Victor Morris has shot 53-percent from the field over the last five games.

Jan. 4, 2005

Contact: Brian McCann

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GAME 10
Cleveland State (3-6, 0-1) at Wright State (6-7, 1-1)
Date: Thursday, Jan. 6, 2005
Time: 7:15 p.m. EST
Site: Nutter Center (11,019), Fairborn, Ohio
TV: None
Radio: WKNR, 850 AM (Frank DeMarco)
Series: Series Tied, 20-20
Last Mtg.: Wright State 72, CSU 56, Jan. 31, 2004, Dayton, Ohio

SETTING THE SCENE: The Vikings close a five-game road swing when CSU travels to Fairborn, Ohio to face Wright State on Thursday, Jan. 6 beginning at 7:15 p.m. EST in the Nutter Center on the Wright State campus. After opening the season with three straight wins, the Vikings (3-6, 0-1 HL) have dropped six straight games, including a 70-55 decision at Loyola on Monday night (Jan. 3) in the Horizon League opener. Wright State carries a 6-7 overall and 1-1 Horizon League record into the game. The Raiders dropped a heartbreaking 73-71 decision in overtime at UW-Green Bay on Monday night.

PREVIEWING WRIGHT STATE: Despite being picked to finish in sixth place in the Horizon League this year, the Raiders appear to be one of the surprise teams of the season. Their 7-6 overall record includes a Preseason NIT win over Tulsa and road losses at Arizona, UW-Green Bay and Ball State. Sophomore guard Dashaun Wood leads the team in scoring (15.5), rebounding (5.9), assists (56) and steals (26). Sophomore forwards Zakee Boyd (13.1 ppg) and Drew Burleson (10.6) are helping to provide an offensive spark. The Raiders have had success this season because of their defense, ranking third in the league in both field goal defense (.423) and scoring defense (62.9), ranking second in rebounding margin (+2.3). Offensively, WSU leads the conference in three-point shooting (63-165, .382) and is second in field goal offense (.462).

TRYING TO GET RID OF THE STREAKS: The Vikings will attempt to end a number of lengthy losing streaks when they face Wright State on Thursday night, some of which date back to the 2002-03 season. The streaks include:

24 Consecutive league losses, counting tourney games (Youngstown St., 2/13/03)
22 Consecutive league losses (Youngstown State, 2/13/03)
20 Consecutive league road losses, counting tourney (Youngstown State, 2/14/02)
18 Consecutive road losses (last road win at Norfolk State, 12/13/04)
17 Consecutive league road losses (Youngstown State, 2/14/02)
6 Current all-game losing streak (Clarion, 12/2/04)
3 Consecutive losses to Wright State (1/11/03)

TAKE A KID TO A GAME DAY SET FOR JAN. 8: CSU will celebrate the annual Take A Kid To A Game Day when the Viking return home on Saturday, Jan. 8 to host Youngstown State as part of a doubleheader with the CSU women's team. Fans who attend the game will be able to get one free youth ticket (8th grade and younger) when they buy one adult ticket at the regular price. The CSU women will host Detroit starting at 3:00 p.m. followed by the men's game at 5:30 p.m.

WESTLEY PASSES HIS BOARDS: Omari Westley is well on his way to claiming his second straight Horizon League rebounding title as the senior is more than two rebounds a game ahead of his closest competitor. Westley, who has grabbed 10 or more rebounds five times this season, is averaging 9.2 rebounds a game, putting him well ahead of second place Adrian Tigert from UW-Milwaukee, who is averaging 7.4 rebounds a game. Westley, who also leads the league with 4.1 offensive rebounds a game, has posted a league-leading five double-doubles this season, giving him 13 in his career. He led the league in both offensive (3.1) and total rebounds a year ago (8.6).

MORRIS PICKS UP HIS PLAY: After struggling to find his offensive game early in the season, sophomore guard Victor Morris has found his range recently, averaging 8.6 points and shooting .529 from the field (18-34) over the last five games. Included in his recent scoring run were a career-high 18 points at Eastern Michigan on Dec. 23, going 8-of-13 from the field to lead CSU in scoring for the third time in his career. In the first four games of the year, Morris averaged 4.0 points a game, shooting .261 from the field (6-23).

