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Hard-Nosed: Vikings have fought through injuries to become a better team, Waters says
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Guard Cedrick Jackson led Cleveland State to the Horizon League championship.
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2009 NCAA TOURNAMENT
Published: March 19, 2009
Coach Gary Waters of Cleveland State said that there was one overriding reason for the brownout in the middle of his team's season.
Guard D'Aundray Brown was out.
The Vikings -- who will play Wake Forest on Friday in the first round of the Midwest Regional -- didn't completely shut down, but they weren't the same team that
had been picked in the preseason to win the Horizon League championship.
"During that stretch, we went 5-3, and I was glad we did that well," Waters said Tuesday. "I'm glad it wasn't worse.
"When he got back, he played great, and we went on an eight-game winning streak."
Brown, a physical 6-4 sophomore guard, returned from a stress fracture in his ribcage, only to be sidelined again March 3 by a sprained knee. The injury came against Detroit in the first round of the Horizon League Tournament, and still the Vikings barged past Detroit (56-43) Illinois-Chicago (67-64), Green Bay (73-67) and Butler (57-54) to win the title and an automatic NCAA Tournament bid.
The victory over Butler was particularly impressive, coming on Butler's home floor at Hinkle Fieldhouse. Point guard Cedric Jackson, a transfer from St. John's, had 19 points, eight assists and seven rebounds and the Vikings held the Bulldogs to 33 percent from the floor in the second half and 41 percent for the game.
Waters said he doubts that Brown will be back by Friday night, but that his absence doesn't matter as much now as it did in January.
"The best thing about it was that when he was out, we learned how to play without him," Waters said. "And that's how we were able to win the conference tournament."
The Vikings are seeded 12th with a 25-10 record, but three of their losses came early against Washington (70-63), Kansas State (69-59) and West Virginia (53-43). Nine days after losing to West Virginia, the Vikings went to Syracuse and beat the Orangemen 72-69 in the Carrier Dome.
Since losing three games in a row at Green Bay (79-69), Milwaukee (77-75) and Youngstown State (64-60), their only setbacks have been at Wichita State on Feb. 21 and at Butler (58-56) on Feb. 28.
J'Nathan Bullock, a 6-5, 240-pound senior forward, leads the Vikings with 15.3 points and 7 rebounds a game, ranking third in the conference in both categories. Norris Cole, a 6-1 sophomore, averages 12.9 points, and Jackson, a 6-3 senior who started 39 of his 54 games at St. John's, averages 10.5 points, 5.4 assists and 5.7 rebounds.
"Jackson, he could start in the ACC," Coach Dino Gaudio of Wake Forest said. "He was a two-year starter in the Big East.
"He's a bigger guard. He runs the show for them. He rebounds. He can score the ball. I think he makes big shots. I don't think he's known, obviously, as a 3-point shooter, but you know what, he makes big 3s for them."
Jackson shoots 30.3 percent from 3-point range, but nobody else on the team other than Brown (38.5 percent) and little-used reserve Eric Schiele (41.7) makes better than 32.1 percent from beyond the arc.
As a team, Cleveland State ranks seventh in the Horizon League with a 3-point percentage of 31.7.
The Vikings rank third in field-goal percentage (43.2) and field-goal defense (40.6) and fifth in rebounding margin (plus 0.6).
Their strengths are their aggressive man-to-man and their ballhandling. They rank first in their league in steals (8.7) and assists (14.1) per game and first in turnover margin (plus 3.5).
"Their numbers defensively are very, very good," Gaudio said. "They're aggressive. They're out in the passing lanes. They're getting to the basketball.
"They're just a hard-nosed tough group of kids."
And they're also well aware of how they have to play Friday to have a chance to knock off Wake Forest.
"If the game gets into the 80s or 90s, it's over," Waters said. "We've got to control the tempo."
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