Cleveland State lost a lot of their scoring going from the 2023-24 season to the 2024-25 season. This offseason was much more dramatic. They lost all scoring, defense, rebounding, steals, etc. They lost everyone. With a new head coach in Rob Summers comes an entirely new roster. Although most of the leaders from last season will now be playing for North Texas and prior head coach Daniyal Robinson, this new group looks to be exciting.
The offseason discussion has to start with who was lost. Reece Robinson, Dylan Arnett, Cole Franklin, and Je’Shawn Stevenson are on their way to North Texas. Even without a coaching change, Stevenson was playing so well that a change in schools seemed likely in the next few years.
Tyler Spratt stayed in the Horizon League by heading to Detroit Mercy. Isaac Abidde will be at Albany while KJ Debrick heads to North Carolina A&T. Jalin Rice is off to Nicholls State, Chaz Watson to Indian Hills Community College, and Danny Young to Salt Lake Community College. Tahj Staveskie was the last hope to stay at CSU but he joined Incarnate Word.
When looking at the incoming players, local talent is something that stands out. Although the last few seasons haven’t seen a ton of Ohio talent, this year will be different. Tre Beard, Josiah Harris, Jaidon Lipscomb, and Manny Hill all come from parts of Ohio. Hill has extra ties to the program as his older brother, Yahel, played recently for the Vikings. “I was so happy to be back, especially at this level at this stage. [I’m] just really familiar with the city,” Hill said. “I just love everything going on about it. So, I know everybody around here is very supportive, so I’m just happy to be back.”
Beard comes from Chillicothe down in Southern Ohio and brings with him three years at Shawnee State. Harris is from Canton but played his high school ball at Richmond Heights and most recently was at Akron University. Lipscomb is from Columbus and comes to CSU from Florida International.
Adding in from some surrounding states are Ice Emery (Wisconsin), Kamari Jones (Indiana), Preist Ryan (Pennsylvania), Kevo St. Hilaire (Indiana), and Foster Wonders (Michigan).
Wonders came over from fellow Horizon League Green Bay as a senior while Jones and Emery played together at Western Carolina. Overall, the team is getting a lot of local talent and this should continue with Summers at the helm.
Rounding out the roster are some international players [Lucas Burton (Vancouver), Dayan Nessah (Geneva, Switzerland), Waqo Tessema (Winnipeg)] plus David Giddens (Georgia) and Holden Pierre-Louis (Maryland).
Breaking down this roster and understanding who is going to play what role will take some time for fans and even the team (but look for a more full breakdown during Preview Week soon!). In all, the main similarity of everyone on the roster is versatility. With a lot of guys who can play one through five on the floor, it looks like a roster that will go deep into its bench.
With an apparent focus on scoring in recruiting, everyone on the team will be putting up points. At a recent practice that the Horizon Roundtable was invited to attend, the energy and drills were all focused on getting down the court as quickly as possible. It looked like an SEC team-style idea (which makes sense as Summers comes from Mizzou most recently) and it looks like the Vikings are going to play a brand of basketball rarely seen in the Horizon League.
The players seem excited for this type of play as well. Hill so touched on this. “Coach Summers has really been emphasizing just fast, fast, get the ball up the court fast.” He continued, “It’s definitely something I feel like it fits in my play style.” Watching them play, it looks like it fits in well with all of their play styles.
Although everyone was focused on speed and scoring, the main crux of practice and the message was defense. During and after practice, Summers and the rest of the staff went over defensive videos and positioning. The team seems to know they will score, but they want to make sure those extra possessions don’t lead to close high-scoring games too.
One main thing with the team is a lack of truly very tall players (only one listed at 6-10) but the length of the rest of the team (including Giddens being a 6-7 guard) seems to point towards everyone playing with everyone. There will be no shortage of options for the starting five and with only a few months to go before the season, it’s anyone’s guess who will be playing most.
No matter how the defense ends up by the beginning of the season, the Vikings will be playing offense at an incredible speed. With the amount of dunks thrown down plus Cleveland’s newer nickname of The Land, one starts to think of a new name for this team based around the Lob City days of the LA Clippers.
“Lob Land” seems to fit.
