Cleveland State Shedding its Anonymity

By Mark Barnes
for HOOPSADDICT.com

Published: November 23, 2008

In the classic movie, Major League, a comedy about the hapless Cleveland Indians, there is a hilarious dinner party scene. The team’s catcher, portrayed by Tom Berenger, is asked by one of the guests what he does for a living. When he explains that he is a player for the Indians, an elegant elderly woman replies, “Here in Cleveland? I didn’t know they still had a team.” That moment helps define the team’s futility and near anonymity – a concept that is critical to the success of the film.

The Cleveland State University Vikings could very easily star in a similar movie.

Although Cleveland State hasn’t waited for a playoff berth as long as the Indians did, the Vikings have made the NCAA Tournament only once, and that was 22 years ago, when a Ken “Mouse” McFadden-led CSU team shocked 3-seeded Indiana and legendary head coach Bob Knight in the first round, before advancing to the Sweet Sixteen. Two years later, after consecutive NIT appearances, Coach Kevin Mackey was fired for conduct unbecoming, and thus began the steady decline of the CSU program. Since Mackey’s ignominious dismissal, Cleveland State has been to just one NIT (last season) and has not had a single noteworthy player.

In fact, if the average college basketball fan met forward J’Nathan Bullock and was told that Bullock is a player for CSU, the fan might say, “Here, in Cleveland? I didn’t know they still had a team.”

Most college basketball fans don’t realize Cleveland has a team. Many Clevelanders don’t know it.

Decades of awful basketball, horrible coaches and an anonymous existence on the shores of Lake Erie, though, may soon be coming to an end for CSU.

Bullock, a bullish post player, with a physique and attitude that reminds onlookers of Charles Barkley is the embodiment of what Cleveland State has become under highly successful head coach Gary Waters. Even the deposed Mackey would love Bullock, who will scrap, bang, dive or do just about anything else to help his team win.

Bullock and point guard Cedric Jackson, ironically, are both Mackey-like players. Relative unknowns coming out of high school, these are hard-hat brown-baggers, who don’t care about personal glory; they just want to win — the mantra that Waters has ingrained in his team since his arrival two years ago.

This is a new, old, Cleveland State team that comes fully-stocked with a tough coach, belied by his soft outward appearance (much like Mackey) and a team that goes 10 deep, composed of players that the high-profile conferences wouldn’t give a glance, much less a scholarship. On many nights, this CSU team is so similar to Mackey’s 1986 group that it’s like watching videotape of that amazing squad. Like McFadden, Jackson is a slick scorer and cat-quick defender who will pick an opponent cleaner than dental floss; Jackson was eight in the nation in steals last season, and he is as unknown as Barack Obama was three years ago.

Shooting guard Norris Cole is a streaky marksman who can drop in consecutive three-pointers before you can say, Norris who; Lengthy George Tandy is a subtle shot-blocker who steals points on offensive rebounds and put-backs, and diminutive D’Aundray Brown personifies the name of the position small forward but plays as big as some 7-footers.

Meanwhile, like the 1986 Vikings, this new edition also plays a scary in-your-face defense that most college players and coaches hate worse than drivers dislike black ice. Despite losing at Pac 10 power Washington, the Vikings cut a 26-point deficit to two with furious full-court pressure – a style of play that the few fans that CSU has are learning to love.

A few nights later, the Vikings lost a hard-fought battle with the Big 12’s Kansas State that left the Wildcats wanting nothing more to do with this up-and-coming mid-major power. Although CSU was on the wrong end of the score against both Washington and Kansas State, these are the kinds of games that will only toughen the Vikings come conference tournament time in late February, when their now-struggling offense will likely catch up to their frenetic, stop-at-nothing-for-a-steal defense.

In spite of starting the 2008-09 campaign at 1-2, CSU, with Waters at the helm, is winning more than it has in 15 years. Last season, Waters’ crew became one of just 16 teams to go from 20 losses to 20 wins in a single season. Along the way, CSU defeated 12th-ranked Butler, the first win in the school’s history against a top 20 team during the regular season. A close loss to Butler in the Horizon League Conference Tournament championship game was all that kept the Vikings from returning to the NCAA tournament.

In spite of a tougher schedule, including the roady to Washington, the home game with Kansas State and upcoming contests with perennial top 25 programs, West Virginia and Syracuse, this may be Cleveland State’s best chance since 1986 to experience real March Madness. With a nice blend of senior starters and superb young athletes, all of whom bring different contributions, Waters has a toolbox filled with sterling. The Horizon League is solid, but winnable, especially with league power Butler being down a bit this season. The Vikings are certainly capable of another 20-win season and maybe even an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

Yet Cleveland State is still unknown. In a city that features LeBron James and people who live and die for football, perhaps the Vikings are destined to remain anonymous. Or, like Mackey and McFadden proved over two decades ago, a magic ride to a conference title and a Big Dance ticket in March might just wake up fans in Cleveland and the rest of the college basketball world to northeast Ohio’s best-kept secret.

Then, in March, when people bump into J’Nathan Bullock, maybe they’ll say, “You guys really do have a team, and a damned good one at that.”

Photo Credit: Chris Creamers’s Sports Logos

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Cleveland State Shedding its Anonymity

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