LU-C finished as regular season co-champions of the Atlantic 10 last season and played in the NIT. They are 12-1 against the Cougars all time. The teams met last season at Loyola as well, resulting in a 62-53 win for the Ramblers.

Loyola, 23-10 last season, is picked 5th in the A 10 preseason poll. Justin Moore lead the Ramblers with 16 points in their exhibition game versus Calumet. Des Watson, a returner was picked to the A 10 first team preseason poll, along with Miles Rubin, who was picked to the third team and all defensive squads. Those are some of the players to watch for Loyola.

Noble Crawford is Chicago State's top returner. He averaged 7.8 points per game on 46.8 percent from the field and 31.9 percent from three-point range. Crawford added 4.6 rpg, 1.2 apg, 2.0 spg, and 0.8 bpg. He scored double-figures in 12 games last season, including a season-high 19 against FDU.

I don’t know who will be starting for the Cougars tonight.

If I had to pick, I’d go with Crawford, Cameron Jernigan, Saxby Southerland, Jalen Forrest, and Quincy Allen.

I’d also expect to see good minutes for a couple of the returners like Deshawn Jean-Charles and Tehshaundre Cole.

One player that intrigues me is Matthew Robinson, a USCAA All American transfer from Florida National University. I did see him play last season against lower level competition, but he looks interesting.

Another couple guys on the roster I look forward to seeing are 6’8” Mike Brown, transfer from Florida State and 6’10” Gerald Jones from South Florida. Any players from programs at that level are interesting prospects, but neither got much court time last season. Either could make an important front court presence that the Cougars have missed for too long.

I’m not sure which of the guards will play point, as that’s an open position from last season and I don’t know the personnel well yet to favor anyone. It may well be someone I am not predicting to be a starter. I could easily have a couple of them wrong. We will know soon enough. Can’t wait to get this season off the ground.

Looks like it’s G Spinelli, Crawford, Allen, Jernigan, and Sunderland starting.

Crawford and Jernigan carrying the load so far.

All I can say is Providence can have the Wesley Cardett Jr show. This team is hands down better without him. Last year, every game simply depended on how well he played. Sure, he’d put up 20 points they could count on, but he’d shoot 25% from the field some times, and they had no rebounding because everybody had to clear out for him to dribble at the key for ten seconds and then drive in and throw up a crap shot.

Despite some glaring issues on defense, and the fact that Loyola isn’t playing very well either, I can see this Chicago State team is a force. For the most part, this doesn’t look like their first game. They look like they’ve been playing together for a long time.

Spinelli Style is right up my alley. I don’t see any reason this team can’t finish in the top half of the league, conservatively. They are going to win a bunch of league games. I wouldn’t be surprised to see them get another Northwestern style win this season either, and they get a lot of chances with this crazy non conference schedule.

So far, this season was worth the wait. I’m hyped!

I like some of the numbers. 10 assists so far to only 7 turnovers. Excellent perimeter defense.

Some observations.

Point guard position looks well covered. That was a question mark for me. But between Sunderland and Spinelli, it’s going to be good. Each have their own strengths and style, but either can get the job done. Spinelli scoring at the cup so much was impressive. But his 1 of 7 free throw shooting cost the Cougars. Not something you see from a coaches kid often. Hopefully this was just a one time thing. Sunderland, in the other hand, hit 9/10 from the line and will clearly be the ball handler of choice in crunch time situations.

Didn’t see any big men. They may not have been needed, since Loyola didn’t really have a strong big man down low to defend. We may not see much of either this season, unless it’s in unique circumstances, like a team with a real force down low.

The true freshman, Troy McKoy is a very good player already. Came in for 17 minutes and had 7 points, 5 rebounds, 2 blocks, and and assist. Very impressed with him in his debut. Better showing than about 99% of other true freshman anywhere have IMO. His 4 fouls in 17 minutes isn’t ideal though. Nerves likely played a role there. Always want to show the coach you are playing g tight D. He can fix this.

Cam Jernigan is better in most every way. He has really matured and looked more confident and capable. Gotta keep his fouls in check. He had 3 last night. That was an issue last year.

Noble Crawford got a couple fouls and only played 10 minutes. Not sure if the fouls were the reason. He may be getting challenged for court time. I like him, but if he can be uneven at times, so if someone else can step in, all the better.

Greg Spate is a guy that the previous coach said has huge potential. We saw him some in this game. He didn’t score, but looked confident out there and will likely blossom as the season goes on.

Matthew Robinson, the USCAA all American transfer from Florida National got a nice amount of minutes. Around 25 I think. Good for him to step up and show he belongs in D1. Not everybody who comes up from lower levels ever even get to take the court. He will likely be a contributor this year.

Quincy Allen was very impressive and will be a key player all season. He is the real deal. He has multiple years of D1 experience and it shows.

Jalen Forrest and CJ Delancy are both as good as I hoped they were and will be key this year. Forrest got over 25 minutes.

This is all just from watching the game and going from memory after looking at the box score, so will likely edit this and add some more.

The announcers did a really poor job of announcing substitutions, so just watching the game once, it was really hard to even tell who was in for CSU.