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CSU Opens League Play At Wright State
Dec. 1, 2009 Contact: Brian McCann
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Game 8 SETTING THE SCENE: Cleveland State opens up its 18-game Horizon League schedule this week with a pair of road games. The Vikings open the week on Thursday, Dec. 3 with a 9:00 p.m. EST game at Wright State, a game that will be televised nationally on ESPNU with Jim Barber and Mark Adams providing the commentary. After the game, CSU heads to Detroit to face the Titans on Saturday (Dec. 5). The Vikings enter the week with a 3-4 record after dropping all three games they played last week, including a 69-54 decision at home to Wichita State on Saturday. Wright State brings a 3-2 record into the week with their losses coming to Washington (74-69) and Northeastern (70-67) on the road. WSU holds a slight 26-24 lead in the all-time series with CSU but the teams have split the last four games played in Fairborn. PREVIEWING CLEVELAND STATE: Gary Waters finds himself in a bit of a rebuilding season for the Vikings after posting the first back-to-back 20 win seasons since the late 1980's. With just two starters and four players back who saw significant action last year, Waters must quickly incorporate eight new players into the lineup this season. The starting lineup is built around guard Norris Cole (15.9 ppg, 1.7 rpg, 3.3 apg), a first team preseason all-league choice this year who ranks fifth in the league in scoring, and small forward D'Aundray Brown (6.9, 3.9), the lone returning starters from a season ago. The strength of the returners is at guard where sophomores Jeremy Montgomery (7.7, 1.4 apg) and Trevon Harmon (10.9, 2.0) are back and should vie for a starting berth. The rest of the rotation at guard should include sophomore Josh McCoy (0.8, 1.0) and JC transfer Lance James (2.0, 1.0 apg). Brown is firmly entrenched at small forward with redshirt freshman Charlie Woods (0.4, 0.6 apg) also capable of seeing time at the position. Sophomore Joe Latas is the lone returner inside. JC transfer Jared Cunningham (8.4, 3.7) has the edge on the power forward spot with redshirt freshman Tim Kamczyc (3.6, 3.1) and first-year sophomore Nigel Ajere (4.0, 2.7) also vying for time at the spot. Sophomore Aaron Pogue (9.1, 6.0) is the starter at center with Latas and junior Kevin Anderson (2.0, 1.7) both being capable of seeing minutes. TV TIMEOUT: Thursday's game will be televised live by ESPNU, making it the fourth of what should be at least 13 games that will be available to Viking fans on either a national or regional basis and the first of two games on ESPNU. ESPNU will also broadcast the Jan. 30 home game vs. Youngstown State. "PROTECT THIS HOUSE": Gary Waters believes that in order to have a championship program, the team first needs to be successful at home. With that in mind, he has chosen, "Protect This House" as the team motto for the 2009-10 season. With a 17-game home schedule, the second highest season total in school history and the most since 1983-84, CSU can go a long way in achieving another successful campaign by winning at home first. The Vikings have heeded Waters' advice in the past, going 28-5 in the Wolstein Center over the last three years, a significant improvement from the 25-42 record in the Wolstein Center over the previous five seasons. The success started in 2007-08 when CSU tied the Wolstein Center record for wins in a season with a 12-2 mark. The Vikings did that mark one better, going 13-2 at home last season. . . . BUT VIKINGS SEE HOME WIN STREAK END: The loss to Wichita State on Saturday snapped CSU's Wolstein Center record win streak at 14 games, making it the third longest home winning streak in school history. It trailed a 22-game streak from Nov. 1985 through Jan., 1987 and a 15 game home win streak, most of which was played in Woodling Gym. CHARITY STRIPE HAS BEEN KIND: One strength of the Vikings this year has come at the foul line where CSU is on a pace to shatter the school record for free throw percentage. Through seven games, the Vikings have gone 115-for-153 from the line (.752), .028 ahead of the record .724 set in 1979-80. Norris Cole leads the team, ranking second in the league in free throw percentage (29-34, .853). Jeremy Montgomery (10-11, .909), Nigel Ajere (8-9, .889), Tim Kamczyc (10-12, .833) and Trevon Harmon (.722) are each above 70-percent. WELCOME HOME: Thursday's game at Wright State will serve as a homecoming of sorts for Viking starters Norris Cole and Aaron Pogue, each of whom are from the Dayton area. In fact, both were members of the Dayton Dunbar high school teams that won state titles in 2006 and 2007, going 50-6 over those two seasons. TAKING CARE OF THE BALL: Another area in which the Vikings have excelled this season is in turnovers where CSU leads the Horizon League with a +5.7 turnover margin. In seven games, the Vikings have committed just 87 turnovers (12.4 tpg), including five games of 12 or fewer. The season low was set against Wichita State over the weekend when the Vikings committed just eight miscues. At the other end of the spectrum, CSU has forced 127 miscues (18.2 tpg), including 17 or more five times. A BIG NIGHT FOR NORRIS: Despite playing on a senior-dominated team as a sophomore, Norris Cole showed the ability at times to take over a game. Now the unquestioned leader of a young and generally inexperienced Viking squad, Cole is getting much more attention this year by opposing defenses but at no time in his past has he ever taken over a game like he did in the win over Florida A&M. Cole obliterated his career scoring high by 12 points, totalling 38 points against the Rattlers, the eighth-highest single game total in school history. He was 11-for-16 from the field, three-for-four from three-point and made all 13 of his free throw attempts. He fell one point short of equalling J'Nathan Bullock's Wolstein Center