Dec. 15, 2007

Contact: Brian McCann

Complete Release in PDF Format

GAME 11
John McClendon Scholarship Classic
Ohio State (6-3) at Cleveland State (7-3)
Date: Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Time: 7:00 p.m. EST
Site: Quicken Loans Arena, Cleveland, Ohio
Sponsor: Medical Mutual of Ohio
TV: SportsTime Ohio (Mike Cairns & Franklin Edwards)
Streaming available at CSUVikings.com
Radio: WJMO, 1300 AM (Al Pawlowski)
Audio streaming available at CSUVikings.com
Series: OSU Leads, 35-32
Last Meeting: @OSU 78, CSU 57 (12/9/06)
Tickets: Available At Site

SETTING THE SCENE: After a 10-day break from competition for fall semester exams, the Viking basketball team returns to action this week when CSU hosts Ohio State on Tuesday, Dec. 18 beginning at 7:00 p.m. at Quicken Loans Arena. The contest is the inaugural game of the McLendon Scholarship Classic, a annual game involving CSU that will honor the memory of former CSU head coach and Basketball Hall of Fame inductee John McLendon. The game will be televised live on SportsTime Ohio with Mike Cairns and Franklin Edwards supplying the commentary.

PREVIEWING CLEVELAND STATE: The Vikings are a totally different team from the one that went 10-21 a season ago. With five returners and 10 newcomers on the squad, second year head coach Gary Waters has depth available at every position on the floor. Junior forward J'Nathan Bullock (14.5 ppg, 6.4 rpg) leads the returners after becoming only the third player in CSU history to lead the team in scoring as both a freshman and sophomore. All five returners figure prominently in the rotation this season with senior Breyohn Watson (4.8, 2.1) and sophomore Joe Davis (10.3 ppg) sharing time at the off-guard and senior Kevin Francis (4.7, 4.9) and junior Renard Fields (2.0, 1.5) seeing time inside. The Vikings have benefited from the addition of transfers Cedric Jackson (St. John's), Chris Moore (UC Santa Barbara) and George Tandy (Eastern Illinois). Jackson (17.9, 3.8, 5.4 assists) starts at point guard with Moore (7.3, 5.2) starting at center and Tandy (5.6, 5.3) moving into the starting lineup at forward. Freshmen D'Aundray Brown (4.5, 3.5) and Norris Cole (2.9) and junior Nick Weaver have had an impact on the early-season playing rotation.

HEAD COACH Gary Waters: A 33-year collegiate coaching veteran, Gary Waters took over as the head coach of the Vikings in the spring of 2006, bringing with him to Cleveland a head coaching history that included six trips to the postseason in his first 10 years as a head coach. He posted a 92-60 record in five seasons at Kent State, making NCAA appearances in both 1998-99 and 2000-01 and becoming the third coach in Mid-American Conference history to be named league coach of the year in successive years. Waters moved to Rutgers in 2001-02, compiling a 79-75 mark in five seasons, including three trips to the NIT. Waters is 17-24 in his second season at CSU, giving him a 188-159 record in 12 seasons.

BACK TO THE SCENE OF THE CRIME: The only time that Cleveland State has beaten the Buckeyes in the previous six meetings came on Dec. 17, 1994 when Malcolm Sims connected on a three-pointer with 14 seconds left to give the Vikings a 75-73 win over OSU. The game, which was part of the Gatorade Rock-N-Roll Classic, was played at Quicken Loans Arena.

CSU IN THE Q: Tuesday's game will be the seventh time that Cleveland State played a game in Quicken Loans Arena with the Vikings owning a 2-4 mark in those games. All six previous games came from 1994-2002 as part of the now defunct Gatorade Rock-N-Roll Shootout, a collegiate doubleheader held annually in December. CSU won its debut game in the building, a 75-73 win over Ohio State on Dec. 17, 1994 and dropped a 68-60 decision to Dayton the following year. The other Viking win came on Dec. 27, 1998 when CSU edged Rhode Island, 73-72. The Vikings have lost their last three games in the building, sandwiching a pair of losses to Bowling Green in both 1999-2000 and 2002-03 around a 66-62 loss to Kent State in 2001-02. All six games have been close with the margin of victory being eight points or less.

