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Men's Basketball Hopes to End Skid Against Wright State
Jan. 30, 2004 Contact: Brian McCann Complete Release in PDF Format SETTING THE SCENE: Cleveland State (4-16, 0-9) closes a short two-game road trip at Wright State (10-9, 7-2) on Saturday, Jan. 31 beginning at 7:00 p.m. EST in the Nutter Center. CSU then returns home to play four of its next five games at Goodman Arena. The Vikings have lost 14 straight games since opening the year with a 4-2 mark and are down to just seven relatively healthy scholarship players.
CLEVELAND STATE PROBABLE STARTERS
F 5 Omari Westley, 6-7, 205, Jr., Cleveland, Ohio 15.4 pts, 8.7 reb, 1.8 ast PREVIEWING WRIGHT STATE: Picked to finish sixth in the Horizon League this year, the Raiders are one of the two surprises of the campaign, entering Saturday's game in second place in the Horizon League with a 7-2 league mark. As expected, preseason all-league honorees Seth Doliboa (16.8 ppg, 7.2 rpg) and Vernard Hollins (14.8, 5.6) lead the WSU attack. The Raiders don't have a very deep bench, featuring just seven players who have played in all 19 games this year, but WSU is patient offensively and limits opponents to just .432 shooting from the field and .342 from three-point. PREVIEWING THE VIKINGS: The Vikings find themselves in a precarious position, owning a 4-16 record. CSU has lost 14 straight games going back to mid-December, and injuries and other problems have left first-year head coach Mike Garland with just seven relatively healthy and eligible scholarship players. CSU has gotten steady play from senior guard Jermaine Robinson, who has led the team in scoring in 14 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 8.7 rebounds a game, has been even better in league play, averaging 17.4 points and 8.6 rebounds. CSU IN THE NCAA STATS: The Vikings received a single mention in the latest NCAA statistics, which were released on Jan. 27. Senior Jermaine Robinson was 20th in the nation in scoring (20.7 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. 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 CHAVIS JOINS THE LIST: Junior point guard Walt Chavis is out for perhaps the remainder of the 2003-04 season after suffering a broken right hand in the final minutes of CSU's game against UW-Milwaukee on Jan. 22. Chavis had surgery on Tuesday (Jan. 27), and a timetable for his return to the court will be determined. A junior from Steelton, Pa., Chavis started the first 18 games this year, averaging 5.7 points a game. He ranks fourth in the Horizon League with 30 steals, seventh with 66 assists and ninth with a 1.22 assist-to-turnover ratio. He ranks 10th in Viking basketball history with 263 career assists. . . . AND THE SEVEN REMAINING ARE REALLY ONLY FOUR: The loss of Coles, Waters and Chavis leaves the Vikings with seven relatively 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 knee injuries, while the back strain that Pete Ritzema suffered during the Christmas Holiday is still causing him problems. 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 46 minutes over the last six 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 11 games since the injury, the Vikings have been outrebounded, 375-355 (-1.8) and have blocked just 24 shots. An even more significant stat is that CSU's opponents are shooting .490 from the field (297-606) and are averaging 76.7 points a game. Only one of CSU's first nine opponents shot above .431 from the field, a figure that has been achieved in all but two games since Badiane's injury. ROBINSON THREE-POINT STREAKS COME TO AN END: An 0-for-7 shooting performance from three-point against Youngstown State brought to an end a pair of record-setting shooting streaks for senior Jermaine Robinson. By failing to make a three-pointer for the first time in 19 games this year, Robinson now holds a share of two records for consecutive games making a three-pointer. He shares the record of 18 consecutive games with a trey in one season with Greg Allen (1991-92) and his 19 straight games going back to last year equals William Stanley's mark originally set from Feb., 1989 through Jan. of 1990. Robinson started a new streak at Butler, going one-for-five from three-point. 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 eight games in January. He scored a then-league season best 30 points against Loyola on Jan. 5 and is averaging 17.4 points and 8.6 rebounds a game since the new year. That is a considerable improvement from the 13.7 points and 8.8 rebounds 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 14 times, posting a league-best 13 games of 20 points or more. He is second in the Horizon League with a 20.5 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 16 of the 20 contests. His ability to penetrate and score has led to him attempting a league-leading 8.3 free throws a game (165 total). His 23 points against Youngstown State on Saturday was his 23rd 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 Viking 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 71 minutes in 12 games. Pape Badiane: The Vikings' starting center has missed 11 games with a broken right hand suffered vs. Georgia Southern on Dec. 29. He is expected out for at least another week. Patrick Tatham: The freshman who has started 12 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 38 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 54 minutes in the last seven 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. 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 Wright State game with 1,250 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 71 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 13 games, Robinson is averaging 37.9 minutes a game (it would be higher except he missed eight minutes because of injury vs. Youngstown State), including 40-minute efforts against Boston University (12/22), Wright State (1/8), Detroit (1/19) and Youngstown State (1/24). 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 34 times during his career, including in 11 of the last 12 games and 15 times in 20 contests this year. He has played 40 minutes or more in a game (counting overtime) six 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. . . . ROBINSON ISN'T THE ONLY VIKING TO GO THE DISTANCE: The depth problems that CSU has had during the second half of the season has led four different Vikings to play all 40 minutes in a game this year. Robinson leads the way with four 40-minute games this year. Walt Chavis played 40 minutes at UIC while Omari Westley and Victor Morris joined the group with 40-minute efforts at Butler on Thursday night. . . . THE MINUTES FOR MORRIS INCREASE: The loss of Percell Coles and Walt Chavis for the remainder of the season has led to an increase in the playing time for Victor Morris as well. Morris has played 30 minutes or more in four of the last five games, averaging 35.2 minutes over that span. He played a full 40 minutes at Butler on Thursday. ACCEPTING CHARITY: The aggressiveness by CSU offensively this year has led to the Vikings attempting 493 free throws this year, an average of 24.7 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 476 times this year, CSU is being outscored by its opponents at the stripe. In 20 games, Vikings opponents have attempted 478 charity tosses and own a 341-325 scoring edge from the line. CSU opponents are converting at a .713 clip, which is well ahead of the Vikings' .659 percentage. The difference has come recently as CSU has shot more free throws then its opponents only four times in the 11 games since Christmas, being outscored 195-142 over that span. 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 (165 attempts) and Omari Westley (138) rank first and second in the Horizon League in free throw attempts, with Loyola's Demetrius Williams and UW-Milwaukkes Dylan Page ranking third with 104 attempts. Five different CSU players have combined to attempt at least eight free throws in a game 23 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), has hit 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 .739 from the line this year (102-137). Victor Morris is shooting .864 from the line, making 19 of his 22 attempts, but he had a streak of 16 straight free throws made end late in the game against UW-Milwaukee. 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 week having started 89 of the 106 games during his career, totalling 2,959 minutes. He needs 67 more minutes played to break into the CSU career top 10. THE O-SHOW IS A SMASH HIT: The first 20 games of the collegiate career of Omari Westley have been nothing short of outstanding. He has scored in double figures 17 times with eight double-figure rebounding efforts. He leads the Horizon League in rebounding (8.7) and double-doubles (6) while leading the team in field goal pct. (.498) and is second in free throw pct. (102-138, .739) 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. * 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. * Scored 14 points with 11 rebounds vs. Youngstown State, his league-leading sixth double-double of the year. LOOKING AHEAD: The Vikings return home to start a stretch which will see them play four of the next five games at home, beginning with a Feb. 5 meeting with UW-Green Bay.
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