UTRGV comes to Jones on December 18 at 7 PM. The game will air live on YouTube via the link provided on the CSU schedule. RGV comes to Chicago for a return game after Chicago played them in Edinburg last season. The Vaqueros escaped with a 85-82 victory last season.

So far this season, RGV is 3-7, with one D1 win versus Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. They won on the road 76-74, and also will play them again on Friday before they leave for Chicago.

RGV has played some tough games, with TCU, Oklahoma and Grand Canyon so far.

This will be the 31st meeting between the teams, with RGV holding a 21-9 advantage, and winning the last 12 in a row versus the Cougars. Chicago is 5-9 at home versus RGV. Except the Covid year, the teams have met every year since 2008 and is the most played series for Chicago State in that time.

UTRGV fell to TAMU-CC at home Friday night 86-76. The game was tied at 68 with about 5 minutes remaining, before the Islanders put up nearly 20 more points in short order and pulled away late. RGV looked disjointed toward the end of the game and CC seemed to score at will with RGV not strong enough defensively to stop them.

This is a team Chicago State should beat. But I could see their aggressive offensive sets creating fouls, which Chicago can’t afford to give up. Chicago will have to play tough on the perimeter and stop them from getting to the paint.

Some unusual stats from this RGV game. They gave up an astounding 60 points in the paint. I’m not sure I’ve seen that many ever. RGV was also outrebounded by 15 and only had 4 second chance points. Not surprisingly with the second chance points, they only had a total of 4 offensive rebounds. Those are points in the Cougars favor. But this is an improvement from the first CC-RGV matchup when RGV only had 1 offensive rebound, had no second chance points at all, and was outrebounded by 20. And they lost to a team that shot 37% and was 4/20 from 3.

What scares me is how they got to the line 38 times and hit 27. Chicago can’t afford to foul anywhere near that much. And with 2-3 guys who are a little foul prone, if fouls became an issue, the bench would get pretty short, pretty quickly. Fortunately, Wesley and Jahsean manage their fouls pretty well. Seems like Noble Crawford does as well. But Ked, Davis and Jernigan are going to have to watch themselves.

We will see tomorrow if Chicago comes in on a 2 game win streak, or not.

It got up to a 9 point lead and RGV was in the middle of a long drought, from the field, but they are so good at getting to the line they stayed around and got back in it some.

Chicago is going to be in trouble if they rack up many more fouls. They just aren’t deep enough.

Hoping Cardet is fine.

When was the last time we won 3 in a row?

(12-18-2023 09:06 PM)MICHAELSPAPPY Wrote:  When was the last time we won 3 in a row?

Last season.

It was a pretty good first half for the Cougars. UTRGV is a similar type of team to Chicago State in many ways. They have talent that doesn’t all come together at times. They play aggressive defense, but have let downs that sink them sometimes. They can play well, and can have stretches where nothing goes right that keep putting them in a hole.

RGV has some big guys who may develop in time, but aren’t quite there yet, and sometimes they can be more hindrance than help.

RGV is still more than capable of winning this game. I watched them versus Tarleton and the faster pace seemed to suit them more than this game which has been more half court.

One nice thing about the Cougs is that we appear to have everyone returning next season, so they will be used to functioning as a team that much more. I just hope we keep Coach.

For a team that lives off of the drive in the lane and draw lots of contact and fouls, they really aren’t very good at defending that. Somebody for them fouls just about every time the offense has the ball in the lane.

Two with 4 already, but neither is a starter.

Chicago isn’t running their offense very well this second half. Lots of standing around and aimless passing around. But they need to just keep driving and drawing fouls i suppose.

Sort of strange that Cardet only has one rebound. He is doing everything else.

Ugly game. But so are most games RGV is in, from what I’ve seen this season.

I don’t like how Chicago played most of the second half. The entire game just devolved into sloppy play and constant fouls.

But oh well. Doesn’t matter. That’s 3 in a row, and 4 out 5 for Chicago State.

https://www.gocsucougars.com/mens-basket...y/7106/pdf

Stats for RGV game.

Interesting that all of a sudden there were 11 players who took the floor, and 9 had at least 9 minutes. It doesn’t feel like such a short bench any more. It feels like there are a number of players who can step in without anyone looking like they don’t belong. To me, that is one of biggest developments of the season. The first couple of games, it really felt like if somebody had to come out, it was a big problem. That’s not true now.