Cleveland State junior center Joe Latas is transferring to Houston Baptist, according to Rodger Bohn of Slam Magazine.

Bohn wrote on his Twitter account:

"6'11 C Joe Latas will transfer from Cleveland St to Houston Baptist.Latas has graduated and will have 1 year eligibility left asap."

Latas appeared in 34 games for the Vikings, averaging 1.9 points and 1.9 rebounds in nine minutes per game.

Recruiting update: The Vikings have offered a scholarship to Huntington Prep senior Ibrahima "Ibby" Djimde, according to Jody Demling of the Louisville Courier-Journal.

Djimde, a 6-foot-9, 230-pound power forward/center, averaged just over 10 points this season.

The native of Mali, Africa also has offers from Charlotte and Marshall. Indiana also has expressed interest in Djimde.

CSU has also offered scholarships to point guards Jalen James of Chicago Hope High School and Terry Rozier of Shaker Heights High School, according to Rivals.com.

James (6-2) is in the class of 2013 and Rozier (6-1) is in the class of 2012. Rozier also has offers from Akron and Kent State.

The Cleveland State men's basketball team finished ranked No. 12 in the final CollegeInsider.com Mid-Major Top 25 poll, which was released on Tuesday.

CSU finished the season at 27-9, losing in the second-round of the National Invitation Tournament to the College of Charleston. The 27 wins were the second most in school history, trailing only the 1985-86 squad who won 29.

MID-MAJOR TOP 25

UPDATED: April 5, 2011

Record/ Points/ Previous

1. Butler (31) 28-10 775 6 Horizon League
2. VCU 28-12 744 14 Colonial Athletic
3. George Mason 27-7 704 3 Colonial Athletic
4. Old Dominion 27-7 664 1 Colonial Athletic
5. Wichita State 29-8 649 9 Missouri Valley
6. Belmont 30-5 636 2 Atlantic Sun
7. Gonzaga 25-10 585 4 West Coast
8. Oakland 25-10 552 5 Summit Leagye
9. Missouri State 26-9 495 8 Missouri Valley
10. Princeton 25-7 485 10 Ivy League
11. St. Mary's 25-9 480 7 West Coast
12. Cleveland State 27-9 359 11 Horizon League
13. College of Charleston 26-11 357 12 Southern
14. Harvard 23-7 349 13 Ivy League
15. Morehead State 25-10 287 21 Ohio Valley
16. Fairfield 25-8 254 18 Metro Atlantic
17. Long Island 27-6 247 15 Northeast
18. Long Beach State 22-12 242 17 Big West
19. Kent State 25-12 213 NR Mid-American
20. Milwaukee 19-14 207 19 Horizon League
21. Bucknell 25-9 187 16 Patriot
22. Santa Clara 24-14 161 NR West Coast
23. Northern Colorado 21-11 86 20 Big Sky
24. Coastal Carolina 28-6 61 22 Big South
25. Woffird 21-13 58 23 Southern

Cleveland, Ohio - After an extensive nationwide search, Cleveland State University has named John Parry to athletic director, effective April 15. Parry has served as interim director at CSU since May 2010. CSU President Ronald Berkman said during that time Parry has proven himself to be an effective leader.

"We knew that John had the experience and an impressive track record, and in less than a year he has demonstrated repeatedly that he can move our athletic program forward," Berkman said. "CSU prides itself on developing first-class student-athletes who excel academically, and John has worked well to advance that vision."

Parry served as athletic director for Butler University in Indianapolis from 1990 to 2006, during which the University won the Horizon League All Sport trophy four times and was instrumental in increasing sponsorship income and fundraising revenue.

Prior to his work at Butler, Parry was director of athletics for Brown University in Providence, R.I. , where he oversaw 30 varsity teams and helped revitalize the school's crew, track and wrestling programs. A graduate of Brown himself, with a Master's in business administration from the Wharton School of Finance and Commerce, Parry played varsity football, basketball and lacrosse.

With 17 Division I sports teams, CSU's varsity athletes exceed the GPA's of the vast majority of rival universities in the region - most earning a 3.0 or higher. The University's premier basketball program has earned bids to the NCAA and NIT Championships three of the last four years.

Courtesy of Cleveland State Athletics

Cleveland State associate head coach Jayson Gee is among a handful of candidates for the vacant head coaching position at Kent State, according to Mike Waters of the Syracuse Post-Standard.

