The Cleveland State Vikings could be without starting point guard Charlie Lee (knee) and Devon Long (ankle) when they travel to No. 4 Kentucky on Monday night.

Lee twisted his knee and Long twisted his ankle in the Vikings' 87-74 victory over Robert Morris on Saturday.

"We can't afford to lose (Charlie)," said CSU head coach Gary Waters.

Kentucky, the winningest program in college basketball history with 2,115 wins, features seven former McDonald's High School All-Americans. They are averaging 89.6 points per game.

"They have a couple of guys inside that are men," said Waters. "They come after you physically. Their physicality is unbelievable."

A key for the Vikings will be to keep the Wildcats off the glass. They are averaging 49 boards a game and have been out-rebounding its opponents by nearly 19 boards.

UK has a clear height advantage over the Vikings with six players over 6-8. The Vikings only have two players over 6-8 (Anton Grady and Ismaila Dauda).

The Vikings will have to keep a body on UK's 6-9, 250-pound freshman forward Julius Randle who has a double-double in every game this year. Randle, who is averaging 20.8 points and 13.6 rebounds, is rated the No. 2 NBA prospect in this year's draft by ESPN's draft guru Chad Ford.

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The Cleveland State men's basketball team staged a dramatic second half comeback on Saturday afternoon at the Wolstein Center to pull out a 73-69 win over Iona.

Trailing by 15 at the half, CSU outscored Iona 44-25 in the second half.

The Vikings (1-0) knocked off a quality Iona (0-1) team that has been to two straight NCAA tournaments and were picked to finish second in the MAAC.

"We had to develop our identity," said CSU head coach Gary Waters. "And when I mean identity, I mean these kids have to believe they can win big games."

The Vikings held the Gaels to 11 points under its NCAA-leading scoring average of 80.38 points per game last season.

Give credit to Waters who made a halftime adjustment going to a smaller lineup to start the second half. He replaced Marlin Mason and Devon Long with the quicker Sebastian Douglas and Jon Harris.

"I had to match their quickness," said Waters.

The move would pay off for the Vikings as they started the second half on a 11-0 run to close within 44-40 on Bryn Forbes' second three-pointer of the half.

Yet it was another adjustment later in the game that might have turned the game around.

Midway through the second half, Waters went to an even smaller lineup. Going with Charlie Lee at the point, Trey Lewis at the two, Forbes at the three, Douglas at the four and Anton Grady at the five.

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The Cleveland State men's basketball team opens the regular season at the Wolstein Center on Saturday afternoon against Iona, an NCAA tournament team last season.

CSU returns eight letterwinners and four starters from last years squad that finished 14-18 and lost 10 of its final 14.

"We are a total different team from a year ago," said Vikings head coach Gary Waters, whose squad was picked to finish third in the Horizon League. "Last year we were the youngest team in America. {This year} we have about nine starters on the team. I started a different lineup in {CSU's tour of} Europe this summer. We may do that the whole year."

The Vikings are coming off a 78-62 exhibition victory against Lake Erie College on Tuesday. Sophomore guard Bryn Forbes led the Vikings with 21 points in the win, with Jon Harris adding 14.

Waters is excited about the team's depth this year.

"We are going to play 10 every game," said Waters. "The goal is to play no one more then 28 minutes."

The Vikings are led by the inside-outside duo of sophomores Anton Grady and Forbes, who were both named to the preseason All-Horizon League second team.

Grady, a 6-8 forward, missed most of the last season after suffering a season-ending knee injury six games into the season. The Cleveland Central Catholic product was leading the Vikings in scoring (13.7) and rebouding (5.5). 

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With three games left in the season, the youthful Cleveland State men's basketball team is starting to prepare for the future.

"I told them in the locker room that the future doesn't start next year, it starts right now," said Vikings head coach Gary Waters. "We can't go into next season with a losing mentality. We got to go in with a winning mentality."

Waters said the winning mentality does not have to do with wins and losses, but how they perform in games and how they execute what they are trying to do.

CSU's future was on display in the Vikings' 88-67 victory over Milwaukee on Sunday afternoon at the Wolstein Center.

The Vikings' guard tandem of freshman Bryn Forbes and sophomore Charlie Lee combined for 44 points against Milwaukee.

Forbes, a native of Lansing, Mich., tied his career-high record with 24 points on 9-of-12 shooting from the field.

"I think Forbes should be Freshman [Newcomer] of the Year," said Waters. "He has been the most consistent player."

Forbes has scored in double figures in 19 of his last 21 games. He's 13th in the Horizon League in scoring, averaging 12.2 points per game. In Horizon play, Forbes has been even better, averaging 14.9 points per game (sixth-best). 

Lee, a Milwaukee native, torched his hometown team with 20 points—17 of them coming in the second half.

"Coach Waters had a talk with me about getting back to the way I was playing the first 10 games of the season," said Lee, who also added six assists, five rebounds and two steals. "[Waters told me] just slow down and let things come to me."

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