Cougars WBB at Central Michigan Sunday
The Chicago State women's basketball team will begin the new calendar year with a trip to Mount Pleasant, Michigan, on Sunday, January 1 to play Central Michigan at noon at McGuirk Arena. The Chippewas are 1-9 overall with the lone win coming at home (66-65 vs. North Dakota State). The Cougars and Chippewas have played six times previously with Central Michigan holding a 5-1 advantage in the series dating back to their first matchup in 1990, an 82-53 Chippewas win. The lone Chicago State victory came during the 2006-07 season, a 78-64 Cougars win in Chicago.
Home Stretch
As the rest of college basketball is just starting to get into their conference schedules, the Cougars 2022-23 season is winding down. Playing an independent schedule, Chicago State has just nine games remaining on the 2022-23 schedule which includes four road games and five at home. The Cougars will play back-to-back road games to open the new calendar year, at Central Michigan and Norfolk State, before a two-hiatus and a pair of home games, versus Olivet College (Jan. 17) and St. Francis (Jan. 25). Chicago State will then face the only other Division I independent program, Hartford, four times, playing on back-to-back days (Jan. 28-29) at Hartford then returning the favor, hosting Hartford January 25-26 to wrap up the 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 where to watch and follow:
| Chicago State Cougars at Central Michigan Chippewas |
| Date | Time |
Sunday, January 1 | 12 p.m. |
| Location |
McGuirk Arena | Mount Pleasant, Michigan |
| Watch |
ESPN+ |
| Live Stats |
Live Stats |
| Game Notes |
Chicago State Game Notes |
|
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
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