The Chicago State men's basketball team released their 2022-23 schedule today. The Cougars are slated to play 30 games starting November 7 against Northwestern at Welsh-Ryan Arena in Evanston and culminating March 1 at Gonzaga. CSU will open the home season November 14 against IUPUI as part of a men's/women's doubleheader with the Cougars women's basketball team hosting UIC the same day.
"I feel great about our schedule," head men's basketball coach
Gerald Gillion said. "I thought the idea of constructing an independent schedule would be challenging due to all of the unknowns, but I feel really good about getting a chance to play different levels of competition all throughout the year and I think it gives Chicago State a lot of exposure."
Chicago State will play several in-state schools in addition to opening the season at Northwestern, playing at Southern Illinois and Illinois State while hosting East-West University, Aurora and Saint Xavier.
"I'm excited about all of the games within the state of Illinois because there is a lot of high school talent in the state and I want to introduce our team to recruits to start to keep that talent in state. Those games are big, including the non-Division I games because it will continue to help build our brand within the city and state."
The schedule also features several games against Power 5 schools. Including the season opener at Northwestern, Chicago State will play at Marquette, Minnesota, Stanford and Gonzaga.
"We're also playing some Power 5's," Gillion said. "It will be great for the exposure and the experience for our guys and it will be great to put them in that atmosphere. