November 30, 2011

Vikings on guard

Bill Koch, National Coumnist

No. 1 went down on Saturday, a combination of a slow night at the office and a hungry opponent looking to make a statement.

But this isn’t about North Carolina and its 90-80 loss to UNLV. It’s about Cleveland State, a team that was snubbed by the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee last season after finishing in a three-way tie for the Horizon League regular season title and looks poised to force more tough decisions in March 2012. The Vikings are off to a 6-1 start, their lone hiccup a 63-53 loss to Hofstra on Saturday in the Kingston, R.I., subregional of the TicketCity Legends Classic.

Cleveland State was the top team in last week’s RPI rankings, a product of the nation’s toughest strength of schedule and one of the best wins of the young season. The Vikings’ 71-58 road ambush of then-No. 7 Vanderbilt on Nov. 13 was a surprise only to those who pay attention to preseason rankings, something that we’ve warned you about before in this column space. The Commodores were sitting ducks without injured big man Festus Ezeli and couldn’t stop the Vikings’ veteran perimeter players, a group that includes two guards who started all 36 of Cleveland State’s games last season and four seniors in all.

That victory alone against Vanderbilt made the Vikings the headliners over the weekend at the Ryan Center, as they survived by the collective skin of their teeth against a winless Boston University team in their opener, 64-63, and were dominated on the boards while falling to the Pride. Cleveland State rallied in its finale to overwhelm callow URI, 67-45, and headed for home with a better understanding of its new place in the college basketball hierarchy.

“I think there are going to be some more best shots coming, and I think you get that when you start winning and people know who you are,” Cleveland State coach Gary Waters said. “Teams get up for it.”

Nothing has been easy for the Vikings since downing Vanderbilt. Cleveland State beat St. Bonaventure by three and Kent State by four before heading east for Thanksgiving. The Vikings survived against the Terriers despite a 44-13 disadvantage at the foul line, erasing a four-point deficit inside the final 10 seconds thanks to a deep 3-pointer by Trevon Harmon and Jeremy Montgomery’s pair of free throws with 3.4 seconds to play.

“I’m going to have to bring that message every minute I speak with them now,” Waters said. “I can’t let them go into the situation thinking it’s just going to be normal – it’s not going to be normal.”

Harmon and Montgomery make up one of the country’s most veteran backcourts, a combined 134 starts between them entering this season. They were at the heart of the escape against Boston University, as Harmon’s 27-footer from the left wing with 5.6 seconds left made it 62-61 and Cleveland State used a timeout to set up its frenetic full court press. Montgomery stole the Terriers’ inbounds pass and drew a foul diving for the loose ball, the sort of clutch play that Waters has seen time and again from his veteran lineup.

“Think about it – for 39 minutes they outplayed us,” Waters said. “And then for a minute we had about four plays go our way, we got back with them and we ended up pulling it out.”

Fellow senior D’Aundray Brown returns from a torn left quadriceps that cost him all of last season, slotting into Cleveland State’s third guard spot as Montgomery and Harmon each slide over a position to replace NBA first-round pick Norris Cole. Junior Tim Kamczyc and 6-foot-9, 270-pound senior Aaron Pogue man the Cleveland State frontcourt, with Kamczyc operating on the wing and Pogue doing most of his damage in the paint. He overpowered URI on Sunday to the tune of a game-high 20 points on 8-for-10 shooting.

Just watching the Vikings for three straight days makes you wonder how they sustain their seemingly boundless energy. Cleveland State contests the game over all 94 feet of the floor, pressing and trapping like the kid in your high school physical education class who always played 10 percent harder than you wished he would. You weren’t trying to break a sweat before you had to spend the next hour in the chemistry lab – a nice, easy game of 4-on-4 sounded much better at the time – but this kid always had other ideas. Look no further than URI senior guard Jamal Wilson, who scored just eight points and committed four turnovers in 26 minutes against the Vikings after averaging 19.8 points per game in his first five outings this season.

“Watching film you can see bits and pieces of it,” Wilson said. “But actually going through it – I’m going to be honest, they’re a very hard team to play against.”

The Runnin’ Rebels, with three senior starters of their own, rightly received the bulk of the attention on Saturday. Chace Stanback, Oscar Bellfield and Brice Massamba all did their part in knocking No. 1 off the top of the mountain. They would be wise to find Harmon or Montgomery on Twitter and ask them what it’s like going from the hunters to the hunted, because that’s what they’re about to experience. Cleveland State now knows this only too well, a lesson that will be taught to them time and again as the season goes on.

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Photos courtesy of Cleveland State Athletics