SCHIELE TO DEBUT VS. BUCKEYES: After sitting out the first 10 games to meet NCAA initial eligibility requirements, freshman Eric Schiele will be eligible to play for the first time on Tuesday against Ohio State. A 5-10 guard from Atwater, Ohio, Schiele averaged 39.6 points a game to lead the nation in scoring as a senior at Waterloo High in 2005-06. He was a first team All-America choice by MaxPreps.com and the Ohio Division III State Co-Player of the Year after scoring 870 points (in 22 games). A prolific outside shooter, he made 120 three-pointers as a senior, including three games of 12 or more. He won the three-point competition during Mid-Vike Madness this year by making 25 of his 29 trey attempts.

BROTHER CAN YOU SPARE A DIME? The win over Youngstown State on Dec. 8 saw the Vikings fall just short of breaking the school record for assist percentage in a game. With 27 assists on 31 baskets, CSU's .871 assist percentage was the second-highest mark in school history, trailing only the school-record .889 (24 assists, 27 baskets) set at UIC on Jan. 16, 1992.

. . . AND JACKSON LEADS THE CHARGE: Cedric Jackson led the charge against Youngstown State, handing out a career-high 10 assists to take over the Horizon League assist lead (5.4/game). The 10 assists was the most by a Viking since Carlos English had 11 assists vs. UIC last year.

VIKINGS FIND THE RANGE: Early season reviews showed the Vikings being a team that played great defense, but needed to because they also struggled to shoot the ball. That scouting report has changed over the last three games as CSU has significantly improved its marksmanship. In the first seven games, the Vikings shot just .424 from the field (171-403). In the last three contests, the Vikings have bounced back to shoot .542 (103-190), including a pair of games over .500, to raise the season average to .462, good for fifth in the Horizon League. By comparison, CSU posted just one game of .500 shooting or better over the last two seasons as the Vikings shot .393 as a team in 2006-07 and .401 in 2005-06.

. . . YSU SHOOTING EFFORT MAKES THE CHART: The most recent outing made a mark in the record book when the Vikings shot .646 (31-48) from the field vs. Youngstown State on Dec. 8, the 10th best single game effort in school history. It was the best shooting performance by a CSU team since a .650 effort (26-40) against Green Bay on Jan. 18, 1993.

MOORE, MOORE, MOORE: Junior center Chris Moore has been solid in his first few games with the Vikings, averaging 7.3 points and 5.2 rebounds while averaging 22.9 minutes. After a cool start shooting (15-35, .429 in first seven games), he has bounced back to make 16 of his 22 attempts over the last three games (.727) to move into fourth in the Horizon League, shooting .544 (31-57). More impressively has been the performance he has turned in defensively, which Coach Waters singled out as being one of the main reasons why CSU defeated Florida State. Moore scored a career-high 17 points in the win over Chicago State on Tuesday, going eight-for-12 from the field. He added a career-high five blocked shots in the win over John Carroll and tallied a13 points with eight rebounds vs. Geneva. After coming off the bench 30 times during his two seasons at UC Santa Barbara, Moore has started every game at CSU.

. . . MOORE ENJOYS PLAYING WITH BLOCKS: Junior Chris Moore has added a weapon to his defensive arsenal this year, entering the week ranking fourth in the Horizon League with 14 blocked shots this season. That is quite a total, especially when you consider that in two seasons at UC Santa Barbara, Moore blocked just seven shots (in 30 games).

THE CENTURY MARK: The 107 points that the Vikings scored against Geneva on Dec. 1 marked the first time that CSU went over the century mark in a game since scoring 109 points in a win over Milwaukee on Jan. 29, 2000 (a span of 222 games). It was the 46th 100-point game in CSU history and the 16th-highest scoring total in a game. The 107 points fell just short of breaking the Wolstein Center record for scoring. CSU scored 113 points vs. Prarie View A&M on Dec. 14, 1999.

