Chicago State Preview

 The Falcon MBB team is back at it after a long break for finals.  MAC play starts Saturday, there's another scheduled blow-out on Monday, and then it will be MAC play from there on in, save the MAC-SBC game.

After our last two home D1 games being poor efforts, the Falcons are certainly looking to get well against Chicago State.

Chicago State is one of the more troubled programs in the Midwest.  Their last winning season was 2009. They have single-digit wins in 13 out of the last 17 seasons.  They are 6-37 over their last two seasons

They have bounced around in conferences, but are now in the Northeast Conference, the #30 (out of 31) conference and probably a good placement for them, except for the bus time. 

This is the 5th time we have played the Cougars. The series actually started in 1970.  BG has won all the previous games, never closer than 18.  Todd Simon's first game was against Chicago State...the Bewley twins were ineligible...and BG won by 29.

So, Chicago State was 1-9 heading into Sunday's game @Loyola. The win was over a non-D1 opponent.  And then the Cougs went in and beat the Ramblers, handily, by 9.  (Loyola is in utter collapse.  Predicted to be pretty good, they are 3-8, with losses to NIU, Mercyhurst and Chicago State, among others.)

Anyway.  The pre-season NEC poll had the Cougars 6th, Blue Ribbon 8th.

They started the year #362 and they are up to #349 now.  There are 365 teams.

Their coach is in his first year, but was successful at Alcorn State. 

I'm not going to go into the usual stats breakdown, because their stats are mostly terrible, as you would expect. They are a physical, crash-the-offensive-boards team. They make 79% of their free throws which is #13 in the NCAA. They shoot 3FGs at the 8th lowest rate in the country.

They do force turnovers on defense. 

Their leading scorer is Marcus Tankersley at 15.2 PPG.  He started at Detroit, went to Alcorn and then moved to Chicago State with the coach. He's shooting 46% from 2FG.

Next is Doyel Cockrill. He's scoring 14.6.  He's by far their best 3FG shooter, making 47%.  He transferred from Fisk.

Last is CJ Ray, scoring 10.8 PPG on 45% and 33% shooting.  Has only missed one FT all season.  He transferred from Southern Arkansas and had 19 vs. Loyola.

BG is a 10 or 11 point favorite.