Jan. 23, 2004

Contact: Brian McCann

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CLEVELAND - GAME 19

Youngstown State (4-12, 1-6) at Cleveland State (4-14, 0-7)

Date: Saturday, Jan. 24, 2004

Time: 5:30 p.m. EST

Site: Goodman Arena (13,610) CSU Convocation Center

TV: None

Radio: WKNR, 850 AM (Frank DeMarco)

Series: YSU Leads, 32-28

Last YSU 86, CSU 82 Meeting: Jan. 10, 2004 in Youngstown

Sponsor: Marriott Hotel

Promo: Doubleheader Night (CSU Women host UIC 3:00 p.m.)

Tickets: $8, $10 & $12

Single game tickets for all Viking home games are currently available at the CSU Convocation Ticket Office or by contacting Ticketmaster.

SETTING THE SCENE: Cleveland State (4-14, 0-7) closes its three-game Horizon League homestand when it hosts Youngstown State (4-12, 1-6) on Saturday, Jan. 24 beginning at 5:30 p.m. EST. The game is part of a doubleheader with the CSU women hosting UIC beginning at 3 p.m. The Vikings have lost 12 straight games since opening the year with a 4-2 mark and will be trying to avenge an 86-82 loss at Youngstown State earlier this month. The game is the fourth game in eight-day stretch for CSU.

CLEVELAND STATE PROBABLE STARTERS 2003-04 Statistics F 5 Omari Westley, 6-7, 205, Jr., Cleveland, Ohio 15.4 pts, 8.6 reb, 1.7 ast F 1 Jermaine Robinson, 6-2, 180, Sr., Philadelphia, Pa. 20.6 pts, 5.3 reb, 2.6 ast C 21 Patrick Tatham, 6-6, 220, Fr., Brampton, Ont. 3.1 pts, 4.4 reb, 0.7 ast G 2 Walt Chavis, 5-11, 175, Jr., Steelton, Pa. 5.7 pts, 2.7 reb, 3.7 ast G 3 Victor Morris, 6-0, 175, Fr., Inkster, Mich. 5.4 pts, 2.4 reb, 1.8 ast

PREVIEWING YOUNGSTOWN STATE: The Penguins are off to a 1-6 start in Horizon League play with the only win coming against the Vikings on Jan. 10 in Youngstown. YSU has played well at home, sporting a 4-3 record, but has dropped all nine road contests this year, including an 80-74 decision at UW-Milwaukee on Jan. 15. The Penguins strength is their depth as 11 players are averaging double figures in minutes played, including four returning starters from a year ago. Junior guard Doug Underwood leads the team in scoring (12.5 ppg) while senior center Adam Baumann is averaging 12.4 points and team-best 6.6 rebounds. The Penguins used their depth to advantage in the first meeting with CSU as Tejay Anderson (9.6 ppg, 6.0 rpg) came off the bench to score 16 points while Underwood and Baumann added 18 and 17 points, respectively.

PREVIEWING THE VIKINGS: The Vikings find themselves in a precarious position, owning a 4-14 record. CSU has lost 12 straight games going back to mid-December and injuries and other problems have left first-year head coach Mike Garland with just eight healthy and eligible scholarship players. CSU has gotten steady play from senior guard Jermaine Robinson, who has led the team in scoring in 12 games and averages 20.6 points a game, the second highest total in the league. Omari Westley, a junior college transfer who has shaken off the rust from a year off to average 15.4 points and lead the league with 8.6 rebounds a game, has been even better in league play, averaging 18.1 points and 8.1 rebounds while shooting .523 from the field (45-86).

CSU IN THE NCAA STATS: The Vikings received a single mention in the latest NCAA statistics, which were released on Jan. 20. Senior Jermaine Robinson was 22nd in the nation in scoring (20.6 ppg). The statistics will be released by the NCAA every Tuesday through the end of the season.

COLES & WATERS OUT FOR REMAINDER OF SEASON: Junior guard Percell Coles and freshman center Walt Waters have been declared ineligible to compete for the Viking men's basketball team and will not play for the remainder of the year. The duo are eligible under NCAA eligibility guidelines but did not meet CSU academic guidelines which were instituted prior to the start of the fall semester. Both players are eligible to practice with the team but are not able to compete in games or travel with the team. Coles had been the first guard off the bench for the Vikings this year, averaging 10.2 points a game. Waters started nine games this year at center, averaging 4.4 points and 4.2 rebounds a game and ranking second on the team with 12 blocked shots.

