Colbi Maples, quite literally, was born to flip houses.
As a kid, she would hop around to the various rental properties owned by her family in Arkansas and help with their upkeep however she could. During those long days, she particularly bonded with one uncle, a carpenter who taught her the basics of repairing damaged fixtures and woodwork.
Something about that process, the notion of taking something broken, then making it whole again, clicked for Maples. By the time she headed to college, first at Grambling, and now at Cleveland State, she was willing to structure her education accordingly; she’s already earned an undergraduate degree in electronics engineering technology, and is presently working on an MBA. The 5-8 guard has put enough work into both to earn several accolades including, most recently, selection to the Horizon League’s All-Academic Team.
Of course, flipping houses is an incredibly difficult way to make money. Renovation and financing costs can be astronomical, shifts in the market might wipe out margins overnight, and juggling the necessary bevy of contractors and inspectors is a headache for even the most capable project managers.
Generally, if all goes well, the cycle takes about six months.
The transfer portal tore down Cleveland State’s roster in waves last April. By the morning after the Vikings’ season ended with a loss at Buffalo in the WNIT’s Fab 4, reserve guard Filippa Goula – a player who, in a bit of foreshadowing worthy of Vince Gilligan, is nicknamed “Flip” – was on her way out. Within a couple days, most of the team’s frontcourt joined her, including all three centers on the roster, headlined by All-HL second team pick Jordana Reisma.
Maples didn’t flinch.
For about a week after that initial exodus, the situation found an uneasy stasis, supporting the thought that maybe the worst had passed for CSU. Then, on April 12th, a bombshell: five days after announcing that she was sticking around, Mickayla Perdue entered the transfer portal. She was almost immediately followed by Destiny Leo.
Perdue, in particular, represented a crushing blow. During the 2023-24 season, Maples and Perdue seemed to operate with a shared consciousness on the perimeter at times, either while working at the top of Cleveland State’s zone defense, or during the numerous runouts caused by their work. The duo propelled the Vikings to the program’s first-ever conference regular season title and collected several major individual accolades along the way, including Maples capturing the HL’s Player of the Year award.
Still, even with her running mate gone, and CSU’s team by then stripped to its bones, Maples didn’t flinch.
“I knew I was going to stay,” she said. “I trusted Coach K, knowing that I’m coming back to a system that I know what it’s going to be, I know what’s going to happen. I know he was going to get it right.”
“She never said anything different,” Coach K, also known as Chris Kielsmeier, added. “I never wavered on what she was going to do, because of what she was saying. I was worried about what she’d be told from others, people that try to influence, and it’s really messy and crazy out there. And you’ve got to trust the right people.”
By the time the transfer portal closed, the Vikings’ squad was down to three players: Sarah Hurley, Macey Fegan, and Maples, despite the “couple hundred schools” that Kielsmeier estimates would hypothetically compete for latter’s services.
“She stayed true to her word, and it’s just who she is as a person,” the coach offered. “It’s how she’s been raised.”
Maples’ faith in Kielsmeier certainly wasn’t without trial. Hurley and Fegan would eventually earn starting assignments on the retooled team, but Maples’ new backcourt partner, Jada Leonard, missed last season with an injury. Izabella Zingaro, who carried the weighty responsibility of replacing Reisma, had never truly been used as a foundational player. Key reserve Paula Pique, who is always on the floor when Maples isn’t, played exactly eight minutes per game as a freshman at Abilene Christian. Queen Ruffin, also projected to be a significant part of the Vikings’ guard rotation, was lost for the duration of the campaign in its opening contest.
Then there was Maples herself, who faced her own year-long rehab after tearing her ACL early in 2024-25. By her own admission, she spent a lot of the early season trying to rebuild a lot of what makes her a great player, specifically her powerful drives and defensive intensity.
“I just have to grow into playing the way I usually play, the explosive pieces,” she said five games into her return. “It’s coming back, but it’s just not there yet. And I’m not rushing it. I’m the type, I’m going to take it game by game. I know I’m not going to be able to get it back all in one game or whatever.”
Maples’ shot never left – she knocked down six threes in a near-upset at Northwestern on November 21st – and she was invaluable as someone who understood the nuances of Kielsmeier’s difficult-to-internalize system. However, for a lot of the year, Cleveland State felt exactly like the cobbled-together collection of players that it was. An inexplicable loss at Detroit Mercy, eventually the Horizon League’s last-place team, opened conference play on December 4th, and the Vikings hit rock bottom when they were snowed under by Youngstown State on January 25th, 61-38 laugher that was CSU’s fifth defeat in eight games.
Then, rather abruptly, things started to fit like a perfectly-executed wood joint thanks, in no small part, to Maples. After sitting at 5-6 in Horizon League play at one point, Cleveland State has run off six consecutive victories, and eight within nine tries, to finish an unlikely third in the standings.
“I think it shows the growth of this team,” Kielsmeier said. “It shows the leadership of [Colbi]. She’s the engine. She makes the thing go. She has really stepped into a much more impactful leadership role with trying to be vocal in practice, and trying to encourage her teammates to really figure this thing out the way that she knows they can. She’s really embraced that role much more down the stretch of this.”
Kielsmeier and Maples are often quick to deflect any perceived improvement to the larger roster, but it’s hard to ignore that the change of fortune coincides perfectly with the star point guard reclaiming the full scope of her game. In the first four wins of the present run, Maples scored 20 points against Milwaukee, then followed with 25, 27, and 26 against Northern Kentucky, Purdue Fort Wayne, and Green Bay, three of the HL’s chief contenders.
“It’s a really good feeling,” Maples acknowledged. “Just being able to trust it and seeing it come to fruition, it’s just a good thing to be a part of.”
The time between Cleveland State getting its replenished roster to Ohio after a couple of mid-summer visa delays, and the Vikings clicking on the court? Six months, give or take. Unofficially, call it Maples’ first flipped house.
“That’s kind of what we did,” she acknowledged. “We renovated, and now we’re getting to the final finishes on the house, and we just have to put it all together and be ready to sell.”
“And you’re just excited for what we have in store next.”
“Next,” of course, is the Horizon League tournament, an event that Maples hopes ends with the school’s fourth playoff title. That voyage begins with a home game against Oakland on Wednesday night then, with a victory, CSU’s seventh consecutive trip to Indianapolis for the final rounds.
Though that outcome remains to be determined, the legacy of Maples – who was named to the first All-HL team for the second time on Monday – was secured nearly a year ago.
“I will forever be in debt to this kid for believing in me and staying true when things looked pretty bleak,” Kielsmeier reflected. “She said Cleveland State is where I want to be, and I want to finish this thing the right way. And that’s something I’ll never forget the rest of my life.”
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