Josh "Transfer-man" Fontaine

[PointGuard]

2022-2023 SEASON

Transfers

Outgoing:
3 of our players transferred. A very good SF who started last season and would have started this season; an average PG who started last season and most likely would have started this season; and an SG with good potential who played little last season but would have been the primary backup at SG this season. All 3 were sophomores, decimating our sophomore class on the team roster.

We cut an SF who redshirted last season but who didn’t really fit into our plans this season.

Need:
So we had 4 scholarships to fill with transfer players, if possible. We needed a good big man, a good PG, and the best we could get at any position otherwise.

Results:
Early in the transfer season 4 players chose to transfer to Chicago State. Two big men who will likely start for us. The other two were an SF and an SG, both of whom will be good backups at those positions. Three of these players were sophomores so that replenished that class within our roster. All-in-all, a pretty good haul.

[Wayne23]

Definitely a good haul. The low TP schools do very well.

[jlemmen43]

It went easier than I thought it would. That’s probably because Jose Parker and I are pretty good at selling the program. Hell, we’d probably have been good used car salesmen. We got two of our three scholarships filled…a couple of 3-star players: SF Dan Mohr from Lawrenceville, IL—good scorer and defender and a hard worker; and PF Earl Burns from Gillett, WI—good rebounder and scorer and a hard worker. Thought we had a 3rd guy but just missed out on him. Have a scholarship offer out to a PG…still kind of a long-shot. Otherwise we’re just going to mostly make some phone calls throughout the winter and maybe do some live scouting of a few of the recruits on our list.

I grew up about 5 miles from Gillett, WI. Pretty small town, but they do have a high school. The only Earls there are old farmers haha.

[PointGuard]

I guess Burns grew up with a hoop on the side of the barn.

[jlemmen43]

I guess Burns grew up with a hoop on the side of the barn.

LOL! He sure did.

[PointGuard]

Recruiting—July to November 2022

Since 3 of our players will be graduating after this season, we will have 3 scholarships to fill. Our biggest needs are: a SG, a SF, and either a PG or big man.

3rd Assistant Coach Shannon Jackson will handle all the recruiting activities this time around (in other words I’m simming recruiting with the AI doing it).

So here’s where our recruiting stands on Nov. 13, 2022:

Shannon did his job and was responsible for our getting commitments for the 3 available scholarships. Not what you’d call a stellar class of recruits (they’re all 1-star rated), but I’m hoping they will surprise me when they get here.

There’s a C who is a good scorer inside and strong defensively but is a weak rebounder; an SF who shoots well from both inside and outside but beyond scoring has no abilities that really stand out; and a PG who’s pretty good at distributing the ball and has a nice outside shot (although he doesn’t shoot enough), but needs to improve his defense.

We just missed out on a pretty darned good SG…we were #2 on his list and I thought we’d be able to move up to #1, but he went elsewhere.

[PointGuard]

Roster (at start of 2022-2023 season)

PG: Aaron Sanchez, JR (8.4 ppg last season) will start. Backup: Jeremy Charles, JR (3.1 ppg last season)

SG: Pat Coursey, SR (10.9 ppg last season) will start. Backups: John Price, SO (7.8 ppg last season for Delaware St.) and Jehiel Davis, JR (0.8 ppg last season)

SF: Jeremy Asbury, SR (7.5 ppg last season) will start sometimes. Backups: Rory Nelson, SO (0.5 ppg last season for Sam Houston St.) and Dan Mohr, FR

PF: Donnell Tate, SO (9.3 ppg last season for Tennessee-Martin will start (but also may start at SF); Backups: Jonathan Davis, JR (5.0 ppg last season) will start when Tate starts at SF; Earl Burns, FR

C: Jerrance Scott, JR (2.5 ppg last season for Mississippi Valley) will normally be the starter; Backups: Jason Phillips, SR (4.4 ppg last season) will start occasionally; Flye Culuko, SR (2.4 ppg last season)

Redshirt: PG Jevon Gage, FR

[PointGuard]

Pre-Conference Play:

Chicago State-72, Harvard-69: This was a tight game with a lot of lead changes and ties. We were down by 5 at the half but clamped down defensively in the 2nd half. PG Aaron Sanchez dropped in 15 for us. Transfer players Scott and Tate did a good job for us at C and SF.

Chicago State-84, Northern Arizona-65: Close early but then we just steadily pulled away, shooting and rebounding well. PF Jonathan Davis hit for 19 points to make up for a lackluster first game. C Jason Phillips had 11 boards.

Chicago State-75, Incarnate Word-65: The first half was a real battle, but we again dominated on the boards which allowed us to take control in the 2nd half. SG Patrick Coursey led our scoring with 18 points and C Jerrance Scott pulled down 11 rebounds.

Houston Baptist-90, Chicago State-75: There goes out perfect season. Our defense failed to show up. We let the Huskies hit 56% of their shots and 2 of their guys score 20 points each and a 3rd player 19. We didn’t do the job on the glass either. SG Patrick Coursey tossed in 19 points…our only bright spot.

Chicago State-70, Robert Morris-67: Things looked bad I the first half. We fell behind by 16 and trailed by 10 at the break. We again turned on our defense in the 2nd half and finally edged ahead 3 minutes from the end of the game and then held on for dear life. The team stats were as close as the final score. Leading our scoring was C Jerrance Scott scored 17 and PF Jonathan Davis had 11 rebounds.

Chicago State-70, Bucknell-59: Big road win for us. We wrested control about 6 minutes into the game and held the Bison at by the rest of the way. PG Aaron Sanchez topped our scoring with 19 points while PF Jonathan Davis handled the interior by grabbing 15 rebounds and totally shutting down his opposing player’s scoring.

Chicago State-84, Idaho-82: We only had a 2 minute period early in the 2nd half and the final half-minute of the game when we held a lead in this road game, but a win is a win. With the game tied with 30 seconds left we missed a shot but SF Donnell Tate tipped in the rebound to give us the win. We had 4 players score in double figures, led by C Jason Phillips who had 16 points. We overcame the C of the Vandals 21 points and 11 rebounds.

Chicago State-77, Green Bay-70: After holding a 21 point lead at the end of the first half, we watched that lead shrivel away throughout the 2nd half. With 5 minute to go our lead was down to 2 points, but we gathered our reserve to hold on for the win. C Jerrance Scott poured in 18 points.

Chicago State-84, Southern-81: A fittingly close game between teams that came into the game with 7-1 and 7-0 records. We outshot, out-rebounded, and scored more points at the line than Southern…but turned the ball over 22 times. We trailed by 9 at the half. Midway through the 2nd half we tied the game and then edged ahead and tenaciously held onto a razor slim lead to come away with a nice road win. 4 of our starters scored in double figures and the other starter had 8 points. SG Pat Coursey hit 6 of 9 FG’s, 3 of 4 from outside the arc, went 3 for 3 at the line to score 18 points. We now have 3 players nursing a variety of short-term injuries.

Tennessee State-83, Chicago State-78: While the game was never out of hand, we trailed most of the way. C Jerrance Scott hit for 19 points, but we let the Tigers’ SG torch us for 28 points.

Chicago State-92, South Dakota-66: we leapt out to a big lead and just kept pouring it to the Coyotes. Total domination with 6 of our players scoring in double figures, led by PF Donnel Tate and PG Jeremy Charles who both scored 15.

Western Carolina-82, Chicago State-76: An extremely disappointing loss since we led the entire game until the final 3 minutes. We just ran out of gas late in the game. SG Pat Coursey and C Jerrance Scott both scored 13 points.

Chicago State-82, Austin Peay-81: We built a 14 point lead midway through the first half but then things got close with the Governors holding a small lead throughout much of the 2nd half. We recaptured the lead with 5 minutes to go and then gamely held on. SG Pat Coursey topped our scoring with 18 points.

We have a 10-3 record going into conference play. We played well, but quite a few of the games were extremely close and the level of competition wasn’t very high.

We’re getting good scoring throughout much of our roster. Our primary starters: SG Coursey-13.2 ppg, C Jerrance Scott-10.5 ppg, PG Aaron Sanchez-8.6 ppg, PF/SF Donnell Tate-8.1 ppg, SF/PF Jonathan Davis-6.7 ppg. Primary bench players: PG Jeremy Charles-8.5 ppg, C Jason Phillips-8.0 ppg, SF Jeremy Asbury-7.5 ppg. Top rebounders are: Scott-6.1 rpg, Davis-5.8 rpg, Tate-4.7 rpg, Phillips-4.6 rpg, and Coursey-3.7 rpg. Sanchez is averaging 4.2 apg.

[PointGuard]

Conference Play—January 2023

Chicago State--84, Lamar—64: 11-3, 1-0, tie for 1st. Strong defense by us led to a 16 point advantage at the half. We were up by as much as 25 in the 2nd half and never let Lamar make a run. We outshot the Cardinals 46% to 36% and made just 8 turnovers compared to 16 by Lamar. Leading our scoring was SG Pat Coursey with 23 points and he also had 4 assists, 6 rebounds, and 5 steals. Sf Donnell Tate added 16 points.

Chicago State—89, California Baptist—85: 12-3, 2-0, tied for 1st. After going ahead by 15, we had to hang on for dear life to come away with a scary, but nice road win. Holding a 30-25 rebounding advantage and 14-11 turnover advantage were the difference in the game since it gave us more opportunities than the Lancers…and we needed them. Jeremy Charles came off the bench to score 16 while SG Pat Coursey hit for 15 and C Jerrance Scott finished with 13 points.

