Aug. 6, 2008

Contact: Brian McCann

Complete Schedule in PDF Format

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- At least 13 home games, including contests against 2008 NCAA participants Butler, Kansas State and Kent State, highlight the 2008-09 Cleveland State men's basketball schedule. The majority of the schedule was released on Wednesday (Aug. 6).

"We didn't do ourselves any favors with this schedule," CSU head coach Gary Waters said. "This is a difficult schedule that is designed to get us ready for the league schedule in January and put us into a position to have an RPI that will be deserving of a postseason bid.

"We're going to get a real challenge, especially right at the beginning. Playing teams like Washington, Kansas State, Richmond and West Virginia will help us to become a better team.

"One thing is for certain is that we won't be able to sneak up on anybody this year. Everybody will be prepared for us so that will make every game just a little more difficult."

The third season of basketball at Cleveland State under Waters begins on Friday, Nov. 14 when the Vikings host John Carroll in the Wolstein Center. CSU then travels to play at Pac-10 foe Washington in an opening round game of the College Basketball Experience Classic on Nov. 18.

The Vikings return home to host Kansas State in the second annual McLendon Scholarship Classic on Saturday, Nov. 22 at 7:00 p.m. in the Wolstein Center.

The hectic early season slate continues when the Vikings play three games in three days at the CBE Classic in Ft. Myers, Fla. from Nov. 24-26, facing Richmond, Missouri-Kansas City and Florida Gulf Coast.

The Vikings return home to open Horizon League play with perhaps its most difficult games of the year, hosting Valparaiso on Tuesday, Dec. 2 and defending champion Butler on Thursday, Dec. 4.

A road game at West Virginia will be played on Saturday, Dec. 6 followed by a short break for finals. Following a Dec. 13 game at Marist, CSU then concludes its pre-holiday schedule with home games against Oakland (Dec. 16) and Kent State (Dec. 23).

The only non-league game following the new year will come on Saturday, Feb. 17 when the Vikings take part in the annual Bracketbusters event. After playing a home game last year, CSU will most likely play a road game this year with the opponent being decided in early February.

Season tickets and other ticket packages for the 2008-09 season are now available through the CSU Athletic Ticket Office. The office can be reached at (216) 687-4848.

Some notes on the 2008-09 schedule: * CSU will play a total of 31 regular season games, the most since the 2000-01 season. Three games are left to be added, an exhibition game on either Nov. 8 or 10 and a pair of non-league games in December.

* The Vikings have nine games against teams that advanced to postseason play last year, five against NCAA teams and four vs. CBI participants (Richmond, Washington and Valparaiso twice). The five NCAA teams include Kansas State (Nov. 22) and Kent State (Dec. 23) at home, a home-and-home series with Butler (Dec. 4 at CSU, Feb. 28 at Butler) and a road game at West Virginia (Dec. 6).

* The road game at West Virginia is the first game in a multi-year contract that will the Mountaineers return to Cleveland to play in a McLendon Scholarship Series game in the fall of 2009.

* After going 3-1 and finishing second at the Glenn Wilkes Classic in Daytona, Fla. last year, CSU will return to Florida to play Richmond, Missouri-Kansas City and Florida Gulf Coast in Ft. Myers, Fla. from Nov. 24-26.

* The Vikings will play a game in the sixth annual O'Reilly ESPNU BracketBusters, which will be held on Feb. 21. This will be the fifth straight year that CSU has been involved with the event. Last year, the Vikings defeated Marist in the Wolstein Center. CSU will return the game to Marist this year, playing on Dec. 13. The Vikings BracketBusters opponent will be decided in early February.

* CSU will open the regular season at home against John Carroll, marking the third straight year that CSU will face the Blue Streaks. The Vikings have won the last seven meetings with John Carroll dating back to the 1967-68 season.

* The Vikings play perhaps their most difficult home series in the Horizon League in early December when CSU hosts Valparaiso on Tuesday, Dec. 2 and defending league champion Butler on Thursday, Dec. 4. It will equal the earliest start to the league schedule in school history, which happened last year when the Vikings played Youngstown State on Dec. 2.

* The CSU men's and women's basketball teams will play five doubleheaders during the year, all of which will come in league play. Three of the doubleheaders will come on a Saturday, UIC (Jan. 10), Wright State (Jan. 31) and Green Bay (Feb. 14) with the other two coming on a Thursday, Loyola (Jan. 8) and Detroit (Jan. 29).

* The annual Horizon League Championship will begin play at campus sites on March 3 leading up to the championship game on March 10.