The Cleveland State Vikings face a stiff test at home Thursday as they host the Butler Bulldogs who have taken the Horizon League title the last two seasons. Butler was suppose to be in rebuilding mode this season after graduating 4 starters from last years team. The 2008-2009 squad, featuring three incoming freshman starters, has reeled off 5 straight wins to begin the season but face a senior laden team that probably wants revenge after falling to the Bulldogs a year ago in the Horizon League championship game.

The game will have a national audience as ESPNU will showcase the Horizon League for a number of matchups this season. Tipoff for the game is set for 8:00. If you plan on attending the awaited matchup, you are advised by CSU to wear white to "white out" Butler. Things don't get easier for the Vikes as Gary Waters' team heads to West Virginia to face the Mountaineers who are coached by Bobby Huggins for a 1:00 tipoff on Saturday.

Butler (5-0, 0-0) at Cleveland State (5-2, 1-0)
Date: Thursday, December 4, 2008
Time: 8:00 p.m. EST
Site: Goodman Arena (8,500), Wolstein Center, Cleveland, Ohio
TV: ESPNU (Mike Reghi & Mark Adams)
(Highlights available on The Viking Basketball Report, which airs weekly on SportsTime Ohio.)
Radio: WHKW 1220 AM (Cleveland) & WHKZ, 1440 AM (Warren) (Al Pawlowski)
Sponsor: Pepsi-Cola
Promo: White Out The Wolstein Night
(All Fans Encouraged To Wear White With First 1,000 Fans Receiving Free T-Shirt, Courtesy of Pepsi)
Series: Butler leads, 23-6
Last Meeting: Butler 70, CSU 55 (3/11/08) HL Championship (at Butler)
Tickets: $8, $10 & $15
(CSU single game and season tickets are available by calling the Wolstein Center Ticket Office at (216) 687-4848 or by contacting Ticketmaster.)

SETTING THE SCENE: Cleveland State continues Horizon League play when two-time defending regular season champion Butler visits the Wolstein Center on Thursday, Dec. 4 beginning at 8:00 p.m. The game will be White Out The Wolstein Night with fans in attendance being encouraged to wear white. The first 1,000 fans will receive a free t-shirt, courtesy of Pepsi. In addition, the doors will open at 6:00 p.m. for CSU's Great Indoor Tailgate Party with a special dollar menu - including dollar dogs - being available at the Backstage Cafe. Cleveland State will carry a four-game win streak into the contest, including Tuesday night's dismantling of Valparaiso (66-42) in its Horizon League opener. Butler is 5-0, including wins at Drake (58-48) and at home against both Northwestern (57-53) and Evansville (75-59).

1:00 P.M. TIPOFF FOR WEST VIRGINIA: Saturday's (Dec. 6) game at West Virginia, which previously had been listed as a TBA start time, will tip-off at 1:00 p.m. With West Virginia hosting South Florida in football that day, the time was not determined until ESPN selected its Big East lineup for that day, electing to play the football game at 8:00 p.m.

HEAD COACH GARY WATERS: The reigning Horizon League Co-Coach of the Year, Gary Waters has needed just three seasons to convert Cleveland State into one of the top programs in the Horizon League. A 34-year collegiate coaching veteran, he owns a 207-171 record in 13 seasons as a head coach and a 36-36 mark in his third season at CSU, taking seven of his first 12 squads to post-season play. He posted a 92-60 record in five seasons at Kent State, making NCAA appearances in both 1998-99 and 2000-01 and becoming the third coach in Mid-American Conference history to be named league coach of the year in successive years. Waters moved to Rutgers in 2001-02, compiling a 79-75 mark in five seasons, including three trips to the NIT. Waters, who led the Vikings to a 21-13 mark last year, earned his 200th career win on Feb. 23, 2008 when the Vikings defeated Marist.