. . . AND EIGHT IS NOT ENOUGH: The loss of Coles and Waters leaves the Vikings with eight healthy and eligible scholarship players until center Pape Badiane returns from his broken hand in February. Four of those players are in their first year with CSU. Additionally, freshman Patrick Tatham and junior Amadou Koundoul are each playing through injuries. Tatham has tendonitis in his knee that has forced him to miss considerable practice time since Christmas. Koundoul is still being bothered by knee problems that he has had for over a year, a condition that has limited him to just 37 minutes over the last five games.

A BAD BREAK: When senior center Pape Badiane broke his right hand in the opening minutes of the Georgia Southern game on Dec. 29, it not only caused the Vikings to lose one of the top defensive players in the conference, but it gave CSU a totally different look on the court. In the nine games leading up to the injury, CSU used its interior defense to lead the Horizon League with 55 blocked shots, a +7.8 rebounding margin and a .390 field goal defense (223-572) while allowing 71.9 points a game. In the nine games since the injury, the Vikings have been outrebounded, 307-300 (-0.4) and have blocked just 19 shots. An even more significant stat is that CSU's opponents are shooting .505 from the field (254-503) and are averaging 80.2 points a game. Only one of CSU's first nine opponents shot above .431 from the field, a figure that has been achieved in every game since Badiane's injury.

ROBINSON & THE THREE-POINTER: Senior Jermaine Robinson set a pair of school records for three-point shooting against UW-Milwaukee on Thursday. By making a trey early in the second half, he now made at least one three-pointer in ever game this year, tying the school mark of 18 straight games with a trey set by Greg Allen 1991-92. Going back to last year, Robinson has now had a three-pointer in 19 straight games, equalling William Stanley's mark originally set from Feb., 1989 through Jan. of 1990.

WESTLEY RESOLVES TO BE MORE PRODUCTIVE: It is almost as if junior Omari Westley sat down on New Year's Eve and decided that one of his resolutions for the new year would be to be more aggressive on the basketball court in 2004. Already one of the leaders in the Horizon League in most statistical categories, Westley has raised his game to a new level in the seven games in January. He scored a then-league season best 30 points against Loyola on Jan. 5 and is averaging 18.1 points and 8.1 rebounds a game since the new year, shooting .523 from the field (45-86). That is a considerable improvement from the 13.7 points, 8.8 rebounds and .500 field goal percentage in the 11 games in 2003.

HERE'S TO YOU, MR. ROBINSON: No player has benefitted more from the change in offensive philosophy this year than senior Jermaine Robinson. Robinson has led the team in scoring 12 times, posting a league-best 12 games of 20 points or more. He is second in the Horizon League with a 20.6 scoring average, quite a jump from the 10.5 points he averaged a year ago. He has scored in double figures in every game, tallying 19 points or more in 15 of the 18 contests. His ability to penetrate and score has led to him attempting a league-leading 7.9 free throws a game (143 total). His 21 points against UW-Milwaukee on Thursday was his 22nd career game of 20 points or more.

VIKING MASH UNIT: When the Vikings opened the season on Nov. 22nd, they featured one of the biggest and deepest front lines in the country. That depth has suddenly disappeared somewhere in the training room as just about every Vikings on the front line has missed time with some ailment. They are:

Pete Ritzema: Missed eight games with three different injuries this year, the latest being a bad back that has kept him out of five games and slowed him in three others. He has played just 61 minutes in 10 games.

Pape Badiane: The Vikings' starting center has missed nine games with a broken right hand suffered vs. Georgia Southern on Dec. 29. He is expected out for at least another two weeks.

Patrick Tatham: The freshman who has started 10 games at center is playing through the pain caused by tendonitis in his knee. He has been limited in practice since the holiday break, but has battled to play as many as 36 minutes in a game.

Amadou Koundoul: Hasn't fully come back from off-season surgery to alleviate tendonitis in his knee and the condition continues to limit him this year. He has played just 37 minutes in the last five games.

Walt Waters: Missed both games at the Islander Classic following a death in his family and is sidelined for the remainder of the year because he did not meet institutional academic eligibility standards.

LONG DISTANCE SCORING: One by-product of the sudden CSU problems inside has been increased efficiency from the outside. In the last nine games, the Vikings have converted 67 of their 177 three-point field goal attempts (.379). The 7.4 treys per game over that span was quite an improvement from the 5.5 treys and .325 shooting over the first nine games. CSU was never hotter from three-point than in the first half against UW-Green Bay when four different Vikings nailed threes as part of an 8-for-10 (.800) shooting performance. Jermaine Robinson has made 38 of his 103 three-point attempts over the last 14 games (.369). On a lesser scale, Walt Chavis is six-of-13 from three-point over the last eight games and Luke Murphy has made seven of his last 14 attempts and is eight-for-18 from three-point this year (.444).

