CSU Vikings Men’s Hoops Opens Up Tonight Vs Akron at Kent State

GAME PREVIEW:
•     Cleveland State opens the 2015-16 season when the Vikings play Akron at 9:00 pm in the inaugural Northeast Ohio Coaches vs. Cancer Doubleheader at Kent State.
•    It will be the second game of the night with Kent State hosting Youngstown State at 7:00 pm.
•    The 2015 Coaches vs. Cancer Northeast Ohio Doubleheader will be the start of an annual basketball event hosted on a rotating basis at each school.
•    Youngstown State will host the event in 2016, Akron will host in 2017 and Cleveland State in 2018.
•    The game can be heard live on AM 1220 WHKW and www.whkwradio.com with Al Pawlowski providing the play-by-play.
•    Saturday’s season opener will be the first time CSU has opened the year with a neutral site game since the 2002-03 season when the Vikings lost 71-66 to Florida Atlantic (11/16/02) in Fort Collins, Colo., in the Dell BCA Invitational.
•    The Vikings are coming off a 19-15 season and an 11-5 mark in the Horizon League. CSU advanced to the postseason for the sixth time in the last eight years last year, playing in the CollegeBasketballInsider.com tournament for the second straight season.

THE AKRON SERIES:
•     Saturday’s meeting will be the 68th all-time meeting between CSU and Akron.
•    Akron leads the all-time series, 36-31.
•    The Zips won the last meeting, 73-61, on Dec. 7, 2013, in the Wolstein Center and has won two straight in the series.
•    This is the first meeting between the two teams at a neutral site.

YOUTHFUL BUNCH:
•    CSU has one of the youngest rosters in the nation this year.
•    The roster features just 16 seasons of collegiate basketball experience with Vinny Zollo the lone senior on the roster.
•    Andre Yates and Zollo are the only players on the roster who started games for the Vikings last year.
•    Yates started 22 games, while Zollo started five times.
•    The Vikings lost 143 starts from last year due to graduation or transfer.
•    Last year, CSU returned a Horizon League-best 118 starts

OPENING ACT:
•    The Vikings are 32-52 (.381) in season openers, including a 25-25 record as Cleveland State.
•    CSU has won five of its last seven season openers.
•    The Vikings had won a school-record four straight season openers until last year’s 78-73 setback at Iona to open the year.
•    Gary Waters is 6-3 (.667) in season openers at CSU. The six wins are the most by a CSU head coach.

PRESEASON HL POLL:
•    CSU was tabbed seventh in the Horizon League Preseason poll, earning 173 points.
•    Valparaiso was the preseason Horizon League favorite, earning 418 points and 36 first place votes.
•    Oakland was second in the poll with 368 points and six first place votes, while Milwaukee was third with 344 points.
•    Detroit received 289 points and the last first place vote to finish fourth, while Wright State (253), Green Bay (215), CSU (173), UIC (125), Youngstown State (93) and Northern Kentucky (87) rounded out the poll.

GOOD GENES:
• Freshman forward Jibri Blount is the son of Mel Blount, who played 14 seasons with the Pittsburgh Steelers and is a member of the NFL Hall of Fame.
•    Blount was a second team all-district and All-Ohio honoree after averaging 16.0 points and 11.0 rebounds as a senior at Akron St. Vincent-St. Mary.
•    He led the team to a 26-1 record and a spot in the regional finals.

GOOD GENES PART 2:
• Freshman Jeron Rogers is the son of Carlos Rogers, a star basketball player at Tennessee State and the 11th pick in the 1994 NBA Draft by the Seattle SuperSonics.
•    Rogers was one of 10 finalists for the Mr. Basketball Award in Michigan.
• He averaged 17.0 points, 8.0 rebounds, 2.0 assists and 2.0 steals to lead team to regional appearance final as a senior.

FOR THREE:
•    CSU begins the 2015-16 season with a school record streak of 535 straight games with a three-pointer.
•    The Vikings have hit at least three three’s in 84 straight games.
•    The last time CSU failed to make a three-pointer was Feb. 21, 1998, when the Vikings were 0-for-8 in a 60-57 win over Detroit.

THE LEAD VIKING:
•    CSU head coach Gary Waters is in his 10th season at CSU.
•    He is the third longest tenured coach in program history, behind Ray Dieringer (14 years) and Homer E. Woodling (13 years).
•    Waters is 347-262 in 19 years as a head coach and his 176 wins at CSU are a program record.
•    He ranks second in CSU history in games coached with 303 (Dieringer – 360) and second with a .582 win percentage, going 176-127 at CSU (Kevin Mackey – .673).

#MOTOR CITY MADNESS:
•    The Horizon League Championship will take place at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit, Mich., from March 5-8.
•    It is the first time the tournament will be at a neutral site since 2002.
•    Under terms of the five-year agreement, Olympia Entertainment will host the men’s basketball tournament beginning in 2016.
•    The first two years of the tournament will be contested at venerable Joe Louis Arena, home to the National Hockey League’s Detroit Red Wings, before moving to the state-of-the-art Detroit Events Center, currently under construction in downtown Detroit.

UP NEXT:
•    The Vikings open the 2015-16 home slate when CSU hosts Malone at 7:00 pm on Tuesday (Nov. 17). The game will be broadcast live on ESPN3, as well as AM 1420 WHK.