Cougars Return Home Following Five Games on the Road
The Chicago State men's basketball team will wrap up a busy week with their first home game in five games, hosting Southern Indiana on Sunday, December 4 at 2 p.m. at the JCC. Santa will be making an appearance at the game which will feature a teddy bear toss at halftime where collected toys will be donated to area youth.
The Cougars and Screaming Eagles have never faced each other on the hardwood as USI recently transitioned from NCAA Division II to Division I and are currently a member of the Ohio Valley Conference and will not be eligible to compete in the NCAA Tournament or the NIT until the 2026-27 season. This is their first year competing at the Division I level.
Cougars Win Back-to-Back Home Games to Open the Season for the Second Consecutive Season
With the 87-74 home win over Valparaiso Wednesday night, the Cougars opened the home schedule with two consecutive victories for the second season in a row and a third would match last season's three-game home win streak, something which hadn't occurred since the 2018-19 season. CSU did match last year's two-game win streak over Division I opponents, something which previously had not happened since the 2014-15 season.
Independent Status
Chicago State and Hartford are the only two Division I programs playing an independent schedule during the  2022–23 season. CSU left the Western Athletic Conference following the 2021–22 season while Hartford began a transition to Division III in the 2021–22 school year, and left the America East Conference in July 2022. Hartford has announced it will join the D-III Commonwealth Coast Conference in July 2023.
Before 2022, the last D-I independent school had been NJIT, which was forced to go independent when its then-current home of the Great West Conference collapsed in 2013 due to conference realignment. NJIT would eventually find a home in the ASUN Conference in 2015, and is now in the America East.
Here's how to watch, follow and attend:
| Chicago State Cougars vs. Southern Indiana Screaming Eagles |
| Date | Time |
Sunday, December 4 | 2 p.m. |
| Location |
Jones Convocation Center | Chicago, Illinois |
| Live Stream |
FloHoops |
| Tickets |
Tickets |
| Live Stats |
Live Stats |
| Game Notes |
Chicago State Game Notes |
|
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About Chicago State
Chicago State University Athletics is comprised of 15 intercollegiate teams involving over 150 student-athletes that compete in basketball, cross country, golf, soccer, tennis, indoor and outdoor track and volleyball. CSU held memberships in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) and NCAA Division II before transitioning to NCAA Division I in 1994. Melvin Bland was the first CSU student-athlete to gain NAIA All-American status in 1974 as a wrestler. Fred Evans became the first black swimmer ever to win a national championship in 1975. In 1991, the Chicago State women's tennis team became the first all-black college team to amass an unbeaten season at the NCAA level. CSU's women's basketball team earned a spot in the 2011 Women's Basketball Invitational and CSU's men's basketball team won the 2013 Great West Conference Tournament title, also making an appearance in the CollegeInside.com Postseason Tournament (CIT). The Men's Outdoor Track & Field 4x100-Meter Relay team were 2019 Honorable Mention All-Americans and WAC Champions. Their feat marked the first time the Chicago State's men's track & field program was represented at the national meet. Chicago State volleyball recorded a historic season in 2021, with Yanlis Feliz becoming CSU's first volleyball All-American and head coach Tony Trifonov earning selection as WAC Coach of the Year. During that same season, three different CSU teams earned victories over Big Ten opponents with men's soccer beating Northwestern, women's basketball upending Wisconsin and volleyball, which established a school record 17 wins and hosted a post-season volleyball tournament for the first time in program history, swept Indiana in Bloomington.
Follow the Cougars
For complete coverage of Chicago State University athletics, follow us on social media @ChiStateCougars (Twitter), @ChiStateCougars (Instagram), /ChiStateCougars (Facebook), or visit the official home of Chicago State athletics at GoCSUCougars.com.
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