TV TIMEOUT: Thursday's game will be televised nationally on ESPNU, making it the 13th Viking contest over the last two seasons to be broadcast either nationally or regionally. Mike Reghi and Mark Adams will provide the commentary.

CSU IN THE NCAA STATS: When the first NCAA Division I statistics of the year were released on Tuesday (Dec. 2), senior Cedric Jackson found himself ranked in several individual categories. The Horizon League leader in both assists (6.0) and steals (3.2), Jackson ranks 14th nationally in steals and 23rd in assists. As a team, CSU ranks 28th in turnover margin (+5.7).

BULLOCK NAMED HORIZON LEAGUE PLAYER OF THE WEEK: After averaging 16.0 points and 7.3 rebounds in three games last week in leading Cleveland State to the title at the O'Reilly Auto Parts CBE Classic in Miami, Fla., J'Nathan Bullock has been named the Horizon League Player of the Week. It is the first time that the senior has received the award. Bullock started the week out right, scoring 22 points with nine rebounds in the win over Saint Leo, his 14th 20-point game in his CSU career. He followed that up with 10 points and six rebounds in the blowout of Toledo and capped off his week by tallying a game-high 16 points with seven rebounds vs. FIU.

. . . AND A GREAT START TO A POSSIBLE REPEAT? J'Nathan Bullock celebrated his first league player of the week award by going out and scoring 29 points, his second-highest single game total, in the win over Valparaiso. He was 10-of-13 from the field, including making both of his three-point attempts, and seven-for-nine from the line, adding six rebounds and a pair of assists.

VIKINGS CLAIM A TOURNEY TITLE: The three wins in Florida last week allowed the Vikings to win the team title of the Miami Regional of the O'Reilly Auto Parts CBE Classic, giving CSU its third tournament title in school history and the first since winning the Koch Petroleum Islander Classic during the 2000-01 season. Since playing in its first in-season tournament in 1966-67, CSU has played in 26 tournaments all-time with the Vikings also winning team titles at the Cleveland Invitational in 1967-68 and the First Bank Milwaukee Classic in 1987-88.

VIKINGS UP TO NINTH IN MID-MAJOR POLL: Three wins in three days last week in Florida allowed the Vikings to jump up nine spots - from 18th to 9th - in the most recent Mid-Major Basketball Poll, which was released on Dec. 2. The Vikings, who ended the 2007-08 season unranked, received 445 votes to be one of two Horizon League teams to make the poll (Butler 5th). Gonzaga received all 31 first place votes for first place, outdistancing Davidson (744), who received all 31 second place votes. The poll, which is sponsored by CollegeInsider.com, is released each Tuesday throughout the season.

AN EARLY OPENER: CSU's 66-42 win over Valparasio on Tuesday was the earliest league opener in school history, surpassing the previous start set last year when CSU hosted Youngstown State on Dec. 8. This will be the fourth straight season that the Vikings played a league game in December with CSU owning a 1-2 record in those games. The Vikings lost to Loyola (12/29/05) and UIC (12/27/06) before beating YSU last year. The Vikings will actually play three league games before the New Year, playing at Wright State on Dec. 30.

BULLOCK BREAKS INTO SCORING TOP 10: A 16-point effort against Florida International last week allowed J'Nathan Bullock to break into the CSU career scoring top 10. With 1,347 points during his career, Bullock passed both Jamaal Harris (1998-2002) and Dave Youdath (1980-84), who were 11th and 10th, respectively with 1,304 and 1,306 points. Bullock has a little more work to do to catch ninth place Eric Mudd, whose 1,402 points puts him 55 points ahead of Bullock.

