10 Reasons to Hop on the Cleveland State Basketball Bandwagon
1 – A genuine alternative at the fraction of the cost to several certain underachieving professional sports franchises: Real collegiate cheerleaders and dance team; a great spirit band; genuine audience interaction; no “narcissistic” pro athletes in sight.
2 – Norris Cole: The senior guard is one of twenty finalists for the Bob Cousy Award for the best point guard in the country.
3 – The women’s team: Fighting for another league championship in a rebuilding year after going to the NCAA’s two out of the last three years. Coach Kate Peterson Abiad’s team is in the running to make it three out of four. Guard Shawnita Garland is always the smallest person on the court, yet leads the team in minutes played.
4 – Big Stuff: An opportunity to check out the campus and the new student center, the new rec center, the new law library, and the new education building; and, yes, dormitories with real college students living in them.
5 – Gary Waters and staff: The best coach and best staff in any sport on any level in Ohio.
6 – Anton Grady from Cleveland Central Catholic: The best high school player in the city, who will be a part of a great recruiting class coming to CSU next fall.
7 – Junior Big Men: Aaron Pugh and Joe Lantas, tough defense minded inside players.
8 – Jeremy Montgomery and Trevon Harmon: CSU’s defensive stalwarts/3 point shooting junior guards.
9 – Tim Kanczyc: A local product from Strongsville, an over-achieving walk on who now starts and is on scholarship. The 6’6″ forward leads the Vikings’ defense.
10 – Saturdays at the Wolstein Center: Cheap hot dogs, games for the kids, it can’t be beat.
Cleveland State has two big games this week that will play a big part in both winning the Horizon League crown and making it to the NCAA tournament. Check out the Vikings this Thu 2/3 vs. Valparaiso at 7PM, and this Sat 2/5 at noon vs. Butler. For more info visit http://CSUHoops.com.
Greg Cielec is a local writer who covers mostly music and sports for a variety of publications and websites. He is also a full time English and creative writing teacher at Streetsboro High School; an adjunct professor at BGSU Firelands College and Lakeland Community College; and a football coach at John Carroll University. He has published two books of fiction, My Cleveland Story (1998) and Home and Away Games (2006), and the Cleveland Plain Dealer’s Michael Heaton has called him “the Mark Twain of Cleveland.” Check out his website and blog at http://www.GregCielec.com.