With 9 teams, each week 7 teams play 2 games, 2 teams play one. The first few weeks of conference play is Friday/Sunday, a few weeks of various formats including Saturday/Monday, before finally switching to Thursday/Saturday for the final 5 weekends series of the regular season.

This allows all teams to host some Saturday matinee and evening games, in addition to some Sunday matinees, some weeknight games etc. But it also sticks to the flexible travel partner format so travel is eased. It’s an interesting way to schedule, with no two teams being locked together for the entire the season the way many conferences with even number of teams have travel partners.

Friday January 3
Stonehill @ Mercyhurst L 69-76
LeMoyne @ LIU L 62-78
CCSU @ St Francis W 74-59
Chicago State @ Wagner W 64-52

Sunday January 5
CCSU @ Mercyhurst W 62-50
Stonehill @ St Francis W 64-60
Chicago State @ LIU L 39-53
FDU @ Wagner W 71-59

The Cougars got it done. They defeated 8-5 Wagner, the co-preason NEC favorite 64-52.

After an 0-15 start that includes road games at Texas, Illinois, Wisconsin, Loyola, San Francisco, Indiana State, Grand Canyon, and more, the Cougars ended the streak tonight.

They are now 1-0 in league play and have proven they can beat the leagues number one pick on the road. If this isn’t a major turnaround in fortunes, I don’t know what else could be.

With only 2 home games so far, getting a league road win while also having the bulk of their home games coming up, the season already looks a lot more promising then it did just a few hours ago.

Some interesting stats from the game.

Chicago lead in fast break points, and in points off turnovers 22-6. In a fairly slow and low scoring game, that’s a massive difference.

Wagner lead in bench scoring 21-4. This is one of the first games Coach Spinelli has stuck with the same few players to this degree.

Wagner opened up a 12-2 lead early and Chicago cut it to one by halftime. They took their first lead about 4 minutes into the 2nd half, and ended up leading for over 16 minutes of the game.

After the 12-2 opening, the Cougars outscored Wagner by 22 the rest of the game.

Chicago shot 50% from the field, which I’m sure is their best outing all season. The 35% from 3 is either the best shooting, or nearly the beast all season.

The Cougars cut their turnovers to only 4 in the second half, which, by any standard is a good half of basketball by any team.

This is likely the first game the Cougars haven’t been out rebounded all season. Though they tied with 29 for the game and only had 5 offensive boards, at least they minimized second chance points.

Way to go Chicago St!

First week in the books. Overall, road teams won 5 of the 8 games, so a bit of a twist to the usual.

CCSU emerged unscathed, 2-0.
LIU also won 2 at home.

Chicago, Stonehill, Mercyhurst are all 1-1.

FDU is 1-0.
LeMoyne is 0-1.

Co favorite Wagner lost 2 at home.
St Francis also lost 2 at home.