Sports
Men's Tennis Three-peats at Horizon League Championships
CSU’s women’s tennis team ended their season Saturday, April 24, after losing 4-1 to Detroit in the semifinal round of the Horizon League tournament.
The Vikings faced UDM after earning a first round bye with their program-best second place finish in the regular season.
The Titans went on to face UIC in the championship match and ended up losing to the reigning champs who won their 14th straight title.
Former NBA giant Bol had ties to the Vikings
Manute Bol died on June 19, and for the first time many people learned the rest of the story, as Paul Harvey would say. The beginning of his story is well known. He was the son of a Sudanese tribal chief, and claimed to have killed a lion with a spear as a boy to protect his cows. An immediate sensation during his rookie year, reporters loved asking him to tell the story. Then the tallest player in NBA history, Bol quickly became known for his one true basketball skill, blocking shots.
Soon however, the deficiencies in his other areas on the court pushed him into the fringe of popularity. Known for less than flattering things, such as his three-point shot, Bol became a side show. Eventually leaving the NBA after ten seasons, Bol continued to play professionally abroad until his health forced him to quit.
Part of the story few people know about began before Bol’s entrance into the NBA. In 1982 Bol was recruited from a Sudanese basketball team by an associate of then CSU basketball coach Keven Mackey to play in the United States. Bol agreed and by 1983 was living in Cleveland, taking ESL classes at the Case Western University campus in order to learn enough English to attend a division one college.
CSU Athletics Needs to Engage Fans More
The Lee Reed era is coming to a close at Cleveland State, and he told cleveland.com some interesting information regarding part of his decision making process.
After reading the story online, a small passage of it caught my attention, when Reed said that one of the reasons he is leaving CSU is due to the lack of a big fan base surrounding both the men’s and women’s basketball programs.