Tarleton State—91, Chicago State—88 (OT): 12-4, 2-1, tied for 3rd. This game was razor close the entire 45 minutes. Tied 40-40 at the half. The 2nd half was 40-40 resulting in an 80-80 tie at the end of regulation. Tarleton State scored first in OT and then never relinquished a very slim lead to saddle us with our first conference loss. A tough road loss. SG Pat Coursey led our scoring with 23 points but Jeremy Charles scored 18 points in 16 minutes of play. C Jerrance Scott had a double-double with 10 points and 11 boards.

Chicago State—87, Stephen F. Austin—75: 13-4, 3-1, sole possession of 2nd place. The lead seesawed back and forth throughout the first half, but after 5 minutes of play in the 2nd half, our offense caught fire and we put the Lumberjacks as much as 22 points in our rearview mirror. But the difference really was that we had 45 rebounds to their 27. PG Aaron Sanchez scored 20 points with C Jerrance Scott finishing right behind him with 19 points.

Texas-Rio Grande—64, Chicago State—49: 13-5, 3-2, tied for 3rd. The Vaqueros had our number. They shut down our offense and totally dominated the boards. Just a very weak game for us. Our only player to score in double figures was PF Jonathan Davis with 10 points.

Chicago State—78, Dixie State—74. 14-5, 4-2, tied for 3rd. We controlled things in the first half but the Trailblazers came back and forged into the lead in the first 10 minutes of the 2nd half. We then slowly came back in the final 10 minutes and after getting ahead, gamely held on to come away with a victory. Both teams had 32 foul shots, but we made 27 of ours while Dixie State basically sucked at the line, sinking just 14. I believe all of their first names are the same…Shaquille. C Jerrance Scott scored 14 and grabbed 10 rebounds.

Chicago State—85, Abilene Christian—76. 15-5, 5-2, tied for 2nd. The first half was as close as the halftime score of 45-45. The game remained close early in the 2nd half but then we began to slowly pull away. We shot better and rebounded better than the Wildcats, but the real reason we won is that the refs called 30 fouls on Abilene Christian which meant we went to the line 17 more times and scored 21 more points on free throws. Abilene Christian’s players’ names are also Shaquille…they only hit 46% of their free throws. 6 of our players scored in double figures. SG Pat Coursey had 13 points, 5 assists, 5 rebounds, 2 blocks and 4 steals. PG Aaron Sanchez, SF Donnell Tate, and C Jason Phillips each scored 12 points. C Jerrance Scott recorded another double-double (11 points, 10 rebounds).

[PointGuard]

Conference Play—February 2023

Seattle—85, Chicago State—56: 15-6, 5-3, tied for 3rd. We travelled to Seattle to take on the 1st place Redhawks and simply got trounced. Outplayed in every aspect of the game. SG Pat Coursey had 14 points.

Chicago State—94, Sam Houston St.—66. 16-6, 6-3, tied for 2nd. We recovered from our previous beatdown by scoring first and scoring often. We led by 18 at the half and continued to bury the Bearkats in the 2nd half. SF Jonathan Davis led our scoring with 20 points.

Chicago State—85, Dixie State—82. 17-6, 7-3, tied for 2nd. The Cougars trailed most of the first half, but kept in contact with Dixie State and trailed by just 2 at the break. Chicago State them pulled ahead and held a lead throughout most of the 2nd half. Things got tight in the final 5 minutes but the Cougars were able to hold off the Trailblazers. C Jerrance Scott had 20 points and 7 boards while PG Aaron Sanchez scored 17 and dished out 7 assists.

Chicago State—80, New Mexico St.—70. 18-6, 8-3, tied for 1st. The lead switched back and forth the first 8 minutes but then we took control and led the rest of the way. SG Pat Coursey tossed in 20 points and had 6 rebounds and 3 assists. SF Donnell Tate scored 17 an had 7 boards.

Chicago State—70, Texas-Rio Grande—57. 19-6, 9-3, 1st. We never trailed after the first couple minutes of the game. E had just 7 turnovers while forcing the Vaqueros to make 17. SG Pat Coursey led our scoring with 19 points.

Grand Canyon—80, Chicago State—68. 19-7, 9-4, 2nd. We trailed by 6 at the end of the first half. But then rallied to get even early in the 2nd half. But we couldn’t stay up with the Antelopes. SF Donnell Tate scored 12 and 3 others added 10, but it wasn’t enough.

Sam Houston St.—71, Chicago State—66. 19-8, 9-5, 3rd. With the lead flip-flopping throughout most of the game, it seemed we might pull off a key win over the team that was just ½ game ahead of us going into the game. But the Bearkats grabbed a small lead with 6 minutes to go and held us off for our 2nd straight road loss. SF Donnell Tate had 17 points and 6 rebounds.

Chicago State-83, Utah Valley-62. 20-8, 10-5, 3rd. We trailed for the first 7 minutes but then moved ahead and expanded our lead to 29 points before letting the Wolverines trim our lead a little at the very end of the game. SG Pat Coursey dropped in 18 points and 4 other players scored 10 points apiece.