Cleveland State Vikings
Overall Rank: #47
Conference Rank: #2 Horizon
Cleveland State Team Page
2010-11: 27-9, 13-5
2010-11 postseason: NIT
Coach: Gary Waters (100-71 at Cleveland State, 271-206 overall)
Cleveland State has some big shoes to fill with the departure of Norris Cole. However, this team practically returns five starters thanks to the return of D’Aundray Brown. Brown missed all of last season with an injury, but the senior wing will provide this team with leadership and, perhaps more importantly, stellar defense. This team will look a little different than they did last year and Coach Gary Waters will need Brown’s leadership to help slow the team down. Two years ago Brown started 32 games and averaged 8.6 points, 5.6 rebounds and 2.5 steals. He will again spearhead the defensive effort and help the backcourt with some scoring and the frontcourt with some rebounding.
Who’s Out:
Cole averaged 21.7 points, 5.3 assists and 2.2 steals during his senior season. The first round draft pick will can not be replaced. What the Vikings have to do is move on without him and find players who can step up. Cole took all the big shots, handled the ball extremely well and always played great defense. It will certainly take a team effort to do all of that. Josh McCoy, Charlie Woods and Joe Latas saw the most action off of the bench last season and all are gone. This was a team that pretty much went seven deep, so losing those three is not a huge deal. What it does mean is that this group will be young off the bench.
Who’s In:
But being young is not a bad thing when a team has a fine recruiting class like this one. Sebastian Douglas missed last season with an injury and will make his collegiate debut in 2011-2012. The big 6-4 point guard has some experience in the system while sitting out last season and may compete for minutes, especially early in the year for major minutes running the show. The future point guard is probably incoming freshman Charles Lee. How long it takes before the future is now remains to be seen, but Lee has the talent to run this offense. Ike Nwamu will add some depth to the perimeter. The best newcomer of the bunch is forward Anton Grady. The Vikings have lacked quality big men and Grady should make a pretty big splash right away and could unseat a returning starter at some point during the season. Marlin Mason will battle for minutes off of the bench and the big man should be able to find them.
Who to Watch:
The big question is who is going to run the point? Ideally, it will be Douglas or Lee, but that may take a little time to develop. In the meantime, a stop gap measure might have to be used. Trevon Harmon and Jeremy Montgomery are both solid scoring guards who can score in bunches. That is what they do best. However, Harmon may be asked to run the point early in the year. Harmon was second on the team last season in scoring with 13.2 points per game. He is also a solid rebounder and defender. Harmon can fill a lot of the void left behind by Cole. Montgomery has some room to improve, but Harmon and Montgomery will shoulder the scoring load and should be a great scoring tandem this year. The key will be finding somebody who can get them the ball so they can worry about replacing Cole’s scoring and not his assists.
Final Projection:
The return of the starting frontcourt is certainly a good thing, but Tim Kamczyc and Aaron Pogue have not been the most consistent players around. Pogue is the bigger interior scoring threat after averaging a solid 8.2 points and 6.1 rebounds last season. Pogue will spend a lot of time in foul trouble and having depth behind him will certainly help, but Pogue needs to become more consistent on both ends of the floor and stay on the court. Kamczyc will rarely put up big numbers, but he does do the dirty work. Unfortunately, this team needs a scorer and if Grady lives up to the hype, Kamczyc will have to hustle from the bench. Ludovic Ndaye showed some promise during his freshman campaign and he will battle it out with the newcomers for minutes. This season could be a great one for CSU if they can find a point guard and get a little improvement from the frontcourt. This team is deeper and a little more experienced and that could make all of the difference. There will not be much wiggle room to sneak in to the NCAA Tournament coming from the Horizon League, but this team has the talent to make a run to the madness.
Projected Postseason Tournament: NCAA
Projected Starting Five:
Trevon Harmon, Senior, Guard, 13.2 points per game
Jeremy Montgomery, Senior, Guard, 11.6 points per game
D’Aundray Brown, Senior, Guard, DNP last season
Tim Kamczyc, Junior, Forward, 5.9 points per game
Aaron Pogue, Senior, Forward, 8.2 points per game
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