The Cleveland State mens basketball team held an open scrimmage for their season ticket holders yesterday. Here is what I took out of the contest:

-Much talked about sophomore Aaron Pogue looked very good on the green side. Pogue’s big build and court awareness (great passing skills for a big man) will be a delight to watch this season.

-D’Aundry Brown, coming back from knee surgery, looked sharp playing for the green side. It also looks like he is developing a nice rapport with Pogue making a nice cut inside for an easy layup for one of the highlights of the scrimmage.

-Junior College transfer Lance James looked sharp with his quickness and ball handling ability. James, who helped lead the white team to victory, also made a great steal in the open court. James is a bit smaller in stature than his listed height of 5′ 11” so that could come into play when he is faced with facing bigger guards on opposing teams.

-Kevin Anderson had a couple nice plays on both the offensive and defensive end. Anderson played on the winning White side in the scrimmage and had a nice blocked shot and followed it up on the other end with with a hook shot that could be a great offensive weapon if the 6′ 11” JUCO transfer can make it consistently.

-The big thing to watch this season will be the defense. Both sides swarmed to the ball and set traps throughout the scrimmage. If you like up-tempo basketball, you will love this years version of the Vikings.

-The White team would lead the game wire-to-wire and held off the Green squad who had a chance to tie the 20 minute scrimmage late in the game but came up short. The final of the contest was White 33 - Green 31.