Non-Skol Viking Preview

BG has its home opener for MBB tomorrow as Cleveland State heads into town.  This is a tough one to preview, given that it is so early in the season and the teams are so new.  Here are a few notes.

Cleveland State has had success.  Mouse McFadden took them to the Sweet 16 in 1986.  They have been to the NCAAs two other times.

Starting in 2020, they won at least 19 games in five straight years.  That spanned Dennis Gates through the entire tenure of Daiyal Robinson. Gates coaches Missouri now (3 Big Dance appearances) and Robinson is at North Texas.

Rob Summers is the new coach.  He once coached against BG when he was at Urbana. He is from the Dennis Gates coaching tree, serving as an assistant with him at Cleveland State and Missouri.

Last year was not great---they went 11-22.  This year's roster is a complete turnover.

They are 1-1.  They lost 111-50 to Missouri and beat Michigan-Dearborn 103-79, so we can't tell much there.

BG and Cleveland State have played 20 times.  BG has won 11.  BG has won 5 of the last 7 and the last 2 at home.

They were picked 10th (out of 12) by Blue Ribbon and 11th in the league poll. (Behind NIU).

Last year, they struggled on defense.  They were #362 out of 365 in defensive efficiency. They were especially easy to shoot against and poor on the defensive boards.

Rayvon Griffith is their leading scorer.  He's 6'8" and was a top 100 recruit, he played at UC and Kent before landing with the Vikings.  He's scoring 23.5 PPG.  He'll be a good matchup with Beckford.

Dre Jones has started both games.  He's 6'9" and also played at Kent.  He only played 7 games last year.  He's averaging 7 RPG.

Their PG is Jordan Lowery, a former all-FR guard in the WAC (Arlington).  And their 5th starter is Curtis Stinson, a former Iowa HS POTY who transferred from North Texas.

Micah Bays is coming off the bench.  He was a big scorer at Central State.

Kenpom gives BG a 78% chance of winning.