THE SOPHOMORES HAVE IT: After weeks and weeks of talk about how the Vikings were going to be led by the senior duo of J'Nathan Bullock and Cedric Jackson, another less-heralded duo -- sophomores D'Aundray Brown and Norris Cole -- have emerged as two of CSU's biggest offensive weapons during the first three weeks of the season. Cole, who averaged 10.0 points over the final six games last season, is second on the team with a 12.7 scoring average, including a career-high 20 points at Washington and 17 points in the loss to Kansas State. Brown has set his career-high with 15 points against both Oakland and Florida International and is second on the team and fourth in the league averaging 6.3 rebounds a game while ranking third on the squad with a 10.0 scoring average.

MOORE, MOORE, MOORE: After dropping 25 pounds during the off-season, senior Chris Moore is beginning to see the results of that hard work. He has found his shooting touch over the last five games, making 16 of his last 23 field goal attempts (.696) to break out of a mini-scoring slump that saw him go scoreless in the first two games of the year. For the year, Moore is averaging 5.0 points and 3.9 rebounds a game, shooting .516 from the field (16-31) and adding six assists and six blocked shots.

MONTGOMERY STEPS UP: The trip to Florida proved to be beneficial for freshman guard Jeremy Montgomery. After going scoreless with one assist while playing just 11 combined minutes in the first three games, the freshman from Chicago emerged as a reliable member of the playing rotation, averaging 6.7 points, 2.7 assists and 1.3 steals in 15.0 minutes. His breakout game came against Toledo when he set career highs for points (10), assists (4), steals (4) and minutes played (20), going four-for-six from the field. More importantly, he was three-for-nine from three-point in the tourney, helping CSU to improve its outside shooting effort.

BUILDING A HOME COURT ADVANTAGE: When Gary Waters took over as head coach in the spring of 2006, he made note of the team's 5-10 home record the year before and indicated that for the program to succeed, the Wolstein Center would have to become a much more difficult place to play. The Vikings accomplished that goal in 2007-08 when CSU set a school record for wins in a season by going 12-2 in games played in the Wolstein Center. CSU was also 8-1 in league games, falling just short of the perfect 9-0 home league record in 1992-93. With a 2-1 home mark this year (1-0 in league play), CSU is now 14-3 on campus over the last two seasons, a considerable improvement over the 25-42 over the previous five seasons.

BULLOCK EXTENDS STARTING STREAK: With starts in every game this season, senior J'Nathan Bullock extended his starting streak to 76 consecutive games, passing Weldon Kytle (1961-65) to take over the fourth-longest streak in school history. He needs seven more starts to catch Darren Tillis (1978-82), who is in third place with 83 consecutive starts, and if he stays healthy, he could catch record-holder Ken McFadden (1985-89), who started 86 straight games, in January.

. . . AND GAME 101 IS NEXT FOR BULLOCK: When J'Nathan Bullock takes the court for the Butler game, it will be the 101st game of his CSU career. With at least 24 games left in the season (counting at least one game in the Horizon League Championship), Bullock has a chance to at least tie the school record for games played in a career (and consecutive games played in a career) which is currently being held by both Eddie Bryant and Clinton Ransey with 125 games played from 1983-87.

JACKSON IS A STEAL: With 88 steals during the 2007-08 season, Cedric Jackson not only ran away with the Horizon League steal title, but he also posted the third-highest single season steal total in school history. Jackson's 2.59 steals per game easily topped Green Bay's Terry Evans, who was second with 1.97 steals a contest. The 88 steals trailed only Kenny Robertson, who set the school record with 111 thefts in 1988-89 and had 90 steals in 1987-88. On a national basis, Jackson ranked ninth among Division I players in steals last year.

. . . AND THIS YEAR HAS BEEN NO DIFFERENT: Although Cleveland State has played just seven games this year, senior Cedric Jackson has defensively been in perfect form, making 22 steals to lead the Horizon League (and rank 14th nationally) with 3.2 steals a game and putting himself ahead of last year's 2.6 steals a game pace. Jackson has had multiple steals in every game this year, including a season-high five against both Washington and Toledo, giving him 33 multiple steal games in his CSU career (41 games).

