Men's Basketball Weekend Preview: CSU Joins Party in First Weekend of League Play

Horizon League Men's Basketball Weekly Release (Jan. 4)

Men's Basketball Weekend Schedule (all times EST)
Friday, Jan. 4
Cleveland State at Valparaiso, 7 p.m. -- ESPNU
Saturday, Jan 5.
Green Bay at Detroit, 2 p.m. -- HLN Game of the Week
Youngstown State at Loyola, 4 p.m. -- HLN
Milwaukee at Wright State, 7 p.m. -- HLN

INDIANAPOLIS -- Cleveland State will make its first appearance in Horizon League play on Friday night, kicking off the first weekend of the conference schedule.

The Vikings, who went 8-6 in non-league action, visit Valparaiso for a tilt that will be broadcast nationally on ESPNU. Mike Couzens and former Boston College standout Malcolm Huckaby will be on the call of the game.

Cleveland State has had just one day of rest since falling to Kent State -- but the turnaround is just as quick for the Crusaders, who on Wednesday dropped their Horizon League opener at home to Loyola.

"We don’t have a very long turnaround, and it’s going to be a totally, completely different style than what we saw [against Loyola]," Valpo head coach Bryce Drew told the Post-Tribune. "They’re going to defend us differently, they’re going to attack us differently on offense."

Cleveland State head coach Gary Waters, who recently won his 300th career game, knows that to have a chance to hand the Crusaders a second-straight upset loss his team must fix a few things that went wrong in the loss to the Golden Flashes.

"If we just hit our free throws, it's still a game," Waters told the Plain Dealer, adding that turnovers from traveling violations must be cut down as well. "It's hurting us because it's hurting our momentum. We are not giving ourselves a chance to win."

Friday night's game is scheduled to tip off at 7 p.m. EST.

On Saturday, all three games will be streamed on the Horizon League Network, starting with the HLN Game of the Week between Green Bay and Detroit at 2 p.m. ESPN Full Court and ESPN3 will pick up the feed of the award-nominated Game of the Week.

The Titans won their conference opener on Thursday night, the same night that the 2012 Horizon League Tournament Championship banner was raised to the rafters of Calihan Hall. That win over Milwaukee was Detroit's 16th-straight victory at home, where the Titans are now 8-0 this season.

"It was a special day for us, raising the banner,'' head coach Ray McCallum told the Free Press. " We gained our composure in the second half, and our second-half defense is [why] I'm most proud."

Considering the home winning streak compiled by Detroit, there's no doubt the Phoenix face a tough task as Green Bay tries to shake off an upset loss at Wright State in the conference opener for both teams on Thursday night.

Also facing a tough road test coming off a road upset loss is Youngstown State, which has stayed in Chicago since losing to UIC on Wednesday night and will meet Loyola for a 4 p.m. tilt on Saturday. The Ramblers went into the ARC on Wednesday night and defeated conference-favorite Valpo.

Head coach Porter Moser said that playing solid fundamental basketball helped his team upset the Crusaders.

"Our guys kept good spacing, because I thought Valpo did a good job of extending the zone [defense]," Moser told the NWI Times. "You have to crash the boards, and we made a couple of key back-cut plays."

With Loyola, UIC and Wright State all winning in the first round of Horizon League play, the teams picked to finish in the last three spots are now among the top teams in the rankings.

Wright State, for example, was picked to finish last. But head coach Billy Donlon said after Thursday's win that he doesn't put much stock in those preseason rankings.

“I would have said you put everyone up there in the one slot, because that’s how good it is,” Donlon told the Daily News. when asked how he would have laid out the rankings. “The Horizon League’s RPI is 12th [in the nation]. When we had Butler, we were 12th. We don’t have Butler, and we’re [still] 12th. It’s an unbelievable league. It’s still as good as it’s ever been.”

The Raiders helped prove that with Thursday's win and will look to continue their surprising start in the weekend's nightcap, hosting Milwaukee at 7 p.m. on Saturday.