Cleveland State University NCAA News

Dunbar grad and current Cleveland State player Norris Cole is shown during a game at Wright State in December of 2008.

Norris Cole, who averaged 13.3 points per game last season, will be a junior and one of the top returning players for Cleveland State next season.

The Trail Blazers' offseason evaluations started a little earlier than normal Monday at the practice facility in Tualatin, where the team worked out six borderline prospects in preparation for next month's NBA draft.

The list of the Jets' 2009 undrafted free agents. The team has released the names of the 17 players it added immediately following the conclusion of the draft Sunday evening, plus 16 more players who are here on a tryout basis.

Cleveland State basketball player Norris Cole can't help but smile when he allows himself to think about next season.

The friendship that became a friendly rivalry has been brewing since they were 7. Ty Lawson of North Carolina and Dante Cunningham of Villanova were teammates back then.

The way Rick Pitino sees it, the fun doesn't really start in the NCAA Tournament until you reach the Sweet 16.

Syracuse fans had our favorite T-shirts of the week. The orange shirts commemorated the school's six-overtime victory against Connecticut in the Big East tournament last week.

Did Cleveland State ruin your brackets? Well, they did for me. But for Cleveland State's George Tandy, he was instrumental in the team's win against fourth-seeded Wake Forest on Friday.

Arizona may have been the last team into the NCAA tournament field. Many critics thought the Wildcats didn't belong - and that their stay in their 25th straight NCAA tourney would be brief.

Cleveland State knew a poor shooting night was always lurking on the outside this season.

March 20, 2009, 11:51 p.m. Tucson Citizen sports@tucsoncitizen.com ARIZONA-CLEVELAND STATE MATCHUP Backcourt: UA may be overmatched because Cleveland State has two quality guards in Cedric Jackson and Norris Cole to go against Nic Wise.

After the Sun Devils' 78-67 loss to Syracuse on Sunday, Harden said he regretted being so passive in the first half.

A lot of NCAA tournament fans didn't get to see Ronald Moore's two dramatic shots.

Before Friday's game against Wake Forest, Gary Waters asked his players if they had been watching NCAA games, and what tournament team seemed the most like Cleveland State.

MARCH 20: Forward Al-Faroug Aminu #1 of the Wake Forest Demon Deacons takes a shot over guard J'Nathan Bullock #35 and center Renard Fields #45 of the Cleveland State University Vikings during the first round of the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament at the American Airlines Arena on March 20, 2009 in Miami, Florida.

MIAMI, March 22 -- Bodies flew and tempers flared as 13th-seeded Cleveland State mounted an entertaining comeback against the 12th-seeded Arizona Wildcats on Sunday, but level-headed experience and pure talent trumped inspiration and fight.

Behind the swift governance of point guard Nic Wise, the Wildcats withstood Cleveland State's late threat and prevailed, 71-57, in a second-round NCAA tournament game that, perhaps, put to rest any lingering perception that they didn't deserve a place in the field.

Some 23 years later, Cleveland State still has a knack for first-round shockers in the NCAA tournament.

No. 13-seed Cleveland State made Cinderella upset basketball a contact sport on Friday, working No.

Cinderella has left the bracket. The Sweet 16 went on without her Sunday, March Madness a bit diminished for it, the NCAA Tournament left with big dogs and top dogs but no underdogs.