The Cleveland State men's and women's basketball teams will host two doubleheaders this week at the Wolstein Center.
Both teams will face Detroit tonight (women, 5 p.m.; men, 7:30) and Wright State on Saturday (men, 2 p.m.; women, 4).
The CSU men (16-3, 5-2 Horizon League) need to win both games this week against the Titans (10-9, 4-3) and the Raiders (12-7, 5-2) to stay in the race to host the Horizon League Tournament.
Right now, CSU is in a three-way tie for second-place with Wright State and Butler, all are 5-2 in the conference - a game behind first-place Valparaiso (14-5, 6-1).
"We are right in the mix," said CSU men's basketball coach Gary Waters. "This weekend is a very important weekend for us. Because if we lose this weekend it now puts us out of the picture for some degree. That's why you have to take care of your home situation.
"So this is a tough series for us. We have to someway send out a message in these two games that we are in this picture to play."
CSU has won 12 straight at the Wolstein Center, but the last team to defeat the Vikings at home were the Titans (65-54) on Feb. 25, 2010.
The Vikings have won six of the past nine meetings against the Titans, but Detroit won both games last year. The Titans dominated the Vikings inside last year with their size.
"They (Detroit) are physically dominating," said Waters. "This is probably the most athletic and most physically dominating team in our conference."
Detroit is led by their big three. They are 6-1 freshman guard Ray McCallum (15.2 points, 4.3 assists), 6-6 junior guard Chase Simon (12.6 points) and 6-10 junior center/forward Eli Holman (11.4 points, 10.4 rebounds). A fourth Titan, Jason Calliste, averages 10.9 points per game and ranks ninth in the Horizon in 3-point field goal percentage (39.8).
Then the Vikings will face a Wright State team Saturday that has won eight of their past 10 games and are coming off an upset of Butler at home this past Sunday.
"They're (Wright State) coming in with a lot of confidence," said Waters. "And they're bringing in four bus loads of fans."
The CSU women (10-7, 3-3) are also fighting for tournament seeding position. They are currently tied for fourth-place with UW-Milwaukee - a half game back of third-place Wright State (10-6, 3-2), 2 1/2 games back of second-place Butler and three games back of first-place UW-Green Bay.
"These are two games that we feel like we have to be very good (in order to win)," said CSU women's basketball coach Kate Peterson Abiad. " (They) are very gettable if we can compete at the level we are capable of competing at."
The Vikes will look to hold serve at home this week were they are 6-1 at the Wolstein Center. Detroit (8-8, 2-3) is 3-6 on the road and Wright State is 7-3 on the road.
"Detroit has very potent individual scorers at every position," said Peterson Abiad. "They are a very challenging team to defend."
The Detroit women only have one player averaging in double-figures, but they have a balance scoring attack with seven players averaging seven points or more.
Dominique Dixon, a 5-8 sophomore guard, leads the Titans in scoring (11.7). In conference games, Dixon is averaging 21.2 points per game.
The Wright State women have won two in a roll and their only losses in conference play have come against undefeated teams Green Bay and Butler.