TANDY MOVES INTO STARTING LINEUP: After utilizing the same starting lineup in each of the first seven games, Gary Waters elected to make a change for the Geneva game, inserting junior George Tandy into the starting unit, in place of Kevin Francis. Both players have responded well to the switch. Tandy is averaging 10.0 points and 4.0 rebounds in his three starts while Francis has averaged 6.3 points and 6.3 rebounds a contest.

. . . TANDY HAS HIS BREAKOUT GAME: George Tandy keyed the win over Youngstown State on Dec. 8 by turning in the most impressive performance of his CSU career. The Indianapolis, Ind. native had a perfect shooting night, going five-for-five from the field and four-for-four from the line on his way to setting CSU highs for points (14) and blocks (5), adding six rebounds.

A TIME FOR THE FRESHMEN: Gary Waters said early in the preseason that freshmen D'Aundray Brown and Norris Cole would have the biggest impact on the Vikings this season. Although Brown showed some glimpses of his ability during the Glenn Wilkes Classic, the recent home stand allowed the duo to come out of their basketball shell and begin to impact the Vikings. Cole, who did not score in the first five games this year, has averaged 5.8 points over the last five games, including a career-high 12 points in the win over Geneva. Brown has been steady, averaging 6.0 points and 4.0 rebounds over the same span

. . . IT HAS BEEN A PASSING FANCY FOR BROWN: One interesting statistic regarding D'Aundray Brown is that the freshman is second on the team this year with 19 assists (1.9 apg). Cedric Jackson leads the squad with 54 assists and J'Nathan Bullock is third with 17.

BLOCKS HAVE BEEN A TEAM EFFORT: For a team that only ranks second in the Horizon League averaging 4.2 blocks a game, the Vikings have sure spread the work around this year as three CSU players rank among the top 12 individuals in the league in the latest statistics. Chris Moore leads the way, ranking fourth with 14 blocks (1.4 bpg) while George Tandy is fifth with 11 blocks (1.22) and Kevin Francis is 12th (0.80).

. . . BUT WHEN IT COMES TO STEALS, IT IS THE JACKSON FOUR: Junior guard Cedric Jackson has distinguished himself defensively already this season, leading the Horizon League with 31 steals in 10 games (3.11 spg). Included in that total are six games this year where Jackson has equaled his career high with four steals

DAVIS WARMS TO RESERVE ROLE: After starting 19 games as a freshman a year ago, Joe Davis has settled into the role of offensive spark off the bench this year. The 6'0" guard from Warrensville is third on the team in scoring (10.3 ppg), reaching double figures in five of the nine games that he has played in this year. He tallied 18 points in the win over Florida Atlantic on Nov. 18 , had 13 points vs. George Mason and 10 against John Carroll. He has never been better than during the last two games where he has averaged 19.0 points, shooting .586 from the field (17-29). He scored a career-high 20 points in the win over Geneva on Dec. 1 and came back to pour in 18 points vs. Chicago State on Tuesday.

VIKINGS REBOUND TO REBOUND: It has been six seasons since Cleveland State finished the year with a positive rebounding margin, but based on the early season rebounding performance of the Vikings, the streak may well come to an end this year. In 10 games, CSU has averaged 37.0 rebounds a game while limiting its opponents to 31.2 boards to lead the Horizon League with a +5.8 rebounding margin. The last time that CSU was able to hold the rebounding edge for an entire season came in 2000-01 when the Vikings had a +3.1 rebounding margin.

. . . BUT DO THEY HAVE TO BE SO OFFENSIVE ABOUT IT? Part of the reason for CSU's success on the boards this season has come at the offensive end of the floor where the Vikings lead the Horizon League with an average of 14.0 offensive rebounds a game. Individually, CSU has four of the top 13 individuals in offensive rebounds with J'Nathan Bullock and Kevin Francis ranking fourth and fifth, respectively, averaging 2.40 and 2.30 offensive rebounds a game. George Tandy is 11th with 1.89 and Chris Moore 14th with 1.80 offensive rebounds a game.

