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2006-07 Men's Basketball Schedule Announced
Aug. 21, 2006
Contact: Brian McCann Complete Release in PDF Format CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Fourteen home games, including a Nov. 11 home opener against George Mason, plus road games at Ohio State and Kansas State highlight the 2006-07 Cleveland State men's basketball schedule. "This schedule will certainly be a challenge for us with the 12 non-conference games getting us ready for the Horizon League schedule," head coach Gary Waters said. "I said when I was hired that I wanted to play a challenging schedule and bring teams to Cleveland that our fans want to see. I believe that we have accomplished this. "Because of the way we outline our schedule, half of our non-conference games are pretty much locked in each year. We are always going to play two road games against teams that will be in the McLendon Series (Ohio State & Kansas State), two as part of the BracketBusters (at Delaware & BracketBusters) and two high mid-major teams (Kent State & George Mason). "Scheduling the remaining home games was made a little more difficult this year because we got a late start," Waters added. "Our fans should appreciate the games against John Carroll and Notre Dame College because those two area schools will generate interest locally." The Gary Waters coaching era gets underway on Saturday, Nov. 11 with the stiffest home test in many seasons when the Vikings host 2006 NCAA Final Four participant George Mason in the Wolstein Center. The contest will mark the first time in Viking basketball history that a Final Four team from the previous season will face the Vikings in Cleveland. The George Mason contest is the first of four November home games with CSU sandwiching home games against area opponents Notre Dame (OH) (Nov. 13), John Carroll (Nov. 22) and Kent State (Nov. 29) around games against host Evansville, Buffalo and Miami (Fla.) at the Americas Youth Classic in Evansville, Ind. The Vikings will begin December with four straight road contests, beginning with the Horizon League opener at Butler on Dec. 2. Non-league matchups at Kansas State (Dec. 5), Ohio State (Dec. 9) and Central Michigan (Dec. 16) follow before CSU returns home to close the calendar year with home games against Chicago State (Dec. 19), UIC (Dec. 27) and West Virginia Tech (Dec. 30). 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 2006-07 season are now available through the CSU Athletic Ticket Office. The office can be reached at (216) 687-4848. Some notes on the 2006-07 schedule: • CSU will play a total of 30 regular season games, the most since the 2000-01 season. • The Vikings have eight games against teams that advanced to postseason play last year, five against NCAA teams and three vs. NIT participants (Miami, Fla. & Butler). The five NCAA teams include Final Four participant George Mason (Nov. 11), Kent State (Nov. 29), Ohio State (Dec. 9) and a home-and-home series with UW-Milwaukee. • The road games at Ohio State (Dec. 9) and Kansas State (Dec. 5) are the first game in a multi-year contract that will have both schools playing at CSU in a McLendon Scholarship Series game. Ohio State will play in the inaugural series event on Dec. 18, 2007 with Kansas State coming to Cleveland during the 2008-09 season. • CSU plays in an in-season tournament for the first time in three years when it competes at the Americas Youth Classic in Evansville, Ind. from Nov. 17-19. Although the order of games has not been finalized, the Vikings will play games against Buffalo, Evansville & Miami, Fla. • The Vikings will play a game in the fifth annual BracketBusters, presented by ebay, which will be held on Feb. 17. This will be the fourth straight year that CSU has been involved with the event. Last year, the Vikings hosted Delaware, will return the game this year on Nov. 26. The Viking BracketBusters opponent this year will be decided in early February. • CSU plays two games against Cleveland area teams, hosting Notre Dame College on Nov. 13 and John Carroll on Nov. 22. This will be the first-ever contest against Notre Dame College while the Vikings have won the last six meetings with John Carroll dating back to the 1967-68 season. • The Vikings play a pair of Horizon League games before the new year, including a Dec. 2 contest at Butler which will be the earliest league opener in school history. The previous earliest start came last year when CSU hosted Loyola on Dec. 29, marking the first league game played before Jan. 1 in 22 seasons of league play. • The CSU men's and women's basketball teams will play six doubleheaders during the year. Three of the doubleheaders are on Saturdays -- vs. West Virginia Tech (Dec. 30), UW-Green Bay (Feb. 3) & Youngstown State (Feb. 24) -- with the other three coming against Chicago State (Dec. 19), UW-Milwaukee (Jan. 11) and Loyola (Feb. 1). • The Vikings will play an exhibition game for the first time since 2003-04 when they host Slippery Rock on Nov. 7. CSU will use its other preseason date to play a closed scrimmage against a Division I team. • The annual Horizon League Championship will begin play at campus sites on February 27 leading up to the championship game on March 8. CLEVELAND STATE UNIVERSITY 2006-07 MEN'S BASKETBALL SCHEDULE Nov. 7 (Tues.) SLIPPERY ROCK (Exhibition), 7:00 p.m. 2007 Horizon League Championship * Denotes Horizon League game
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