CSU Courtside (February 3rd)

Expectation and Reality

Chris Kielsmeier frequently mentions that he sees Cleveland State’s ceiling as something well in excess of the Vikings’ current 7-6 Horizon League record.

During his weekly radio show on Monday, he offered at least a glimpse of why he believes that, while discussing his team’s film session that day.

“Today, we showed ’em a four-minute highlight of all the good things from last week, and majority of that was [the result of] recruiting great people and great players,” he said. “And then you just watch those players go do their thing, and you’re just wowed by it.”

Just as the Wolstein Center theater hit its peak hype level, in came a second, less-flattering compilation.

“Then you show ’em the clips of the stuff that isn’t going very well, and why we’re not playing that well at other times,” Kielsmeier continued. “And it’s like, to me, the most simple, logical basketball fundamental thing that we’re doing wrong. It’s like…why? You just made a phenomenal all-world type move, and now we give the play right back to them by throwing it to ’em and letting ’em go shoot a layup that we’re going to foul on.”

In other words, the coach believes that his roster has abilities that can’t be coached (at least not within one year), and that the flaws are fixable by the time tournament season rolls in.

Later, assistant coach Chenara Wilson seemed to confirm that line of thinking, while pointing out that most seasons follow a steady upwards trend as players become comfortable with CSU’s system.

“You put a team together in a matter of some months, and you’ve got to put the system in,” she observed. “It’s going to take time no matter what, but I think this is the best time for it to be coming together.”

“If we could just stabilize them lower-level spots in the game out to just a basic average level, we’re going to be so much better over the course of 40 minutes,” Kielsmeier added. “And as coaches, we’re going to get it figured out. We’re going to help ’em with it.”

Korth and Ten

Former Vikings great Brittany Korth, who played at CSU between 2005 and 2008, later served as an assistant coach, and is now a frequent analyst on the team’s ESPN+ productions, caught a few strays during the show.

They were good-natured barbs, of course, and pushed by host Al Pawlowski, who saw the opportunity to needle his broadcast partner while speaking with Renee Adam. Adam was on the show largely as a celebration of her recent promotion to Assistant Athletics Director of Communications and Digital Strategy, but crucially, she was once Korth’s roommate.

“Britt was interesting,” Adam said. “She’s a little all over the place.”

“She said you saved her a couple of times,” Pawlowski continued, accidently giving away the fact that Korth was at least partly in on the joke. “It’s like, ‘oh my gosh, where is my shoe,’ and you found it.”

Whatever Korth’s issues with keeping her shoes in the same place, she definitely knew her way around a basketball court. The guard originally from tiny Clinton, WI – a town just across the border from Illinois – was one of four players that Kate Peterson Abiad plucked out of the Badger State who went on to contribute to Cleveland State’s first NCAA Tournament team, in 2008. Korth still can be found among the program’s all-time leaders for assists and three-pointers.

Later in the show, Wilson promoted CSU’s alumni reunion, coming up this weekend. The former center, of course, played with Korth on those mid-2000s Vikings teams, so Pawlowski closed the interview with one more slice of snark.

“I’ll tell Brittany when you have the alumni game to pass you the ball,” he said. “She has to do that.”

Press 7 to Save

Adam’s presence on the show made Kielsmeier a little nostalgic. Her phone call on April 17, 2018 was one of the coach’s first interactions with CSU after accepting the job with the Vikings – a occasion meaningful enough for him to save the voicemail for eight years.

It also seems like he’s listened to it more than once during that time.

“‘Hi Chris, this is Renee with Cleveland State athletics, I’m very excited to meet you,’” he recalled, while (extremely) loosely mimicking his SID’s voice.

From all indications, the message was standard fare for two people initiating a working relationship, but Kielsmeier nevertheless understood the gravity of the moment.

After a ten-year run, he had just left his previous school, Wayne State (NE), a place that offered lots of rare commodities in the coaching profession. For one thing, Kielsmeier was just across a state line from his family in Iowa. His brother, Kelly, was closest of all, given that he was on the Wildcats’ staff for that decade. There was also plenty of winning; 237 victories, to be precise, including five trips to the NCAA’s Division II tournament.

“I knew the significance of what it was like to leave a program that you poured everything into,” he said. “I understood the significance of the decision that we were making to come here.”

In 2018, Kielsmeier plunged headfirst into the relative unknown of his first Division I work since getting his feet wet as an Iowa State undergraduate and Adam began scheduling some early promotional efforts.

“I thought I had an understanding of the work, and what was going to needed to be put into this thing to get it to the level it’s at and sustain that level,” Kielsmeier continued. “I did not really gauge that level very smartly. It was way off, but Renee’s someone I’ve worked side by side with for eight years and we’ve been through a lot together.”

Do As I Say, Not As I Do

Most recent radio shows have been broadcast from Viking Marketplace, a dining hall located on the second floor of Cleveland State’s student union.

Pawlowski, midway through his opening segment with Kielsmeier, dove into a bit of a promotional spiel for the site, before breaking into some banter: “It has a ton of food here, so you can really get pretty much whatever you want. It’s got soup, salads, it’s got some main dishes, sells the hamburgers, and has a dessert stand as well. It has some ice cream…I know that Chris would never touch that because he’s always about fitness and that would probably go against his dietary restrictions.”

Kielsmeier’s comedic timing was perfect, as he interjected at that point.

“Yeah, the last time I was here, I had two double cheeseburgers,” he deadpanned. “That tells you what my diet is like. I love me some ice cream, but by the time we get to ice cream, I’ve got no room for it.”

College dining, which offers all you can eat for the price of one swipe (or $13, for the public) can be a dangerous place, that’s for sure.