THE TURNOVERS ARE THE DIFFERENCE: The one telltale statistic in Viking games this season is that when CSU takes care of the ball, it wins. When the turnover total is high, the Vikings lose. In the seven CSU wins, the Vikings are averaging just 13.3 turnovers a game, committing nine against Florida Atlantic, 10 each vs. Florida State and USF and 12 against Geneva. In the three losses, the turnover average jumps to 18.3. CSU made 19 turnovers vs. George Mason, 22 vs. Georgia Southern and 14 against Cal State Northridge. The team with the fewest turnovers has won all but one game this year, that coming when Florida Atlantic turned the ball over just nine times while CSU had 10 in a 76-66 Viking win.

EPPINGER, LATAS & NEALE TO REDSHIRT: Before the season began, head coach Gary Waters said that all of the freshmen were candidates to redshirt this season and that the early part of the season would give us an indication as to which players might sit out to retain their four seasons of eligibility. Through 10 games, freshmen Joe Latas, Daitwan Eppinger and Cory Neale have each not seen any game action, indicating that a redshirt season is likely. "I'd hate to have a freshman lose a season because I played them at the end of two or three games," Waters said. "It is in the best long term interests of the program that they spend the year getting bigger and stronger, adapting to the collegiate pace and get a good academic foundation built that will help them down the road."

VIKINGS CLAIM FIRST BIG EAST VICTORY: The win over USF on Nov. 9 in the season opener marked the first time in program history that CSU won against a Big East opponent, improving to 1-4 all-time (CSU is 0-2 vs. Georgetown, 0-2 vs. Providence and 1-0 vs. USF). The Vikings have however previously won against the current Big East membership, doing so before they joined the conference. CSU is 7-26 all-time, claiming wins vs. Pittsburgh (2-5), DePaul (1-0), Rutgers (1-0), Marquette (1-2) and USF (2-1) while going winless against Georgetown (0-2), Providence (0-3), West Virginia (0-2) and Cincinnati (0-11).

. . . AND FOLLOW IT UP WITH THEIR SECOND STRAIGHT ACC WIN: When Cleveland State outlasted Florida State in overtime on Nov. 17, it marked the second straight year that CSU has defeated a team from the Atlantic Coast Conference. Last year, the Vikings beat Miami, Fla., 78-67, at the America's Youth Classic in Evansville, Ind. CSU is now 3-7 all-time against ACC teams, including a 2-2 mark against Florida State.

HOME SWEET HOME: After opening the regular season with five straight road games, the Vikings were finally able to open their home slate on Nov. 24 with a 67-57 win over John Carroll. The five road games are one game short of equaling the school mark for consecutive road games to start a season, which happened in 1969-70 when the Vikings played their first six away from home.

ACCEPTING CHARITY: The Vikings enter the week ranking third in the Horizon League with 199 free throw attempts this season (19.9/game). Cedric Jackson and J'Nathan Bullock have done the lion's share of the work, ranking first and third, respectively in the Horizon League in free throw attempts. Jackson has made 42 of his 64 free throws (.656) while Bullock has made 42 of his 46 attempts (.913).

. . . UNFORTUNATELY THE VIKINGS ARE A CHARITABLE TEAM: Although the Vikings have been to the line a lot this season, their opponents have been even better, making an average of 17.0 free throws a game. In 10 games, CSU opponents have gone 170-for-236 from the line (.720).

BULLOCK LIKES POSITION CHANGE: If junior J'Nathan Bullock is still adjusting to the switch from power forward to small forward this season, he sure hasn't shown it yet. Through 10 games, he is second on the team with a 14.5 scoring average and leads CSU with 6.4 rebounds a game. He scored a career-high 26 points with 10 rebounds in the opener at USF, tallied 25 points vs. Florida Atlantic and posted his ninth career double-double with 15 points and 10 rebounds vs. Georgia Southern.

. . . AND HAS A PERFECT NIGHT AT THE LINE: When Bullock went a perfect 13-for-13 from the foul line at USF on Nov. 9, he tied a school record for free throw percentage in a game. It was the eighth time in school history that a player was perfect from the line with at least 10 attempts in a game with the 13 attempts being the third highest total. Bullock trails only Clinton Ransey (16-16 vs. Akron, 2/4/85) and Ken McFadden (14-14 vs. UIC, 1/31/87).

