint Joseph's in the second round.

With Quincy Douby ranking sixth in the nation in scoring (25.4 ppg), the Scarlet Knights claimed four wins over NCAA-bound teams (Marquette, Seton Hall twice & Kent State) and when they knocked off No. 22 Louisville, it marked the eighth time that a Rutgers team coached by Waters defeated a ranked opponent.

Douby would go on to become a first round selection (19th pick) of the Sacramento Kings in the 2006 NBA Draft.

A native of Detroit, Mich., Waters received honorable mention All-America as well as all-region and all-conference honors while playing two seasons from 1970-72 at Oakland (Mich.) Community College. He transferred to Ferris State in 1972, becoming an NAIA all-district selection and first team all-league choice in 1973-74.

In his two seasons at Ferris State, he helped the team to a 47-10 record, winning a pair of Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) titles.

Waters attended the preseason camp of the NBA's Detroit Pistons in 1974 before eventually playing professionally overseas in Spain that year. He returned to Ferris State to earn his bachelor's degree in business administration in 1975. He later earned a master's degree in educational administration from Central Michigan in 1976 and a second bachelor's degree in business education from Ferris State in 1978.

Waters returned to Ferris State in 1974-75 to begin his coaching career, starting a 15-year tenure as an assistant under head coaches Jim Wink (1974-78) and Tom Ludwig (1979-89).

The Bulldogs amassed a 267-144 record with Waters as an assistant coach, making four NCAA appearances, earning six GLIAC titles and winning 20 or more games six times. Waters also coached the FSC junior varsity team from 1975-78.

Waters moved across the state in the spring of 1989 to join the staff of Ben Braun at Eastern Michigan University. Waters served as the assistant head coach from 1989-93, and was associate head coach for the final three seasons. During that time, the Eagles compiled a 127-87 record and captured two Mid-American Conference titles. EMU earned two NCAA Tournament bids during his tenure, defeating Mississippi State and Penn State to advance to the Sweet 16 in 1991 and knocking off Duke in the opening round in 1996.

Kent State beckoned shortly after the Eagles were eliminated by top-seeded Connecticut in the second round, giving the 22-year assistant coach his first head coaching opportunity.

In June, 2001, Waters had the distinction of serving as one of eight court coaches for the 2001 USA Basketball Men's National Team Trials at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo. The following year, Waters also served as an assistant coach for the 2002 USA Junior World Championship Qualifying Team.

Waters is a member of the National Association of Basketball Coaches and the Black Coaches Association and is involved with many charitable organizations, including Coaches vs. Cancer. He represents the Horizon League on the NABC Congress, serving as the liaison between the NABC and the league head coaches. He was inducted into the Ferris State Athletic Hall of Fame in 2002 and the Kent State Varsity "K" Hall of Fame in 2006.

Waters and his wife, Bernadette, have two grown children, son Sean and daughter, Seena, and four grandchildren. They reside in Westlake.