VIKINGS REBOUND TO REBOUND: The Vikings have done a complete 180 degree turnaround on the glass this season. Last year, CSU was outrebounded by an average of 3.8 boards a game to rank eighth in the Horizon League. Through 18 games this year, CSU leads the Horizon League with a +3.3 rebounding margin, including a rebounding edge in 10 games. Included in that total are six games of +10 or more, including a dominating 56-31 rebounding advantage at Norfolk State. Rebounding has been a critical statistic in games this year. In the Vikings' four wins this year, CSU has outrebounded its opponents 202-134, a margin of +17.0 rebounds a game. In the 14 losses, the Vikings have been outboarded, 507-499 (-0.6).

ROBINSON READY TO CONTINUE CLIMB UP SCORING CHART: A 27-point effort at UIC allowed senior Jermaine Robinson to move into 11th place on the CSU career scoring chart. He enters the Youngstown State game with 1,211 points. Robinson passed Dave Kyle (1974-77), who totalled 1,168 points in his career. He has a ways to go before moving up any further, needing 94 points to pass Jamaal Harris (1998-02), who is in 10th place with 1,304 points. Robinson is one of 16 players in CSU history to score 1,000 career points.

40-MINUTE MAN: Senior Jermaine Robinson loves media timeouts. He has to because as of late, media timeouts are the only breaks that he gets during a game. Over the last 11 games, Robinson is averaging 37.8 minutes a game (it would be higher except he missed eight minutes because of injury vs. Youngstown State), including 40-minute efforts against both Boston University (12/22), Wright State (1/8) and Detroit (1/19). He is the first Viking to play 40 minutes in a game that wasn't decided in overtime since Jamaal Harris went wire-to-wire against Detroit in the final game of the 2001-02 season. He has now played 35 minutes or more 32 times during his career, including in nine of the last 10 games and 13 times in 18 contests this year. He has played 40 minutes or more in a game (counting overtime) five times in his career. Robinson played a career-high 43 minutes in an overtime game against California last year and 41 minutes in an OT contest against Florida State as a freshman in 2000-01.

. . . CHAVIS JOINS THE 40-MINUTE MAN LIST: The loss of Percell Coles for the remainder of the season has led to an increase in the playing time for both Walt Chavis and Victor Morris. Chavis played all 40 minutes against UIC on Jan. 17 while Morris played a career-high 37 minutes against the Flames, six minutes more than his previous best. Chavis followed the UIC game up with 38 minutes vs. Detroit while Morris was in the lineup for 36 minutes.

ACCEPTING CHARITY: The aggressiveness by CSU offensively this year has led to the Vikings attempting 452 free throws this year, an average of 25.1 per game. Included in that total are three games of 40 or more free throw attempts, led by a school-record 63 charity tosses in the win over Florida A&M. CSU opened the season by going 27-of-45 from the line against Central State and made 26-of-40 from the line at Norfolk State on Dec. 13. The 40-for-63 free throw effort in the win over Florida A&M allowed CSU to best the old record of 58 free throws attempted set against Kent State (12/23/93) and come within one free throw made of the school standard of 41 set vs. Clarion (12/1/86). The Vikings set season lows by making six-of-nine free throws at UW-Green Bay on Jan. 3.

GIVING CHARITY: Although the Vikings have been to the free throw line 452 times this year, CSU is being outscored by its opponents at the stripe. In 18 games, Vikings opponents have attempted 442 charity tosses and own a 312-303 scoring edge from the line. CSU opponents are converting at a .706 clip, which is well ahead of the Vikings' .670 percentage. The difference has come recently as CSU has shot more free throws then its opponents only twice in the nine games since Christmas, being outscored 166-120 over that span.

ROBINSON PLAYS IN HIS 100TH CAREER CONTEST: Jermaine Robinson reached a career milestone against Wright State on Jan. 8, playing in his 100th career game as a Viking. He enters the weekend having started 87 of the 104 games during his career, totalling 2,880 minutes.