ROAD TRIP ANYBODY?: The Wright State game is the fifth in a stretch that will see the Vikings play nine out of 10 games over a span of five weeks away from the Convocation Center. The nine road contests will cover six different states in three different time zones over a 35-day period. The first half of the road trip is a five game swing that had CSU playing in five different states, facing Utah Valley State on Dec. 18, Eastern Michigan on Dec. 23, North Carolina on Dec. 30 and Loyola on Monday (Jan. 3) before travelling to Wright State (Jan. 6) on Thursday. CSU then returns home to host Youngstown State on Jan. 8 before finishing the road trip with games at UW-Green Bay (Jan. 11), Illinois-Chicago (Jan. 15), UW-Milwaukee (Jan. 20) and Youngstown State (Jan. 22). If you were to drive the entire road trip -- which fortunately the Vikings will not have to do -- it would cover 8,866 miles. This week's Wright State journey covers 414 miles roundtrip.

. . . HOME SWEET HOME: Although the Vikings will be at a disadvantage playing away from home over the next five weeks, they will also benefit from extended home stands. CSU opened the season with four of its first five games at home with the lone road contest being a 40-mile trip to Akron on Dec. 8. The Vikings close the season with 7 of their last 10 games at home.

A TURNAROUND FROM THE LINE: The last six games has seen the Vikings correct one of its Achilles Heels from a year ago, free throw shooting. Cleveland State, which ranked last in the Horizon League a year ago with a .646 team free throw percentage (411-636), started off the year shooting .609 from the stripe in its first three games (42-69). The Vikings have found their range over the last six games however, going 86-of-117 (.735) to move from ninth to third in the league standings with a .679 mark (110-162). No player has exemplified the improvement better than Justin Henderson, who was three-of-nine in the first three games but has gone 11 of 12 since. Freshman Mike Redell leads the team, shooting .857 from the line (12-14), including a 10-for-11 effort against Kent State.

THE TREY TRIO: The Viking trio of senior Modibo Niakate, sophomore Raheem Moss and freshman Steve Gansey has provided the Vikings with consistent outside shooting during the first part of the season, combining to shoot .411 (39-95) from three-point. Niakate, CSU's career record holder for three-point percentage (64-148, .432), has made 16 of his 40 treys (.400) to rank sixth in the Horizon League in three-point percentage while Gansey (14-34, .412) and Moss (14-37, .378) rank third and 12th, respectively. Moss is sixth in the league in three-pointers made (2.0) with Niakate eighth (1.8) and Gansey 11th (1.6).

TATHAM SHINES IN RETURN: One of the truly positive aspects of the performance by the Vikings this year has been the play of sophomore center Patrick Tatham, who has come back from a severe knee injury suffered a year ago to emerge as a team leader at both ends of the court. Defensively, Tatham has made 17 steals to rank second in the Horizon League and he is second on the team with 5.0 rebounds a game. Offensively, he has raised his scoring average from the 3.8 points a game he averaged last year to rank fourth on the team this year averaging 9.9 points, including three double-figure efforts. He has led the team in scoring twice this season, scoring a career-high 17 points in the opener against Hillsdale (Nov. 20) and adding a 16-point effort against Kent State (Dec. 11). A .293 shooter last year (29-99), Tatham has raised his shooting percentage to .464 this year (32-69).

. . . AND THE ROAD BACK WAS A LONG ONE: To say that Patrick Tatham was limited last year by a knee injury is an understatement. The pain, which began during the opening weeks of the season, gradually grew to the point where he played most games late in the year on just one leg, and he spent a great deal of time daily in the training room. He finally gave way to season-ending knee surgery with six games left, after which time he was on crutches for six weeks, during which time he was not allowed to place any pressure on the rebuilt knee. He was finally allowed back on the basketball court in late June. The surgery also cost him the opportunity to play for the Canadian national team at the Under 21 Tournament of the Americas last July.

CHAVIS STARTING STREAK ENDS AT NORTH CAROLINA: Senior guard Walt Chavis saw his streak of 26 straight starts come to an end at North Carolina last week when freshman Mike Redell earned his first career starting assignment. Chavis returned to the starting lineup at Loyola on Monday, giving him his team-high 55th career start.

