Cleveland State does just fine in first game without Norris Cole.
If you watched any Cleveland State basketball games last year -- and I hope you did -- you saw a roster full of solid players surrounding Norris Cole, who obviously stood out as the dominant talent and personality. But now, with Cole gone and fulfilling his childhood dreams of bickering with NBA owners, Cleveland State wasted no time in blazing a new trail with out the flat-topped superstar.
In the first major upset of the young college basketball season, the Vikings beat Vanderbilt, a top-ten team, 71-58 on the road. And though the upset has spurred a lot of "I told you so's" about the (possibly) overrated Commodores, the game ultimately tells us much more about Cleveland State than it does about Vanderbilt.
Vanderbilt was playing without 7-foot center Festus Ezeli , but the big man may not have made much difference anyway, as it was the tenacious pressure defense of the Cleveland State guards that dictated the game.
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Cleveland State coach Gary Waters likes his guards to extend ball pressure in the half court, forcing turnovers and preventing opponents from getting into their offensive sets. Cole's quickness, strength and energy on the defensive end set the tone for the Vikings last year, but Cleveland State appears ready to keep the pressure on this season. Of course, every college basketball emphasizes and claims to be built around defense. But there's a big difference between most teams -- who this time of year especially are just trying to learn fundamentals of positioning and rotations -- and a team like Cleveland State, which starts four seniors and a junior, and has athletic guards that can attack, not just impede, on the defensive end.
Leading Cleveland State now are three senior guards: Sharp-shooter Jeremy Montgomery handles the ball well and is solid defensively, Trevon Harmon was a Horizon League All-Defensive first teamer last year and can put the ball on the floor, and D'Aundray Brown is expected to come back this season and be the Vikings top defender after missing last season with a hand injury.
Cleveland State will miss Cole this season, particularly his ability to create off the dribble to set up his teammates, get his own shot and get to the foul line, but Cleveland State teams thrive off their perimeter defense, and it appears that that is an area where the Vikings won't lose a step this year.
"We're a physical, pressure defensive team," Cleveland State associtate coach Jayson Gee said after the Vikings forced 21 turnovers at Vanderbilt. "That's our identity, that's our culture. That's what we've done since we took over the program. We took over a program that had five straight last place finishes (in the Horizon League) and went from last to second in two years and from second to first in the third year. And we did it all with that kind of defense."
For Vanderbilt, meanwhile, the loss isn't reason to panic. The loss will give fuel to the skeptics out there who can't quite imagine an elite basketball team at Vanderbilt, but fortunately for the Commodores, this isn't college football, and the success of their season won't be based on perception or reputation.
That said, Vanderbilt also has to realize that its top-ten preseason ranking doesn't count for crap. They played Cleveland State as if the win would come to them automatically, since they were playing at home and ranked so highly.
Vanderbilt's Memorial Gymnasium is one of the toughest road venues in college basketball, but this early in the season, before home crowds are all that fired up, home court doesn't count for much. As the season wears on, Vanderbilt will find better intensity and organization, and by the time SEC games comes around, no one will want to play them at Memorial.
In the meantime, the Commodores have learned just how far a preseason ranking can take them.
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