scoring record (39 vs. Green Bay) but did tie Bullock's 13-for-13 free throw effort against South Florida in 2007-08 as the third-most free throws made while shooting 100% from the line. BIG DEBUTS: One question heading into the season was which players would emerge inside for the Vikings this year. After all, the only returning player inside from last season was Joe Latas, who scored 22 points with seven rebounds in 62 minutes of action. Some of the questions were answered over the first four games as starters Jared Cunningham and Aaron Pogue each turned in solid efforts. Pogue (9.1 ppg, 6.0 rpg), who scored 11 points and grabbed nine rebounds at St. Bonaventure in his debut, has scored in double figures four times and is playing his best basketball of late. He is averaging 14.5 points and 6.5 rebounds over his last two games, shooting .714 from the field (10-14). Cunningham, who is fourth on the team in scoring (8.4 ppg) and third in rebounding (3.7), scored 11 points with nine rebounds vs. St. Bonaventure and came back to add 14 points vs. Wilmington and 10 vs. Sam Houston State. VIKING ADD TWO DURING EARLY SIGNING PERIOD: Gary Waters has already taken time to look ahead to next year when he announced the signing of two student-athletes to national letters of intent to attend CSU and play basketball starting next fall. Devon Long (Detroit, MI/Crockett) and Ludovic Ndaye (Montreal, Quebec/Westwind Prep) each signed with CSU and will be freshmen with four years of eligibility remaining. Long, a 6-8, 270-pound forward, earned first team all-league honors last year after averaging 18 points and 13 rebounds a game. He is currently ranked as the second-best center and ninth-best player in the state of Michigan by Prep Spotlight. Ndaye, a 6-9, 220-pound forward from Montreal, Quebec, has played four games this season at Westwind Prep in Phoenix, AZ, averaging 12.1 points and 6.2 rebounds a game. WHAT CAN BROWN DO FOR YOU? Junior forward D'Aundray Brown has returned to the floor this season, showing no ill effects from the two injuries that sidelined him for 13 games last season, including the final five games of the postseason. In the seven games since coming back, Brown is averaging 6.9 points and 3.9 rebounds a game, shooting .477 from the field (21-44) while making 16 steals. IT HAS BEEN A STEAL: The Vikings have found success predicated on its defense over the last three seasons and the early season results to date have been extraordinary. In seven games, CSU has forced 127 turnovers (18.1 tpg), making 74 steals. Norris Cole lead the league with 17 steals (2.4 spg) with D'Aundray Brown second on the team (third in the league) with 16 (2.4). Trevon Harmon is sixth in the league with 13 thefts (1.9 spg) with Jeremy Montgomery 14th with 1.4 spg). Add in Aaron Pogue (1.0) and CSU has five players averaging at least a steal a game. Norris Cole made seven steals vs. Wilmington, the seventh-highest single game total in school history. KAMCZYC IMPRESSES: Freshman Tim Kamczyc is quickly making a name for himself as one of the most successful walkons in recent memory. Kamczyc, who redshirted last season after joining the program from Strongsville High, is averaging 3.6 points and 3.1 rebounds a game, shooting .833 from the line (10-12). His strong play is not a surprise as Gary Waters used his 13th scholarship on Kamczyc this season. HOW I SPENT MY SUMMER: One year after the entire Viking squad spent 11 days touring Spain during the month of August, two Vikings made summer road trips to different continents with various touring all-star teams. Sophomore center Joe Latas headed to Europe for a five-game, 10-day tour of Prague and Vienna with the East Coast All-Stars, a team predominantly made up of players from the Big East and Big 12 Conferences. Junior guard Norris Cole headed down under, traveling for almost two weeks to play six games in New Zealand. SUCCESS 401: The fourth edition of Success Class under Gary Waters is utilizing the book The 17 Essential Qualities of a Team Player by John Maxwell as the course text. Instituted at CSU in the summer of 2006, Waters uses Success Class to teach the Viking players the finer points of what it takes to succeed. Success Class 101 used John Wooden's book, The Pyramid of Success. In 2007-08, Waters relied on John Maxwell's book Talent Is Never Enough to instruct the Vikings and then turned to former Indianapolis Colts head coach Tony Dungy's book, Quiet Strength for a text last year. The non-credited class is taught weekly by Waters to the Viking players over the summer and preseason months. COLE NAMED TO ALL-HORIZON LEAGUE SQUAD: Junior guard Norris Cole was rewarded for his hard work when he was one of five players named to the 2009-10 Preseason All-Horizon League first team in a balloting conducted of the league's coaches, sports information directors and select media. Cole, a native of Dayton, Ohio, set a school record last year by starting all 37 games. He ranked sixth in the league with a 13.3 scoring average with eight 20 point games. Like all dominant players, he was able to elevate his game when it was most needed. He averaged 17.5 points in the six games against schools with major college football and led the team in both NCAA tournament games (19.5 ppg). THE FIFTH DEGREE: All five of the Viking seniors on last year's roster have graduated. J'Nathan Bullock, Cedric Jackson, Renard Fields and George Tandy each earned their sheepskin during spring commencement ceremonies with Chris Moore picking up his degree in August after taking a couple of classes during summer session. NEXT UP: The Vikings continue the Horizon League road swing when they visit Detroit on Saturday (Dec. 5) for a 1:00 p.m. game that will be televised on Fox Sports Detroit. CSU returns home to play Wilberforce on Saturday, Dec. 12 at 1:00 p.m. in a game that will be played in Woodling Gym.
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