Not a good ending with the 2 big losses. Not sure who will be back next season. These days, I don’t count on anything with the transfer portal.

However, several players have long connections to Coach Gillion so I’m more confident about them returning. If those players return, it will be another year of improvement next season.

I think these late season games will prompt more teams to contact them for similar gaps in the schedule next year.

I’ll do more of a season summary soon, as time allows.

A few thoughts of mine on this season. 11 wins is the most since 2014. Coach Gillion has been a great hire and has really been a breath of fresh air for the program.

Now that this season is over, it looks like Chicago will have played 4 tournament teams. Of course, that field isn’t set yet, but just going off probability.

The best result from those 4 was the 14 point loss at Marquette. 10 point game with a minute to go. Nothing to hang their head over in that one.

Other P5 results include a tough 3 point loss at Minnesota and the 7 point loss at Stanford. Picking up just one of those would have been a great boost to the season.

A notable part of the Cougars season for me was from December 11-28. In that period they played 6 games, all on the road, all losses. The average loss was by 6. The worst were back to back 1 point losses at Murray State and UT Martin. The 3 point loss to Minnesota was also in this time period, and also Southern Illinois and Illinois State.

There were 2 very disappointing losses this season at Bethune Cookman and Delaware State. Both are really bad teams. But playing both on the road and despite a much higher NET than either time at the time, the Cougars played poorly and lost. Losing to Bethune Cookman by the same margin they just lost to Marquette the previous game is inexplicable, except for that’s just how sports go sometimes. These were really the only unexpected losses for me. I think most other losses were pretty much expected, especially if you use the NET as a rough guide.


Some nice highlights—-

Most wins in almost a decade, modest as that may be.
Going undefeated at home is pretty nice too. Not a lot of teams can say that.
Finishing the season 6-3 over their last 9 games was a good springboard for next year.

A lot of people might glance at their schedule and results and write this season off as another poor season for another poor team, but despite that appearance, there are many positives to be taken from this team. I hope a few people can appreciate that fact.

Hopefully a lot of these guys stick around (only 1 Senior this season) and help build the program. If Chicago State is to find a conference home soon, another improved basketball season will only boost their chances and is pretty much considered a prerequisite. I feel like athletics as a whole at Chicago State are on a little bit of an upswing with men’s hoops leading the way in improvement.

Some of the better teams Chicago played. A lot of 20+ win and top 100 NET teams that the Cougars didn’t have much chance against. Not a lot of wins available in this group for a still building program. But they did provide some good experience, good challenges, and hopefully some good money the program needs.

Kent State 25-6 70 NET
Northwestern 21-10 48 NET
Marquette 25-6 13 NET
Marshall 24-8 83 NET
Ball State 20-11
Cleveland State 20-10
Gonzaga 26-5 9 NET
Stanford 98 NET
Southern Illinois 23-10

And thanks to all the people who have stopped by and checked out the posts from those who have been following Chicago State athletics this season!

Not sure how significant the NET is for a team like Chicago State, but since the Gonzaga and Fresno blowout losses, they dropped about 20 spots to about 300. (363 total teams). At one point they were up around 270 at their peak this season. Not great, but being ahead of around 15% of all teams is at least a step up out of the cellar. Plenty of schools that have languished at the bottom of the NET rankings would like to see an improvement of 60 spots in just a couple seasons.

Like you said, other folks may look at our seasons and see little for encouragement, but both teams finished strong, and when they played comparable competition they generally held their own. I think we have two good coaches, and if we are smart in recruiting, things are looking up.

Chicago State played 4 NCAA tournament teams.

2 seed Marquette
3 seed Gonzaga
7 seed Northwestern
13 seed Kent State

Another opponent, Cleveland State, played in the Horizon League championship game but lost by 2.

Chicago State also finished higher in the NET than tourney qualifier Fairleigh Dickinson.