Here we go again…

Chicago State Men

11-6... at Bowling Green
11-14… CAL ST NORTHRIDGE
11-21... vs. Northern Colorado (Cancun Challenge)
11-22... vs. Morgan State or Radford (Cancun Challenge)
11-28… at Loyola Chicago
12-13... at Northwestern
12-16... at Valpo
12-20... BETHUNE COOKMAN
12-22... at Wisconsin
12-27… at Cal Baptist
1-2… at Kansas State
1-10… FAIRLEIGH DICKINSON
1-14... UT-RIO GRANDE VALLEY

TBA at Southern Illinois (as part of Cancun Challenge)

TBD TENNESSEE MARTIN
TBA DRAKE
TBD at Southern Indiana

24-25
TBA … at Fairleigh Dickinson

Chicago State Women
11-10… at Detroit Mercy
11-15… at Butler
11-22, 11-24, 11-25… at Cleveland State MTE
11-30… at Illinois State

Another game

Bethune Cookman!

Three games!

Added some more men’s and women’s games for Chicago State

Bowling Green...

KState

Appreciate you keeping this updated! The schedule is coming along.

Valpo hosting Chicago State

Home game!

St Thomas is playing a return game at Chicago on December 10.

Schedule is updated on their website:
https://www.gocsucougars.com/sports/mens...le/2023-24

WBB schedule can be found here. Sorry, on mobile so a little much to copy over at the moment!

https://www.gocsucougars.com/sports/wome...le/2023-24

(09-15-2023 05:22 PM)joshadam84 Wrote:  Schedule is updated on their website:
https://www.gocsucougars.com/sports/mens...le/2023-24

I’ve been waiting for this day since Fresno! Thanks for posting it. I have been checking pretty regularly myself.

I’ll post more once I have time to absorb it and see what jumps out at me.

I’m excited about the schedule. There are a lot of games the Cougars can win on it.

First thing is the breakdown of home/road games.

11 home games. With 8 home games before the Christmas break, there are a lot of winnable games early in the season.

2 Big 12 games
2 Big 10 games
1 Big East
2 Atlantic 10
2 OVC

Games versus Northwestern, Loyola, DePaul and Valpo.

I expected more games in Florida because of the roster and for recruiting.

Last years NET rankings for Chicago States schedule

19 Kansas State
37 Northwestern
42 Oklahoma State
72 Wisconsin
123 Southern Illinois
137 Duquesne
146 Eastern Kentucky
155 DePaul
163 Stetson
171 California Baptist
182 UTEP
199 St Thomas
227 Mercer
237 Northern Colorado
251 UT Martin
259 UT Rio Grande Valley
266 Southern Indiana
269 Loyola Chicago
270 Fairleigh Dickinson
286 Bowling Green
294 Valparaiso
335 Cal State Northridge
347 South Carolina State
349 Bethune Cookman
354 Delaware State

Also for reference, the midway point for all D1 schools is around 180. There are just under 360 D1 schools.

Some thoughts-

I would not have guessed Stetson was so high. They are on the schedule twice this season.
Duquesne and Eastern Kentucky may have been at program high NET rankings last season, or close.

UTEP is probably going to be much better this season as they have a great coach who is building them up. California Baptist had a somewhat down season last year.

There will, of course, be teams that are much better, and much worse than last season. I just mentioned a few teams I’m more familiar with. At some point I will look up each teams personnel and do some real research, but for now I’ll have to stick to general impressions.

DePaul only won 10 games last season, but are buoyed in part by a very high SOS in the Big East.

With the players coming in, if they are indeed as talented as I think, there are not all that many games on this schedule that the Cougars don’t have much chance in. But if things start clicking, who knows. This still could be Chicago States best season in a long time.

Chicago State went 7-5 against teams below 250 NET last season. There are 11 such games this season. A couple of last seasons losses were to very poor teams (Delaware State and Bethune Cookman, both on the road, and both teams ended up finished about 60 spots lower in the final NET).

I think Chicago can eliminate a couple of bad losses like those, and win at least just a couple more of the games they took into OT or to 1 or 2 point losses, and win a couple of games over teams just above 250 NET, it could be a 15 or 16 win season.

Also noteworthy, Chicago State was 8-0 at home last season. They won 4 D1 home games last season, by an average of about 15 points. One of the teams was Hartford, so that barely counts, but all home D1 wins were by double digits.

With 12 home games this season, they might just pick off a couple of teams in the 200-250 NET range, and they could go 9-3 or 10-2 at home, assuming they can take of business of most of the lower NET teams at home.

Mercer, UT Martin, Stetson and Eastern Kentucky are likely the 4 highest NET teams they’ll face at home and I would consider the lower 2 to be games Chicago State has a chance in.

Now, predictions are just for fun of course, and I haven’t even seen this team play yet. But going from 11 wins to 15 or 16 isn’t some fantasy land hope. I do believe (if things click) that it might happen. Just imagine if they really clicked and got a game or two above .500. Before I even hope for that, I’d need to know a lot more about this years team. But I am sure there is more reason for optimism about this years squad than there has been in a number of years, and that alone makes things fun.

Anyone else have thoughts/hopes/predictions?