THE O-SHOW IS A SMASH HIT: The first 18 games of the collegiate career of Omari Westley have been nothing short of outstanding. He has scored in double figures 15 times with seven double-figure rebounding efforts. He leads the Horizon League in rebounding (8.6) while leading the team in field goal percentage (.511) and is second in free throw percentage (95-125, .760) and scoring (15.4). His accomplishments include: * Double-double efforts in both exhibition wins, averaging 13.5 points and 11.5 rebounds a game. * Records third straight double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds in season-opening win over Central State. * Leads comeback from 11-point deficit at Florida A&M, scoring 15 of his 18 points after the break - including 13 straight free throws. * Scored a career-high 20 points against North Carolina, adding 11 rebounds and six assists. * Had 11 points and a 12 rebounds at Norfolk State. * Scores 19 points with a career-high 14 rebounds (10 offensive) and three blocks against Akron. * Explodes for a career-high 30 points vs. Loyola on Jan. 5, the most by a Horizon League player this year. He makes 12-of-18 field goal attempts with 13 rebounds for his league-leading 5th double-double * Comes back against Wright State on Jan. 8 to post his second straight 20-point game, tallying 21 points with nine rebounds, shooting 7-of-9 from the field and 7-of-8 from the line. * 20 points, on eight-for-11 shooting from the field, his fourth career 20- point game.

. . . WESTLEY HAS TAKEN THE HARD ROAD: After almost 20 months watching from the sidelines, junior Omari Westley has finally completed the long and hard journey to Division I basketball. His basketball odyssey included: * Three-year starter at John F. Kennedy High in Cleveland, averaging 24.2 points, 16.5 rebounds and 5.7 assists as a junior in 1998-99. * Transferred to East Cleveland Shaw High as a senior in 1999-2000, averaging 20.4 points and 14.0 rebounds a game. * A partial-qualifier, Westley enrolled at Wabash Valley JC in Mt. Carmel, Ill., serving as a sixth-man on the team that won the NJCAA national title (2000-01). * After Wabash Valley head coach Jay Spoonhour left to join his father at UNLV, Westley transferred to Barton County JC in Great Bend, Kan. * Averaged 13.0 points as a sophomore (2001-02) at Barton County and was one of the most highly recruited JC players in the country. * Unable to complete his degree requirements at Barton County and meet NCAA initial eligibility requirements, he enrolls at Cleveland State in the fall of 2002 and sat out the season. He was not allowed to practice. * Completes residence year in the May of 2003 and joins the Vikings.

ACCEPTING CHARITY, PART 2: Along with the outrageous team free throw shooting numbers come some pretty hefty individual free throw totals as well. The tandem of Jermaine Robinson (143 attempts) and Omari Westley (125) rank first and second in the Horizon League in free throw attempts with Loyola's Demetrius Williams ranking third with 104 attempts. Five different CSU players have combined to attempt at least eight free throws in a game 20 times for CSU this year. Westley made 14-of-18 free throws against Florida A&M, the sixth-highest single game total for attempts while ranking fourth for makes. Robinson opened the year by making 14 free throws in 17 attempts against Central State.

ACCEPTING CHARITY, PART 3: Several Vikings have definitely taken advantage of their trips to the foul line this year. Walt Chavis, who was 18-of-26 from the line last year (.692), is 26 of his 33 attempts this year (.788). Omari Westley made 19 straight free throws early in the season, including 13 in a row to help win the Florida A&M contest, and is shooting .765 from the line this year (91-119). Victor Morris is shooting .900 from the line, making 18 of his 20 attempts but he had a streak of 15 straight free throws made end late in the game against UW-Milwaukee.

A VIKING BLOCK PARTY: Before Pape Badiane was injured, the blocked shot was an integral part of the CSU defense. The Vikings had blocked 55 shots in the first nine games to rank eighth nationally in the NCAA stats. Included in the total were a school record 12 blocked shots against Central State. Here are some interesting notes about the shot blocking performance during the early part of the season: * The Central State performance topped the old school record of 11 set against IUPUI on Nov. 16, 2002. * Pape Badiane rejected five shots against both Central State and Florida A&M, tying him for the fourth-highest single game total in school history. * Five different Vikings blocked at least one shot against Central State, the most since five players accomplished it against IUPUI in the first game of the 2001-02 season. * Badiane led the Horizon League with 27 blocked shots including at least one block in every contest. His start gave him 13 career games of four blocks or more and 32 games with multiple blocks.

LOOKING AHEAD: The Vikings take to the road for a pair of games, playing at Butler on Thursday, Jan. 29 and at Wright State on Saturday, Jan. 31. CSU then returns home on Feb. 5 against UW-Green Bay to start a stretch that will see it play four of five games at home to end the home slate.