. . . AND HIS IMPROVEMENT CONTINUES: J'Nathan Bullock continues to show improvement at the foul line, going 42-for-46 this season to improve his career free throw percentage to .710 (247-348). He struggled from the line as a freshman, making only 83-of-139 (.597), including just .511 (47-92) in the first 22 games. Bullock improved to .748 last year (122-163). He ranks second in free throw percentage in the Horizon League this year (.913). He enters the week having made his last nine free throws.

AN IMPRESSIVE DEBUT FOR JACKSON: Junior Cedric Jackson has been impressive in his first 10 games this season. Jackson, who transferred to CSU from St. John's a year ago, leads the team in scoring (17.9), assists (5.4) and steals (3.1) while also ranking fifth averaging 3.8 rebounds. He has been amazingly efficient, shooting .496 from the field (60-121) and .447 from three-point (17-38).

A STRING OF CAREER PERFOMANCES FOR JACKSON: In 54 games during his two seasons at St. John's, Cedric Jackson owned a career scoring high of 16 points, that coming against Niagara during his freshman season. In his first 10 games at CSU, he surpassed that career scoring high seven times. In fact, in his first four games as a Viking, Jackson set his career scoring best. The streak started when he scored 18 points vs. USF in his CSU debut and then topped that with a 20-point effort at George Mason on Nov. 13. At the Glenn Wilkes Classic (Nov. 16-18), Jackson toppled the career high two more times when he scored 21 points vs. Georgia Southern and 27 in the win over Florida State. The streak of new career highs came to an end vs. Florida Atlantic when Jackson could manage just 17 points but he came back to add 24 points vs. Cal State Northridge, falling just short of his career high, and 21 vs. Youngstown State.

A'POSTROPHE: Heading into the 2007-08 season, varsity letters in men's basketball have been awarded to 367 different student-athletes. When J'Nathan Bullock earned a letter in 2005-06, he became the first student-athlete with an apostrophe in his first name to earn a letter. Two years later, he is joined by freshman D'Aundray Brown on the squad, giving CSU two players with punctuation marks in their first names. The duo aren't the first with apostrophes in their names though. Those honors go to Bob O'Connell (1954-55), Dan O'Shaughnessy (1962-64) and Mike O'Brien (1964).

THE EXPERIENCE IS WITH THE NEWCOMERS: A deceiving statistic regarding the 2007-08 Vikings is that CSU returns just five players from a year ago, leading the basketball experts to believe that this is a young and inexperienced team. Young may be a correct term, but inexperienced is not. The five Viking returners began the year having combined to start 72 games during their CSU careers (53 by Bullock & 19 by Davis) and transfers Cedric Jackson (35 at St. John's) and George Tandy (42 at Eastern Illinois) adding 77 more starts, giving CSU 149 career starts in the lineup. That is the equivalent to five players starting 30 games in one year or, in CSU's case, three players starting for the majority of two seasons and one starting for a single year.

"CLEVELAND" STATE: Keeping a promise that he made when he took over as head coach a year ago, Gary Waters has quickly turned the Viking roster into one that is representative of the region. Inheriting a team with just one player from a high school in the greater Cleveland area (walkon Greg Vlosich), Waters added Joe Davis (Warrensville Heights) and transfers Chris Moore (St. Edward) and George Tandy (Lincoln West) in his first recruiting class. New to the squad this season are Daitwain Eppinger (Garfield Heights), Joe Latas (Bedford-Chanel) and Cory Neale (Brooklyn), bringing the number of players who played high school around Cleveland to six. Add to the mix D'Aundray Brown (Youngstown), Norris Cole (Dayton) and Eric Schiele (Atwater) and nine of the 15 Vikings are from Ohio.

NEXT UP: The Vikings return to campus to close their pre-holiday schedule against Central Michigan on Saturday (Dec. 22) beginning at 1:00 p.m. in the Wolstein Center.