By Brett Crow, Staff Reporter
The Cleveland Cavaliers aren’t the only basketball team worth talking about it in Cleveland. Since 2006, Gary Waters has coached the men’s basketball Cleveland State Vikings to multiple NIT Tournament appearances and an NCAA Tournament bid, feats not accomplished with Cleveland State since the late 1980’s.
Gary Waters took the time to sit down with Jerry Mires of the Sports Fix this past weekend for an exclusive interview and give a preview of what to expect with the 2012-2013 Vikings campaign.
Right off the bat, Waters made no secret that he was extremely excited for the new season. “I’m always excited about basketball,” spoke Waters jovially, “and at the beginning, you’re very excited because you’re undefeated!”
Excitement certainly seemed to be the theme with Waters as he discussed his very young and talented roster: “I’m excited about them because they rejuvenate you and also they’re a talented group of young men, that’s what’s unique about them.”
“We’re excited about the direction of the program,” added Waters. “I think now we’ve established a culture. If you can’t fit in this culture with your abilities, how hard you play, and how disciplined you are, then we really don’t recruit you.”
The culture of coach Waters has been one of success, as he has a 122-82 record as coach of the CSU Vikings. It’s a stark contrast to the coach before Waters, Mike Garland, who sported a record of 23-60 during his tenure there. It’s a culture that the Viking’s group of nine freshmen and sophomore are likely to learn quickly.
One such sophomore is Anton Grady, the 6’8” sophomore forward who excelled last year and was named to the 2nd Team in the Preseason Horizon League team. “He’s really improve and is a great kid to coach. He’s a coachable player, and he really wants to be coached.”
“They’re young,” said Waters laughing when asked about what he had learned about his young team thus far. “We got a ways to go. When you’re young, your biggest area of concern is on the defensive end. So we got to get them right in that area. I can see that they like to run, this is a running team.”
“This is the most athletic team I’ve had. These guys are long and athletic,” said Waters of his team, offering high praise to his young crop of players.
Marlin Mason was one player in particular that Waters spoke very highly of. The 6’6” forward from Cass Tech High School was a redshirt who ended up playing last year due to injuries in the lineup. He had his arguably best game against Detroit last year with a career 15 points and nine rebounds.
The conversation then turned to the recruiting process: “You take someone like Junior Lomomba, he is as good a recruit as you can get. He was a top 100, and it came down to us, UCLA, and Washington and it tells you how good of a player he is. He’s a next level recruit. And we also have someone like Aaron Scales who had signed early with Missouri. These kids are one day going to be showing who they are at Cleveland State.”
The newly found national recognition was the next topic on the slate, as the Vikings head coach was asked about being in the preseason NIT: “We start out against Bowling Green, and if we’re fortunate enough to win that game, we move forward and play Michigan on their home court. We’re looking forward to that.”
The regular season is always the main concern though, especially playing games within your division. The Horizon League has suffered a small shake-up though with the mid-major school Butler leaving the Horizon League conference for the Atlantic 10.
“It’s going to hurt something because they establish their name. But what you need to remember is a year ago, they came in fourth. And they didn’t have one player on the All League team. So when you think about that, I won’t say they were going backwards, but they weren’t at the top of the league,” said Waters about Butler’s departure.
Waters was quick to remove any idea that he didn’t respect Butler: “Think about what they did, going to two Final Fours...There’s not many teams in America who can do that. What they did is, they raised the level of the Horizon League. Even though they left, they raised it to a level now that’s going to stay regardless if they are here or not.”
To hear more of the exclusive Coach Waters interview on the Sports Fix, check out the whole interview below.
The Sports Fix is Cleveland’s choice for sports talk in Northeast Ohio, hosted by Jerry Mires. They can be found online at www.thesportsfix.net or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/thesportsfix
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