2018-19 #HLMBB Preview: Cleveland State
Cleveland State
Last season: 12-23 overall, 6-12 Horizon League
Head coach: Dennis Felton (2nd year)
By Joey Yashinsky, Horizon League Contributor. Follow on Twitter @OneSeatOver
In the Motor City Madness quarterfinals, Cleveland State trailed the top seed and defending champion Northern Kentucky 11-0. A few minutes later, it was 21-6. But then the pesky Vikings kept chipping away. They trailed by just five at halftime. With just under seven minutes left, the lead was down to three.
Then Tyree Appleby took the game over.
He drove to the rim. He got to the foul line. He buried shots from deep. Just a freshman, Appleby had the calm and confidence of a fifth-year senior. After pumping in 14 points over the final six minutes and making a brilliant pass to fellow freshman Stefan Kenic for a critical 3-pointer in the closing moments, Appleby had helped secure a huge victory for his squad and announced himself as a force to be reckoned with in the Horizon League.
It turns out, people around the conference got that memo loud and clear. Appleby was voted to the Preseason All-Horizon League first team heading into the 2018-19 campaign.
“I had a tremendous amount of confidence in Tyree coming into last season,” said Dennis Felton, now entering his second year as the Vikings’ head coach. “Just based on his talent and his aggressiveness for such a young guy. We all observed him getting better and better as the year went on. And he recognizes now how many guys he’ll have around him that can play at a high level.”
One of those players is Stefan Kenic, a star on the rise in the Horizon League. At 6-foot-9, Kenic is a matchup nightmare, able to drill 3s at a 37 percent clip or work for an easy bucket on the block.
“By the end of last year, Stefan had come a completely different player,” said Felton. “And you have no idea how much more he has improved just from the end of last season to now. He is going to be one of the stronger, more physical players on the court and his skill set continues to improve.”
The Vikings do lose stellar wing player Kenny Carpenter, someone Felton relied upon as much for his work leading the team as he did for on-court contributions.
“Losing Kenny, we create a void there,” said Felton. “He was an incredible leader for what he did for us last year. We will miss Kenny, but we’re developing leadership across our team.”
Kash Thomas could be one of those veterans counted on to help guide the young Vikings. After starting all 31 games as a freshman, Thomas took on more of a reserve role last season, with 11 starts in 35 games. Now a junior, and with a number of seniors graduating off of last year’s Horizon League runner-up squad, Thomas could be seeing a heavy workload once again.
“Kash was arguably our most physically and mentally strong player on the team,” said Felton. “Just the way he goes about his business puts him in a position of great leadership. And he’s improved a lot. I think people will find that he’s an improved player this year at both ends of the court. He’s really a critical piece of our team.”
Felton also welcomes in a talented freshman class, with all six fighting for a possible spot in the rotation this winter.
Seth Milner, an athletic guard standing 6-foot-6, could see important minutes early on, filling in for a lot of the things Bobby Word brought to the Vikings for the last two years. Rashad Williams is a high-powered scorer and a Mr. Basketball candidate from last season. He will look to make a similar stamp on the Horizon League that Appleby did a year ago.
The Vikings made plenty of noise at Motor City Madness this past March: a one-point victory over Youngstown State, the wild comeback against Northern Kentucky, a grinding 44-43 triumph against Oakland, before finally bowing out to a strong Wright State group in the title game.
“That was really good for our fans because Cleveland State had been struggling a bit and we needed something to grab our community’s attention, to let them know we’re up to something over here,” said Felton. “And although we only have a couple of players returning from that team, they are both guys (Appleby, Kenic) that were a major part of that and went through the experience of fighting through a lot of adversity. They found out firsthand that if you stay with it and persevere, you can start to control things and begin to turn it around.”
This is a determined program on the rise.
Next time they arrive at that doorstep of Horizon League greatness, they very well might bust all the way through.