The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Vikings ready to stare down underdog role
Fifteenth seed Cleveland State is a 20-point underdog to second seed Houston in their first-round matchup March 19 in the NCAA men’s basketball tournament.
Anyone who expects Dennis Gates to wince or flinch at his team being such a huge underdog doesn’t know how the Vikings’ coach is wired.
“We don’t talk about that type of thing,” Gates said March 16 on Zoom from Indiana, where the Vikings have been most of the March. “We just talk about being our very best. At the very beginning, on March 12, I spoke to my team about April 5 in Atlanta. That’s the national championship game.”
The Vikings qualified for their right to play on college basketball’s biggest stage by beating Oakland (Michigan), 80-69, on March 9 at Indiana Farmers Coliseum to win the Horizon League tournament and earn an automatic mid to the big dance. It is their first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2009. They played in the tournament in 1986 and advanced to the Sweet 16.
It is no fluke that the Vikings will be going up for rebounds with the big boys.
They take a record of 19-7 into their game with 24-3 Houston in the Midwest Regional to be played at Assembly Hall in Bloomington, Ind. The winner plays the survivor of the game between seventh seed Clemson (16-7) and 10th seed Rutgers (15-11).
“We broke our season down into phases,” Gates said. “Phase One was anything preseason and conference. We wanted to put
ourselves into the best position to go into Phase Two, which is our conference tournament — only 120 minutes (three games). It ended 135 minutes because one game (vs. Indiana Fort Wayne) was triple overtime, but they lived their dream. They did certain things to get us to this third phase, which is where we are.”
The stage was not as big, but Ohio State is one of the teams Cleveland State met in the Phase One mentioned by Gates. They lost to the Buckeyes, but battled fiercely before succumbing, 67-61. They were 23-point
underdogs in that one.
The Vikings beat Oakland despite hitting only 3-of-15 3-point attempts. They dominated by scoring 64 of their 80 points in the paint. Senior Torrey Patton, named the tournament MVP, led the way with 23 points and 10 rebounds.
Tre Gomillion had 16 points and 13 rebounds for the Vikings. D’Moi Hodge had 15 points and eight boards. The Vikings held Oakland to 34.4% shooting.
It is going to take the same kind of balanced effort
and tenacious defense to pull a stunning upset over the Cougars.
“Those (Horizon Tournament games) showed our resiliency,” Patton said on Zoom. “Those three games gave us a lot of experience. We learned lessons I hope will carry over into the tournament. We showed we could battle adversity as a team and how we stay together during the ups and downs.”
Houston beat Cincinnati, 91-54, in the American Athletic Conference game. The Cougars (24-3) have won seven straight games.