CSU Courtside (January 14th)

Somebody Told Me

Chris Kielsmeier wants everyone to know that he doesn’t spend his precious free time looking up statistics on Sports Reference.

Still, during his weekly radio show on Monday, he mentioned a number that had slipped under most radars: center Izabella Zingaro’s field goal percentage, 64.4 percent, which is the fourth-best number nationally. Penn State’s Gracie Merkle, Audi Crooks from Iowa State, and Abilene Christian pivot Meredith Mayes are the top three. But roughly 3,300 players are either beneath Zingaro, or don’t meet the stat’s minimums.

“That’s a lot of players that she’s better than, and so we need to continue to find ways to get her the ball, but she needs to keep learning how teams are playing her,” Kielsmeier said. “How can she still score when they’re playing her that way?”

The coach was alluding to the fact that recent opponents like Milwaukee and Wright State have taken to playing zone against the Vikings, doubling Zingaro, or both. Finding effective counters to those strategies that allow CSU to continue to run its preferred offense has been a work in progress within the bowels of the Wolstein Center.

For the most part, they’ve managed to do it pretty well. Zingaro is in the top ten percent of all players with 7.9 two-point attempts per game, and her 5.4 free throw attempts rank 67th.

Of course, she isn’t the first Cleveland Stater to appear among the accuracy leaders. Jordana Reisma was last year’s national statistical champion in the category, thanks to her 67.7 percent rate.

Kielsmeier is likely aware of that by now, though he’d never admit to finding out on his own.

“I don’t go looking for individual stats,” he protested. “I know Izzi is fourth in the country in percentage because Coach [Chenara] Wilson told it to me this afternoon. That’s the full story to that. So I know that players, when they’re really good at something, they’ve got to be pretty high.”

Fair or Foul?

Most who have attended a Cleveland State game have heard Kielsmeier bellow “STOP FOULING!” from the home bench. As with most coaches, handing opponents untimed points at the free throw line, or bailing them out of predicaments, are pet peeves of his, though his pleas tend to be comically front and center in CSU’s cavernous home arena.

Radio show host Al Pawlowski observed one such situation late in last Wednesday’s victory over Wright State.

With the Vikings ahead by double digits late, Jada Leonard committed a foul, setting off Kielsmeier.

“There’s about three minutes to go,” Pawlowski began. “Jada commits a foul, and you said ‘stop fouling.’ And she said something along the lines of she didn’t think she committed a foul. And you said something along the lines of why are you even that close, or why are you even in that situation? And then she just got up, put her head down, and walked away like yeah, I guess you’re right.”

Kielsmeier is always quick to say that if a team isn’t fouling at all, it likely isn’t being aggressive enough on defense. And realistically, some infractions are more palatable than others, in the grand scheme of things.

So which game scenarios are unacceptable?

“When that clock is ticking,” Kielsmeier deadpanned. “It don’t matter if we’ve got a lead or we don’t have a lead. I’ve always been a coach that wants to make it hard for our opponent to beat us. If they beat us, they’ve got to earn it. And for me, it’s pretty simple. A free throw shot is a higher percentage shot than any other shot in the game, other than an uncontested layup. So let’s make sure we don’t give up uncontested layups, and make sure we don’t foul put teams on the free throw line.”

Career Training

Guard Colby Guinta was Monday’s player guest, and the former Division III star shared her underdog backstory.

After taking a postgrad year at Tilton School, the Manchester, NH native went to Suffolk University in Boston, and enjoyed a standout three years for the Rams. With a calling card of a three-point shot that connected at just a shade under 40 percent, Guinta averaged 14.6 points per game last year, and was picked for the all-conference third team.

In broad terms, it seemed like the typical small-school timeline that’s played out thousands and thousands of times across New England over the years. That is, until Guinta blew it up in a quest to play in Division I.

“After last season I just took a lot of time and thought getting to the next level, [and started] working with trainers at home,” she said. “That was always the end goal.”

Cleveland State was interested, and Guinta left her home region to become a Viking after finding a comfort level with CSU’s urban setting, and a rapport with its coaching staff.

“That’s the number one reason I came here,” she said. “I wanted to challenge myself. I wanted to learn as a player, but also as a coach. I aspire to be a coach in the future, and I think that was another reason where learning from Coach K and the rest of the staff has been great.”

“At the end of the day you have to bet on yourself, and really just throw yourself out there.”

She hasn’t played a ton as a Viking, 42 minutes total, mostly late in blowouts, but that hands-on career training, and seeing the inner workings of a DI program has still made her experience worth it.

Guinta has even found a niche as the team’s hype leader. Whether exchanging elaborate handshakes with Cleveland State’s starters during the lineup introductions, or delivering a screaming windmill after a made three-pointer, she’s an unmistakable presence even when not on the floor.

“I put tons of work into this game,” she said. “I love this game. But I ultimately, if I have to be on the bench to give encouragement, [offer] the positivity in practice, and the energy, then that’s what I’ll do. Whatever this team needs is what I’m for.”

“Every team program in the country needs a Colby G on the team,” Kielsmeier added. “She’s an amazing teammate who understands that bigger picture, and can look at it from the lens that very few her age can. She has brought so much to this program, and her teammates absolutely love her. She’s the light of the gym every day.”

Working Through It

One entertaining bit of lore regarding Cleveland State’s coaching staff is that Director of Basketball Operations Hanna Zerr had her playing career ended by Kielsmeier. Zerr, a heady point guard at Division II’s Bemidji State from 2013-17, ran into her future boss’ Wayne State team in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference tournament at the end of her senior year, lost 85-61, and that was that.

She’s still not entirely over it.

“I joke about [how] he ended my career, but looking back now, I’m like dang, I really think I could have attacked that zone differently,” she admitted. “You’re still thinking about it.”

Zerr attends team meetings of course, but typically sits in the back, where she can answer emails and develop travel itineraries, leaving the coaches to do the coaching.

Recently, though, one of those scenarios she’s been turning over in her head for the last eight years presented itself in a film session, and she couldn’t help herself.

“I kind of spoke up in the back,” she admitted.

They say that experience is the best teacher for a reason, after all.