1,000 POINTS & 500 BOARDS FOR BULLOCK: Senior J'Nathan Bullock began the 2008-09 season as one of 10 players in CSU history to record 1,000 points and 500 rebounds during a career. Bullock, who enters Thursday's game against Butler with 1,347 points and 603 rebounds, is striving to become the only player in Viking annals with 1,500 points and 750 rebounds.

. . . AND ANOTHER 1,000 & 500 MILESTONE IS REACHED: A perfect five-for-five effort from the line against Kansas State on Nov. 22 allowed J'Nathan Bullock to become the fifth player in school history to attempt 1,000 field goals and 500 free throws in a career. Bullok enters the Butler game with 1,063 field goal attempts and 525 free throw attempts. He joins Ken McFadden (1,639 field goals, 761 free throws), Clinton Ransey (1,511, 604), Franklin Edwards (1,807, 520) and Theo Dixon (1,291, 504).

BOARD WORK REQUIRED: One thing that is obvious from watching the Vikings during their first six games is that rebounding is going to be a factor in every game this year. Last year, CSU became the first team in Horizon League history to win the conference rebounding title (+3.1 rpg) after finishing last in rebounding the year before (-3.5). But that accomplishment has meant nothing to date as the Vikings have been out-rebounded in five of the first seven games, owning a -2.6 rebounding margin to rank fifth in the league this campaign. Last year's rebounding total was CSU's first positive rebounding margin since 2000-01.

A FOUL CALL: Although Cleveland State committed 679 personal fouls a year ago, the fourth-highest single season total in school history, the Vikings didn't allow the fouls to hurt them, setting a school record by having just three players foul out of games during the season. Cedric Jackson (at Kent State), D'Aundray Brown (Green Bay) and Chris Moore (at Dayton) each fouled out of a game once during the year, allowing the Vikings to break the old record low of five players fouling out, which was set in 1985-86.

. . . AND THE TRADITION CONTINUES: Through seven games this season, the Vikings have not had a player foul out while CSU opponents have had three players disqualified because of fouls.

BULLOCK GOING FOR A 4TH SCORING CROWN: It took him six games, but senior J'Nathan Bullock is finally in a familiar position, taking over the team lead in scoring with a 15.6 average. Bullock is attempting to become only the third player in CSU history to lead the team in scoring in four straight seasons. He started the streak as a freshman in 2005-06 when he was one of three Vikings in double figures for the year, averaging 11.3 points a game, the lowest average ever by a player who led the team. Bullock improved his average to 13.5 points in 2006-07 and trailed Cedric Jackson for most of last season until exploding for 39 points against Green Bay to take over the scoring lead for good. Bullock would join Franklin Edwards (1977-81) and Weldon Kytle (1961-65) as the only four-time scoring leaders.

DUO NAMED TO ALL-HORIZON LEAGUE SQUAD: The senior tandem of J'Nathan Bullock and Cedric Jackson have each been named to the 2008-09 Horizon League Preseason first team. The selection, which was made in a balloting of the league head coaches, sports information directors and select media, marks the first time in program history that the Vikings put two players on the preseason first team. Bullock, a 6'5" 240-pound forward from Flint, Mich., was a first team all-league choice last year after leading the team in scoring (14.8) and rebounding (6.6). Jackson, a 6'3" guard was second on the team in scoring (13.9) while leading the team in both assists (168) and steals (88).

JACKSON MAKES A KING-LY FIGURE: As part of the pre-season opening Viking Madness event, Viking senior Cedric Jackson and women's basketball junior Angel Roque were selected CSU's 2008 Homecoming King and Queen, respectively.

HOW I SPENT MY SUMMER: Instead of spreading to the different parts of the United States to spend the final week before school started in August, the Vikings hopped a plane to Spain as part of an 11-day tour of the country. From Aug. 14-24, CSU soaked in the culture of the Spanish cities of Madrid, Valencia and Barcelona. Designed as a team-bonding trip, it was just that as the Vikings toured the scenic sites and museums of the three cities while learning something about a country that none of them had ever visited before. The trip did have a basketball purpose as well as the Vikings went 3-1 playing games against two high professional teams and two of the best club programs in the country.

