Cleveland State Preview

BG takes on Cleveland State tonight in the first game of the pre-season NIT in a game to be played at Crisler Arena.  I actually believe this will be a really interesting game to see where everyone stands.

Cleveland State had a really good season last year.  They had a hot start, swooned a little at the end, lost in their conference tournament and then played in the NIT.  They were happy enough with how everything was going to give Gary Waters a 7-year extension.  You'd have to feel that Cleveland State has the potential to be a pretty good basketball school over time.

However, this year, they are facing some serious graduation losses.  They return only one starter and no double figure scorers.  Graduation hit the guards especially heavily, they return only 3 career starts at guard.  Their front court is very long...they return 5 guys between 6'7" and 6'9", but again, only one (Kamcyck) has started more than 3 games.  (He started all the games last years, 9.1 PPG.)  College Basketball Prospectus says he had a limited role last year but can shoot the 3 and get to the rim, but needs to adapt to a primary role this year.

Overall, CSU's length is a matchup issue for the Falcons.

They have only 1 Senior and 2 juniors--the remainder of the team is a FR or a SO.

Their early season results do not tell us very much.  They only beat Malone by 9 in an exhibition and they killed Grambling, but the College Basketball Prospectus rankings have Grambling projected to be the worst team in D1, so that doesn't say very much either.

The media picks them to be #5 in the Horizon, and College Basketball Prospectus has them #3.

The Vikings have a 5'9" PG (Charlie Lee) who had turnover issues last year, but he was a FR PG, so that can happen.  I'm sure they will be looking to see if he has made a big jump this year.  They also have Anton Grady on the inside...he averaged 6 boards a game off the bench last year and can block shots.  I would imagine he will drawn Calhoun duty on the inside.

The CSU teams under Waters have thrived on FG defense.  It remains to be seen how strong their defense will be this year, but having said that, I worry about how well BG's offense will be able to score against strong defensive teams.

Again, this has the potential to be a really interesting game, especially on a neutral floor.  Cleveland State was certainly better than BG last year, and both teams had losses.  BG returns more of what it had then the Vikings do, but the Vikings could still be better.  Anyway, I'm looking forward to it.