Cleveland State’s 2026-27 roster grew to 11 on Tuesday, as the team announced the signing of forward Silvia Gonzalez. The 6-2 senior is a transfer from George Washington.
“I chose Cleveland State because it felt like the best fit for me both academically and athletically,” she said in CSU’s release. “I’m excited to join the program and help compete for championships.”
Gonzalez appeared in 17 games for the Revolutionaries last season, as part of an 18-18 squad that made it to the Great 8 round of the WNIT. However, she only played 88 total minutes for first-year coach Ganiyat Adeduntan, and shot a cumulative 4-for-24 from the field.
The better representation of what the Spaniard – Cleveland State’s third, joining Paula Pique and Sur Lozano – brings to the court involves her first two collegiate campaigns, at Bryant.
Despite her size and listed position, Gonzalez was something of a three-point specialist for the Bulldogs. In fact, 181 of her 272 field goal attempts (66.6 percent) over her freshman and sophomore seasons came from behind the arc. With 60 makes on those 181 tries (33.1 percent), she was at least reasonably successful from range. As a rookie, she scored a career-high 17 points against UMass Lowell on February 17, 2024, mostly through a 5-for-11 effort from deep.
However, it seems as if Bob Dunn’s plans for Gonzalez involve more than one specific area of the court.
“Silvia brings size, skill, and experience to the forward position,” the head coach said. “She has the versatility to play down low in the post, and also be a threat out on the perimeter. She’s excited to live in Cleveland, explore the city, and compete at a high level on the court, and we can’t wait to welcome her here!”
To his point, Gonzalez has shown small-sample promise other than as a shooter. She logged a solid 10.8 percent rebounding rate in 2023-24 while chipping in half of a blocked shot in 18.1 minutes per game. Two years ago, her 1.2 turnovers per 40 minutes were 67th best nationally.
Of course, excelling at those things might not be optional at CSU.
As things stand, just two of the Vikings’ 11 players are listed as forwards, Gonzalez and 6-2 St. Bonaventure transfer Brianna Barr-Buday. There are several guards with good size as well, as Pique, Lozano, Sarah Hurley, and Alexa Hocevar are each listed as 6-1, but the team decidedly lacks the sort of classic center that was a staple of former coach Chris Kielsmeier’s system.
It seems likely that Dunn, given who and what he’s recruited, will embrace a more positionless style than what has been customary at Cleveland State in recent years. The possibility of adding a behemoth does still exist, though in the portal era, most teams have trended towards rosters smaller than the traditional scholarship limit of 15 student-athletes. Limiting things to roughly 12 players allows programs to consolidate NIL and revenue sharing resources a bit, while avoiding the pitfall of stashing “developmental” players on the bench, only for them to transfer at the end of a season of light activity.
Subscribe to our emails, and get our latest posts in your inbox, plus a weekly digest of everything we've published!
