Conference Play—March 2023

Chicago State—90, Abilene Christian—67. 21-8, 11-5, Three-way tie for 1st place. Much like the last game we took a lead 8 minutes into the first half and the ran away with the game. C Jerrance Scott poured in 20 points. PG Aaron Sanchez had a double-double (14 points and 10 assists).

Western Athletic Conference Final Standings

Chicago State: 11-5, 21-8; NET Ranking-29
Sam Houston St.: 11-5, 16-13; NET Ranking-107
Seattle: 11-5, 21-8; NET Ranking-39
Texas-Rio Grande: 10-6, 16-13; NET Ranking-142
Utah Valley: 9-7, 18-11; NET Ranking-112
Dixie State: 9-7, 17-12; NET Ranking-130
Stephen F Austin: 8-8, 15-14; NET Ranking-118
Grand Canyon: 8-8, 10-19; NET Ranking-281
Lamar: 7-9, 13-16; NET Ranking-247
Abilene Christian: 6-10, 13-16; NET Ranking-217
California Baptist: 6-10, 12-17; NET Ranking-254
New Mexico St.: 4-12, 8-21; NET Ranking-317
Tarleton St.: 4-12, 7-22; NET Ranking-351

Western Athletic Conference Tournament

Day 1

Stephen F Austin—75, Abilene Christian—66

Lamar—76, Grand Canyon—66

Day 2

Lamar—80, Chicago State—68. We led the entire way until Lamar tied us with 9 minutes to go. We then just let the game slip away from us. We gave up 51 points in the 2nd half. Sickening loss. Our top scorer was SF Donnell Tate with 12 points.

Stephen F Austin—84, Sam Houston St.—66

Dixie St.—84, Seattle—76

Texas-Rio Grande—68, Utah Valley—42

Day 3

Lamar—70, Texas-Rio Grande—68

Stephen F Austin—75, Dixie St.—65

Day 4 (Championship)

Lamar—63, Stephen F Austin—54 (9th seed beat the 7th seed for the championship)

Team and Player Stats for Chicago State

Chicago State-78.0 ppg; Opponents-73.6 ppg

PPG: Cousey-14.0; Scott-10.6; Tate-8.5, Sanchez-8.2; Charles-8.1, Davis-7.7; Phillips-6.8; Asbury-5.5; Culuko-3.2; Price-2.0; Davis-1.6; Mohr-1.6; Nelson-1.4; Burns-0.9

RPG: Scott-6.2; Davis-5.4; Phillips-4.5; Tate-4.3; Coursey-3.8; Asbury-2.8; Sanche=2.4; Charles-1.9; Culuko-1.5; Mohr-1.0; Nelson-0.9; Burns-0.7; Price-0.6; Davis-0.1

APG: Sanchez-4.4; Coursey-2.3; Charles-2.3; Scott-1.7; Davis-1.6; Phllips-1.4; Tate-1.4; Asbury-1.2; Nelson-0.7; Davis-0.6; Price-0.5; Mohr-0.3; Burns-0.3; Culuko-0.2

SELECTION SHOW

After losing the first game we played to be bounced unceremoniously from the WAC tourney, we were surprised to be selected to for a play-in game against Louisiana Tech for a 12th seed in the South Region!

That night it was party-hearty for the entire team. I think there will be some guys hurting when we have them back on the court tomorrow preparing for Louisiana Tech.

NCAA Tournament:

Play-in Game for the #12 seed in South Region:

Chicago State—106, Louisiana Tech—105 (OT). We took a 9 point lead midway through the first half but the score was tied at 41-41 at the end of the half. We forged a 12 point lead with 9 minutes to play but the Bulldogs again came back to tie us at the end of regulation 97-97. The lead went back and forth in OT. But, trailing by a single point, we hit a baseline jumper with 6 seconds left that gave us the win when we kept Louisiana Tech from getting off a clear shot. Our top scorer was SG John Price who came off the bench to score 17 points. C Jerrance Scott scored 14 and grabbed 11 rebounds for a double-double. Our bench was responsible for 65 of our 106 points.

While it was great to win, there was bad news as well. SG Pat Coursey broke his ankle 5 minutes into the game. Losing our top scorer as we go into the first round of the NCAA Tournament blows.

Round 1, South Region:

#5 seed, #17 ranked Wisconsin—73, #12 seed Chicago State-59. Wisconsin jumped out ahead of us very early in the game and held a double-digit lead almost all the way. We didn’t play badly but just were outclassed. PG Aaron Sanchez led our scoring with 12 points.

Hell of a game!
Oh, check this out: "...broke his 5 minutes into the game..." Sounds mysteriously painful!

Curious to see how this works out!

Wayne23 wrote:Hell of a game!
Oh, check this out: "...broke his 5 minutes into the game..." Sounds mysteriously painful!

HA! Good to have a proof-reader.

Mystery solved. I edited it.

Awards

Pat Coursey was named to the WAC All-Conference 2nd Team.

C Jerrance Scott was named to the WAC All-Conference 2nd Team.

Recruits who will be coming to Chicago State:

C Devin Cage, 6-9 from Chicago, IL; 17.2 ppg, 2.4 apg, 7.7 rpg as a H.S. senior.

SF Brandon Dixon, 6-7 from Chicago, IL; 17.4 ppg, 1.4 apg, 3.3 rpg as a H.S. senior.

PG Tony McDermott, 6-2 from Metropolis, IL; 11.8 ppg, 5.0 apg, 4.4 rpg as a H.S. senior.

2023-2024 SEASON

Recruit Class Ranking

Even though we filled all 3 available scholarships, our recruits weren’t ranked high. So our recruit class was ranked as the 220th best in the country.

Players Transferring

Two of our players decided to transfer elsewhere. It wasn’t surprising since neither of them played much last season and had competition at their positions that would likely keep them from playing a great deal this coming season either. We lost two forwards: Dan Mohr and Earl Burns.

That meant we would be busy during the transfer season in order to try to fill the two scholarships their departure made available. Reviewing our roster, we decided to focus on gaining a new SG and SF, but if the right player at those positions would either be unavailable or we be signed, w were going to try for a good interior player or pick the best available player(s).

We contacted a lot of transfer players, made some scholarship offers that weren’t accepted, but midway through the transfer season we landed two new players:

PF Vince Madsen, 6’6” sophomore, transferred from Western Carolina where, as a freshman, he averaged 14.8 ppg and 6.4 rpg and was the Southern Conference’s Freshman of the Year, Player of the Year, and All-Conference 1st Team.

SG Livan Forney, 6’4” sophomore, transferred from Florida Atlantic where in his freshman season he averaged 12.4 ppg, 2.5 apg and 2.5 rpg and was the Conference-USA Freshman of the Year.

These 2 players will play key roles and greatly strengthen our team as well as bolstering our depth.