According to Waters, the other candidates for the KSU opening include Syracuse assistant Rob Murphy, Kent State assistant Rob Senderoff, Xavier assistant Pat Kelsey, and Ohio State assistant Jeff Boals.

Gee, 42, has spent the past five years as an assistant coach to Gary Waters at CSU. The last two years he has been the associate head coach.

He has previous head coaching experience guiding the University of Charleston, a Division II program, to a 160-55 record in seven seasons from 1996-2003.

Courtesy of Cleveland State Athletics

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Norris Cole, who set a Cleveland State single season scoring record with 780 points, has become just the third Viking in school history to earn honorable mention All-America honors on the Associated Press team. The team was announced on Monday afternoon.

"I am happy for Norris because this award shows the recognition for all that he did for us this past season," CSU head coach Gary Waters said.

"In my estimation, there is only one other guard in the nation who has the total package that Norris has. He scored off the dribble and from the perimeter, passed the ball, rebounded and most importantly, played defense. I couldn't have asked any more from him."

Cole, the only player in the nation to average 20 points, five rebounds and five assists a game this season, joins Clinton Ransey (1985 & 1986) and Clinton Smith (1985) as the only Associated Press All-Americans in Viking basketball history.

Cole had a record-setting season. The first player in league history to be named Horizon League Player of the Year and Horizon League Defensive Player of the Year in the same season, he led the Horizon League in scoring (21.7ppg), steals (2.2) and free throw percentage (.853), ranked second in assists (5.4), third in minutes played (35.7), fourth in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.93) and defensive rebounds (5.2) and eighth in rebounds. Cole set the CSU single season records for points (780), free throws made (227) and free throws attempted (266), scoring 20 points or more 20 times.

Cole had the top individual game in the Horizon League this year in scoring (41 vs. Youngstown State), rebounds (20 vs. Youngstown State), free throws made (15 vs. Green Bay) and steals (6 vs. UIC).

Cleveland State fans should tune in to SportsTime Ohio at 4:30 p.m. Saturday to see the future of CSU basketball.

That's when CSU recruit Anton Grady leads his Cleveland Central Catholic Ironmen against Cincinnati Taft in the Division III state championship game.

Grady carried the Ironmen (19-8) to a 58-47 semifinals victory over Portsmouth on Friday with a huge second half.

The 6-8 senior forward scored 23 points, pulled down 14 rebounds and five blocked shots in the second half.

Grady, who was named the Associated Press Division III Co-Player of the Year on Tuesday, finished with 26 points, 22 rebounds and seven blocked shots.

Waters a finalist: In other CSU news, Vikings head coach Gary Waters was named a finalists for the 2011 Skip Prosser Man of the Year award.

The Skip Prosser Award was established in 2008 to honor those who not only achieve success on the basketball court but who display moral integrity off of it as well.

The College of Charleston ended Cleveland State's season on Saturday in the second round of the National Invitation Tournament.

It was poor shooting that cost CSU the victory, as the sixth-seeded Cougars upset the second-seeded Vikings, 64-56, at the Wolstein Center.

CSU couldn't overcome shooting a dismal 1-of-25 (four percent) from three-point range. They also shot 33 percent (23-of-69) from the field.

"This has been a great year regardless of what occurred out there today," said CSU coach Gary Waters. "Sometimes the ball doesn't fall for you. When that happens nothing you can do."

Even Norris Cole struggled from the field shooting 6-of-22, including 0-of-8 from three-point range.

"It was a bad shooting day," said Cole. "Some of the shots were bad selection; others, the ball didn't bounce our way."

The Vikings finish the season at 27-9. The 27 wins are the second-highest single season total in school history, trailing only the 1985-86 squad who won 29.

CSU also set several school records this season. They won their first Horizon League regular season championship (shared with Wisconsin-Milwaukee and Butler). They also set school records for most wins to start the season (12), most wins before Jan. 1 (14), fastest to 20 wins (Jan. 29), most home wins (17) and most Horizon League wins in a season (13).

"My hat goes off to these young men because they worked their tail off," said Waters. "This was a special group. I had some pretty good teams and this one is up there because of how hard they work. There's not a team that works harder then this team in practice.

"I think what hurt us was not having a bench. I think it wore on them physically."

The loss marked the end of Cole's CSU career. The senior from Dayton finished with 18 points, raising his career scoring total to 1,978 points, third-best in CSU history.

Video courtesy of Cleveland State Athletics

Game recap

Box score