"CLEVELAND" STATE: Keeping a promise that he made when he took over as head coach a year ago, Gary Waters has quickly turned the Viking roster into one that is representative of the region. Inheriting a team with just one player from a high school in the greater Cleveland area (walk-on Greg Vlosich), Waters increased that number to nine student-athletes from Ohio this year with five being from northeast Ohio. Daitwan Eppinger (Garfield Heights), Tim Kamczyc (Strongsville), Joe Latas (North Olmsted), Chris Moore (Madison) and Eric Schiele (Atwater) each call the greater Cleveland area home.

SUCCESS 301: The third edition of Success Class under Gary Waters is utilizing the book Quiet Strength by Indianapolis Colts head coach Tony Dungy as the course text. Instituted at CSU in the summer of 2006, Waters used Success Class to teach the Viking players the finer points of what it takes to succeed. Success Class 101 used John Wooden's book, The Pyramid of Success while last year, Waters relied on John Maxwell's book Talent Is Never Enough to instruct the Vikings. The non-credited class is taught weekly by Waters to the Viking players over the summer and preseason months.

A 20-20 VISION: The 21 wins last season allowed the Vikings to achieve the rare distinction of going from 20 losses in one season to 20 wins in the next. Although the NCAA Basketball record book doesn't track exactly how many times this has been accomplished, it does list 15 teams (each of whom improved by 13 or more wins from one season to the next) with a small window existing for several other teams to accomplish it as well. Xavier is the only Horizon League team to earn the honor, going from 8-20 in 1981-82 to 22-8 the following year.

VIKINGS REACH 20 WIN MARK FOR SIXTH TIME: The March 1st win at Youngstown State allowed the Vikings to record their 20th win of the season for just the sixth time in school history. CSU reached the win total in four consecutive seasons under Kevin Mackey, going 21-8 in 1984-85, 29-4 in 1985-86, 25-8 in 1986-87 and 22-8 in 1987-88. Four seasons passed before the Mike Boyd-coached Vikings went 22-6 in 1992-93 to reach the 20-win plateau.

CSU CLAIMS MOST IMPROVED AWARD: With a 21-13 overall and 12-6 league record last season, Cleveland State broke the school records for the most improvement in wins from one season to the next. The Vikings had 11 more wins overall and nine more league wins then CSU posted during all of 2006-07 when the Vikings were 10-21 overall and 3-13 in the Horizon League a year ago. The 11-win improvement overall surpassed the previous best of eight wins set in 1985-86 when CSU went from 21 wins to 29. In conference play, the improvement of nine wins broke the old mark of eight set in 1992-93 when the Vikings won 15 league games (they won seven in 1991-92).

WATERS ON THE RADIO: CSU fans will be able to get the inside scoop on the Vikings this year by listening to The Gary Waters Show each week on WTAM, 1100 AM. The one-hour call-in show, which will be hosted again by Andre Knott, will air weekly beginning on Nov. 12. At least 14 episodes of the show are planned, most coming on Monday night's. The show will air on Dec. 8 (Mon.), 16 (Tues.) and 22 (Mon.) in December. A complete schedule is available on CSUVikings.com.

. . . AND ON TELEVISION: The Viking Basketball Report, with Head Coach Gary Waters returns for a third season on SportsTime Ohio. The half-hour weekly show includes game recaps, highlights and features on players and other elements of the program. The show will be hosted by Mike Cairns with commentary from Waters. It will air multiple times every week, usually debuting on Tuesday evening.

NEXT UP: The Vikings have no time to rest, traveling to Morgantown, West Virginia to face West Virginia on Saturday, Dec. 6 at 1:00 p.m.