Dons Notes: Cleveland State Added to San Francisco Schedule

November 13, 2012; Ann Arbor, MI, USA; Michigan Wolverines guard Trey Burke (3) drives to the basket on Cleveland State Vikings forward Marlin Mason (21) in the first half of a preseason NIT game at Crisler Center. Mandatory Credit: Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY Sports

Last week, the San Francisco Dons men’s basketball team announced that they added a new team to the 2013-2014 regular season schedule. The Cleveland Vikings will start a home and home series with the Dons with a return date set for Cleveland in 2014 or 2015. This now makes USF’s non-conference schedule 12 games long and adds an 18th home game to the 2013-2014 schedule.

In an effort to keep our Don fans updated on USF’s non-conference schedule, here is an addition of our “Breaking Down USF’s Non-Conference Schedule” series:

Cleveland State Vikings

Wednesday, November 13th. San Francisco, California.

Last Season: 14-18 (5-11 Horizon League)

This game will be Cleveland State’s first road game of the 2013 campaign.  The return Horizon League Newcomer of the Year, Bryn Forbes, with an addition of two local transfers. This team will have experience on the court, especially after an international trip to Europe during the off-season. In that trip, the Vikings went undefeated against European teams and were able to play all of their players.

The Vikings had a difficult off-season for scheduling. The Horizon League lost two teams to conference realignment in the past two seasons. Butler moved to the Atlantic-10 and Loyola moved to the Missouri Valley Conference. This shrank the conference from ten teams to eight. Rumor was that Oakland (Detroit) was a team that may move to the Horizon Conference bringing the conference back to nine teams. However, a move of this magnitude would significantly impact the Vikings schedule. Therefore, Cleveland State had to wait to complete its schedule. Oakland did not move to the Horizon League and the Vikings were left scrambling for more opponents to fill the upcoming schedule. Cleveland State’s 2013-2014 schedule is most likely incomplete.

USF will have their hands full during “Opening Week” in 2013. They have three games scheduled in five days. This will really test their strength, conditioning, and endurance early in the season. Even though the first game is against a Division 2 squad, the third game will feature a Nevada team that claimed victory over the Dons last season in Reno. This is a game that can really set the tone for the early half of the 2013-2014 season.

One for the Road

Here is some video from Cleveland State’s last European game during their off-season tour in August.