A Beginner’s Guide to the Cleveland State Vikings

Let me let you in on a little secret, sports fans: I did not expect to take the Cleveland State Vikings all that seriously when I took on the task of covering them this season. We at WFNY were glad to have access to the team, but we understood that the Vikings are not the biggest needle-mover in town.

With that in mind, we thought to approach our coverage with some levity, trying to find a secondary hook to draw in readers. I thought I might give the players silly nicknames, crack wise on Horizon League haircuts, or dive into deep analysis of Gary Waters’ wardrobe.

Some of this would have been out of necessity. I am not a Cleveland State grad, and I have not kept my finger on the Viking pulse over the past few years. In truth, I didn’t know much about this team, much less how to cover them. When I wrote about why people should care about CSU before the season, I was largely talking out of my backside in hopes that it would all come true.

But then a funny thing happened. The more I watched these guys play, the more I came to respect them―the more they forced me to respect them. I came to see that their play is the sort that I have come to love: defense-first, hard-nosed, tough. I see guys like 5-foot-8 point guard Charlie Lee going hard for all 40 minutes. I see sophomore Andre Yates careening into opponents despite an injured wrist. I see freshman guard Terrell Hales tearing after loose balls like Ron Swanson after the last strip of bacon.

I have listened to them in postgame pressers. I saw the sincerity in Garfield Heights’ Trey Lewis and Cleveland Central Catholic’s Anton Grady as they spoke of getting revenge against a Green Bay team that embarrassed them at home last year. I sense the understanding in their voices as they discuss defensive concepts and the importance of gang rebounding. I hear them echoing their head coach and borrowing his pet phrases.

I watch this team and I listen to this team, and I almost find it silly how much I have come to admire them.

Their games of course come with mistakes, and each individual with faults, but that is part of what makes amateur sport. You’re not watching perfectly crafted jewels, but immature stones with blemishes yet to be buffed out. I had long subscribed to the theory that NBA basketball is superior to NCAA because every player is more talented, and thus the product is better, but CSU has reminded me how endearing imperfection can be. Fallible characters are always the most compelling.

I recognize that relatively few people are really following this team. I understand that some never will. But if you like basketball for any of the reasons that I like basketball, I ask you to give these Vikings a shot. They play hard, they play together, and they’re tied for first place in their conference. They have lost all of two games in 2015. They’re starting to believe that they can win the Horizon League and make the NCAA Tournament, and they might even be right.

With all that in mind, I present a beginner’s guide to the Cleveland State Vikings, in the form of each player’s NBA doppelgänger. Each NBA comparison comes with a year in a rough attempt to correspond to the Vikings’ current production, playing style, and potential.¹

#3 Trey Lewis: 2008-09 Mo Williams

This comes with one important caveat: Mo was a secondary option on the first LeBron Era teams, while Lewis is in the crosshairs of every CSU opponent. The 6-2 combo guard and Penn State transfer leads the Vikes with a per-game average of 16.9 points. He manned the point while Charlie Lee was suspended for the first six games, but he has proven adept at playing away from the ball and curling off screens with Lee running the show. Lewis has some wiggle off the bounce, but he does the most damage from outside, where he is shooting nearly 44 percent. He can exhaust a scoreboard operator’s fingers when he gets hot, just like Mo Gotti did when he scored 52 this year.

#15 Anton Grady: 2000-01 Elton Brand

Grady has been a rock inside for Cleveland State, and especially lately: he’s notched four double-doubles in the Vikings’ last five games. He has Brand’s lack of height (both are 6-8) if not his girth, but he has enough moves in the bag to score among the tall trees. His quick hands are an asset on defense, and he is averaging better than a block and a steal per game. He got himself into foul trouble often early in the season, but he has committed three or fewer infractions in each of the last six games. On a team largely defined by its guard play, Grady provides a necessary bit of interior clout.

#31 Charlie Lee: 1995-96 Terrell Brandon

The 5-foot-8 Lee is a couple inches shorter than the diminutive Brandon, and faces a size disadvantage in nearly every game. He makes up for his lack of size with his smarts, his ballhandling, and his quickness. He is the most vocal Viking, often barking orders to get his teammates in line. He perhaps derives his leadership from his tenure, as he is the only senior backcourt player on the roster. He leads the team in assists, and scores just under a dozen points per game. He is also a deadeye from the charity stripe (86 percent this year) and a veteran whom Gary Waters can trust in crunch time.

#42 Marlin Mason: 2012-13 Jeff Green

This is far and away the cleanest comp on the board. Mason, like Green, is a versatile forward capable of rising above the rim or hitting from beyond the arc. He is best suited to play the 3 in conventional lineups, but he often plays power forward for the Vikes. Standing 6-foot-6, Mason has been an efficient scorer for Cleveland State, shooting 50 percent from the field and 39 percent from three-point land. He isn’t as aggressive as one might like (averaging 6.1 shots per game) and is prone to floating in and out of the game, but every now and then he makes a play that commands your attention.

#1 Andre Yates: 2007-08 Mike Conley

The Conley comparison flatters Yates a bit, but I wanted to find a defensive-minded lefty guard, and rookie year Conley fits that description. Yates, a Dayton Dunbar grad and Creighton transfer, has been a starter for much of the year in Cleveland State’s three-guard lineup. To watch him hunker down in his stance on D is to watch a lion preparing to pounce. He stands just 6-foot-2, but has no qualms about mixing it up with larger swingmen. His finest moment of the season came when he hit a go-ahead three-ball against Wright State in his hometown.

#41 Vinny Zollo: 1994-95 Danny Ferry

Putting his name next to Ferry’s might be harsh on Vinny, who catches some flack from fans as it is. Zollo is a 6-8 forward, ostensibly a stretch four type. His shooting has been spotty this year (34 percent from the floor, 32 percent from deep), and he doesn’t offer much in the way of rebounding or defensive toughness. He has had some nice games this season―a 14-point, 9-rebound outing at VCU being the best―but his production isn’t commensurate with his potential. If he can smooth out the wrinkles in his stroke, his shooting would provide vital spacing for the CSU offense.

#11 Terrell Hales: 2011-12 Iman Shumpert

Hales has won me over more than any other Viking. He’s a 6-foot-4 freshman from Detroit who attacks the ball like it holds the secret to revitalizing the Rust Belt economy. His physique is like that of a greyhound, long and lean, and he runs like one too. His jumper has all the grace of a newborn elephant, and his handle could use some tightening, but he has earned playing time through his tireless pursuit of the rock, not unlike Shump did in his early days with the New York Knicks. Waters has aptly referred to Hales as “a gain-possessioner.” If he can refine his offensive game, he could be a star in the making. For now, he is a ball of pure energy off the bench.

#20 Kaza Keane: 2009-10 Goran Dragic

The year is important for this comparison. Nowadays, Dragic is one of the craftiest point guards in the NBA, but five years ago he was a relatively unknown off-the-bench facilitator. Keane, an Illinois State transfer and Ajax, Ontario native, is cut from similar cloth, a reserve guard more likely to set up teammates than hoist on his own. His numbers inspire little awe, but he is able to play on or off the ball, help clean the glass, and fulfill his responsibilities within Cleveland State’s defensive scheme. His all-around game was on display when he totaled 16 points, 6 assists, 5 rebounds, and 2 steals against Oakland in front of LeBron James. He may be the most willing passer on the team, and his steady brand of unselfishness would be welcome on any roster.

#33 Demonte Flannigan: 2007-08 Carl Landry

Flannigan, a 6-7 sophomore from Villa Angela-St. Joseph, doesn’t see a ton of minutes. When he does, his job is to mix it up inside, a bit like Landry during his time with the Houston Rockets. Flannigan has not yet earned a solid spot in the rotation, instead filling in when Grady gets too foul-happy or Zollo isn’t doing the job on the boards. Waters has suggested the Flannigan’s motor runs hot and cold; he benched him for much of CSU’s game against Detroit, sarcastically saying, “He didn’t feel like playing today. It was one of his days off. You get that sometimes.”

♦♦♦

Those, sports fans, are the featured players of this year’s team. They have eight games left this season (as of press time), including Wednesday, February 4 vs. Youngstown State.

If you’re only going to catch one Viking home game this year, make it the last of the season. They’ll face Valparaiso, with whom they currently share first place in the Horizon League. That game, on Friday, February 27, will not tip off until 10 p.m. It will be preceded by a “Viketoberfest” craft beer tasting event, which starts at 8:30.

For more information, check out the Cleveland State website. I hope to see you there.

1. Only the top 9 Vikings by minutes played made the cut. [↩]