After Cleveland State dropped an 85-74 decision at Akron on Saturday afternoon to slip to 2-2 overall, Vikings head coach Chris Kielsmeier offered the facial expression and half-shrug of a guy who had just been hit with the full weight of a very serious problem, one for which he knew there were no easy answers.
His team, after all, has been looked to as a juggernaut, picked to win the Horizon League on the strength of a roster that is largely the same as the one that ended 2023-24 as the HL’s regular season champions – while notably re-gaining one of the conference’s best players, Destiny Leo, who was injured for most of that banner year.
Naturally, preseason rankings depend primarily on the trust of the voters, and CSU seemed to have fewer question marks than nearly every other team in the country. But yet…
“We should not be playing like this,” Kielsmeier said. “And we have really consistently played like this for months. We are making way too many simple mistakes, and it’s by experienced players.”
Really, the number of completely unanticipated questions that have sprung up over the first two weeks of the schedule are precisely what’s so perplexing to Kielsmeier, and just about everyone else who has watched this current iteration of Cleveland State.
The Vikings gave up 61.4 points per game in 2023-24 and have now allowed 81.0 over four games. They were one of the top 100 teams in the nation at forcing turnovers last year, and presently rank 342nd of 360 Division I teams this year. They’re also near the bottom of DI in other notable categories like offensive rebounds allowed and shot attempts allowed (from both two- and three-point range).
“The turnover thing is definitely concerning,” the coach said. “This is four games in a row where we haven’t turned anybody over, and it’s just putting so much pressure on our defense. We’re not very good defensively right now.”
Those trends are so thoroughly out of character that it’s tempting to rationalize just about everything that happened in each of CSU’s previous public showings. Close shave against Edinboro? That’s why exhibition games exist. Blowout loss to Ohio State? The powerhouse Buckeyes will make most teams in the country look bad. Inconsistent effort at Chicago State? It was still a decisive win and there were signs of improvement. 27-10 deficit against Bowling Green? The second half was the best stretch of basketball CSU has played all season, and the result was another win.
But a middling Akron team that the Vikings had defeated with relatively little stress during the previous two seasons? There aren’t really a ton of excuses left in the satchel.
Acceptance is the first step, right?
“We’ve just gotta stop making so many mistakes,” Kielsmeier said. “It’s just – it’s hard to explain. I hope people know – we’re [generally] a well-coached basketball team, right? This team is not a well-coached basketball team. I get to go home, look myself in the mirror and say that I’m a product of what the hell is going on out there, because it’s my job to get it fixed.”
In spite of the litany of mistakes and pervasive issues, the Vikings nevertheless found themselves in a tight contest for most of the afternoon, and when Sara Guerreiro flew in out of nowhere to put back a missed Sarah Hurley three-point attempt and tie the game at 74 with 2:38 to go, it looked as if they might even pull through with an ugly win.
That’s when the Zips’ Alexus Mobley took over.
The senior guard from Indianapolis immediately answered Guerreiro’s bucket with a three-pointer to give Akron the lead back. Then, after the teams traded missed shots, Leo fired an errant pass off of a rebound that was intercepted by UA’s Kam’Ren Rhodes, and converted into a Mobley layup. Leo tried to answer with a three but misfired, and Mobley grabbed the rebound walked down court, and calmly popped home another triple. Ballgame.
In all, the Zips closed the afternoon on an 11-0 run to seal the result, with Mobley’s late efforts complimented earlier by Teniesha Clarke (a team-high 20 points), Shelbee Brown (12 points, 7 rebounds, and 3 steals), and Rhodes (18 points).
“Down the stretch was exactly how we played the whole game, we just made enough plays to stay in the game and we didn’t the last few minutes,” Kielsmeier said.
“The list of simple things that these players know and have worked on for a long time is why we got beat. I tell them all the time: ‘You’re going to make enough plays to win the basketball game. You score 70-some points, you should win the basketball game.’ But mistakes lose games, and we are making so many mistakes right now.”
Mickayla Perdue checked in with another superb offensive effort, with her 25 points and 7 assists highlighted by a 6-for-10 line from three-point range. The senior from Springfield, OH has averaged 25.3 points per game so far (7th best in DI), largely thanks to her 16 made threes in 38 attempts.
That’s far from the full story to Kielsmeier, though.
“Micky’s playing really well offensively, but there are still a lot of parts of her game that she needs to continue to evolve,” he said. “She’s not defending well enough. She’s really gotta evolve her game into being a playmaker for others, and that’s a challenge for her right now.”
“We don’t get two weeks to work on this. We’ve got practice Monday, and we get on the bus Tuesday morning [to play at Niagara on Wednesday].”