. . . WESTLEY & MORRIS OWN STARTING STREAKS: Senior Omari Westley and sophomore Victor Morris currently own the two longest active starting streaks on the team. Westley has started all 37 games that he has played in since joining the team last year while Morris has 29 straight starts going back to December of 2003.

. . . AND WHAT A START IT WAS FOR REDELL: Odds are, freshman Mike Redell will remember the first start of his collegiate playing career for a long time to come. After all, it came at North Carolina, a team ranked as high as No. 4 in the nation, in front of 18,537 fans, the sixth-largest crowd to ever see a Viking basketball game. Redell responded well to the challenge, setting career highs for assists (4), rebounds (5) and minutes played (24). Redell came back on Monday at Loyola to turn in another strong performance, scoring seven points and equalling his career best with five rebounds.

THE BENCH BUNCH HAS COME THROUGH: Most head coaches like to construct their playing rotation so that they have at least one player coming off the bench who is capable of providing an offensive spark. Mike Garland has taken that concept almost to an extreme this year as the CSU bench is keeping pace with the starters offensively. Through nine games, the Viking reserves are averaging 32.4 points, including 30 points or more five times with a pair of 50-point efforts, while the starters are averaging 39.4 points a game. Modibo Niakate leads the reserves in scoring, ranking second on the team and 10th in the Horizon League with a 11.9 scoring average, while Raheem Moss (10.6 ppg), Steve Gansey (6.0), Justin Henderson (5.6) and Mike Redell (3.4) have come off the bench to score in double figures at least once.

. . . AND WHAT A DIFFERENCE A YEAR MAKES: The offensive production from the Viking bench this season has been in stark contrast to last season when CSU reserves averaged only 12.4 points a game, including a mere 5.7 points over the last 14 contests.

SCORING BALANCE: As anticipated, the Vikings have shown a good scoring balance this year. Through the first nine games of the regular season, the Vikings have had five different players lead the team in scoring. Omari Westley (Utah Valley State, North Carolina & Loyola) has led the team in three of the last four games. Patrick Tatham (Hillsdale & Kent State) and Modibo Niakate (Norfolk State & Akron) have each led the team in scoring twice while Raheem Moss (Clarion) and Victor Morris (Eastern Michigan) have accomplished it once each. Only four players led the team in scoring last year.

VIKINGS INK ONE ON SIGNING DAY: The Vikings received an added bonus on Nov. 11 when Flint (Mich.) Northern High standout J'Nathan Bullock signed a national letter of intent to attend CSU and play basketball beginning next fall. Bullock, a 6-4 forward, averaged 17.3 points and 10.1 rebounds a game as a junior last year, shooting .545 from the field to earn first team all-city and all-region honors. He also received first team all-city accolades as a freshman and sophomore along with being a second team all-region choice as a sophomore. A nominee for the 2005 McDonald's All-America team, he is ranked as the 28th best player in the state of Michigan by Prepspotlight.com and was voted the League MVP and All-Star Game Runnerup MVP at the 2004 Cage Scope/Blue-Chip Basketball Camp in Georgetown, KY.

NIAKATE TO PLAY JUST 13 GAMES: Senior guard Modibo Niakate will play in just the first half of the year for the Vikings after a clarification of his athletic eligibility determined that his five years of NCAA eligibility will run out in January. He is eligible to practice and play until Jan. 17, the day before the start of the spring semester at Cleveland State. He will then remain enrolled at CSU for the spring semester and complete his requirements towards receiving a bachelor's degree in communications. Niakate initially enrolled as a full-time student at Hutchinson Community College in January of 2000 but even though he did not begin playing basketball at Hutchinson until the November of 2000, his eligibility clock started in January of 2000. NCAA rules allow a student-athlete four years of intercollegiate eligibility, provided that those four years are completed during a five-year period that starts the day that a student-athlete is first enrolled as a full-time student.

LOOKING AHEAD: The Vikings return home to host Youngstown State on Saturday (Jan. 8) for Take A Kid To a Game Day before heading back out on the road for four straight contests.