Jan. 10, 2009

Greetings from Courtside At The Wolstein Center!!

I am sitting here at my normal seat in the Wolstein Center watching the Viking women take on Milwaukee in the first game of today's doubleheader and since I am way ahead of schedule for today, I thought I'd take a minute to catch up with all of you and post a blog.

First off, blogging is a lot harder than you'd think. It seems like every time I want to post a blog, something side tracks me and I never get it posted.

So. . . as a new year's resolution, I resolve to blog more. The heck with those game notes, meetings or whatever keeps me from writing.

So. . . to get to it.

After watching the Vikings dismantle Loyola on Thursday night, CSU finds itself in the heat of the conference race, even though we haven't reached the halfway point of the league slate yet.

CSU goes into tonight's game vs. UIC with a 3-2 record, standing in fourth place in the league race behind Butler (4-0), Milwaukee (5-1) and Green Bay (4-1). With next week's road swing to Green Bay and Milwaukee looming on the schedule, the Vikings, as one football coach I used to work with would improperly say, "Control their own destination."

CSU needs to continue to "hold serve" at home (as Gary Waters calls it) and take each game one at a time and Waters will have the Vikings ready for the rest of the campaign.

And the schedule evens out. What I mean by that is in every game the rest of the year, CSU will play an opponent who is facing the same schedule. When they play on Thursday, their opponent will have had all week to get ready, and Saturday games will be done on a one-day scout for both teams.

Take a look at the early CSU league schedule. The Vikings smacked Valpo pretty handily on a Tuesday night and then came back to face Butler on Thursday. It was Butler's first game of the week, giving them a long scout, while CSU had played on Tuesday because the Valpo game was supposed to be played on the Saturday after Butler, but it was the only day West Virginia could play CSU. The West Virginia game was important because they are coming to town next year for the McLendon Classic.

Fast forward to after Christmas and CSU plays at Wright State on Dec. 30. CSU had played on the 27th while Wright State had not played since before Christmas, giving the Raiders a longer scout to get ready.

When you talk to coaches, the amount of time they have to get ready for a game is one of the most important factors in winning and losing in a game between two similar teams.

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(BTW. . . Kailey Klein and Jessica Rqoue just buried back-to-back threes and the Vikings are ahead 26-15 with 3:47 left).

Anybody surprised by J'Nathan Bullock's improvement in shooting from the perimeter this year - and especially three-point - only needs to have spent a little time in the Wolstein Center over the last couple of months to understand why he is significantly better.

J'Nathan is in the building more than some athletic department staffers, spending all of his free time shooting hundreds upon hundreds of jumpers. He has his routine, taking shots from every spot on the floor where he is likely to get them during a game. When he is finished, he takes a bunch of free throws and then goes to the other end of the court and starts over.

At Wright State a couple of weeks ago, I received a text message from Bill Buck (men's basketball director of operations) asking if I was available to get Bullock, associate head coach Jayson Gee and graduate manager Kevin Sapara over to the Wright State arena. Seems that the Raiders had a women's basketball game that denied J'Nathan of his extra shooting session and he wanted to make it up.

So. . . at 10:30 p.m., I drove the trio over and watched as J'Nathan went through his routine. I was back an hour later.

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I'm going to miss Eric Schiele.

The sophomore left the Viking program on Thursday because he wanted to transfer to a program where he would a) play some more and b) get a scholarship to pay for school.

Eric had been with the program for almost two years, paying his way through school and working his way slowly into the lineup.

There is one thing that you can say about Eric. . . the boy can shoot the basketball.

The fans in Spain loved him because he had a couple of streaks where he lit up the scoreboard.

His defense had come a long way as well but in he Gary Waters system, defense gets you on the floor and with sophomore Norris Cole and freshmen Jeremy Montgomery and Trey Harmon ahead of him, he knew that the only way to get the playing time he wanted was to go elsewhere.

I guarantee that by mid-February, you'll be reading about how his addition has helped a program in this area to emerge.

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My vote for most improved player this year right now goes to George Tandy because he has played like a different person this year. His rebounding improvement has proven to be one of the keys to CSU's success this year and his scoring off mid-range jumpers has helped to open the lane up for J'Nathan Bullock.

Still, it is his leadership ability that has impressed me.

George isn't the most vocal of players so when he says something, it is important. A couple of road games back, one of the freshmen was goofing off after practice, shooting jumpers with his opposite hand. George, seeing this, asked him if he was going to shoot with that hand during a game. The answer of course was "no" which led Tandy to rebuke to newbie for wasting time at practice.

That's the kind of leadership that helps teams to get better.

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When Viking fans tune in to SportsTime Ohio to watch CSU play its two games next week, STO producer Joe Ranyak, who has been working with the various CSU hoops productions since STO went on the air, won't be there as he will be in Cleveland tending to family matters as his mother-in-law undergoes a delicate operation.

So please keep him and his family in your thoughts.

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That's all I have for now. I've got a few things to get ready for the men's game coming up. I will get back to you from Wisconsin next week.

In the mean time, Email me at CSUSID@gmail.com if you have any questions or topics that you want covered.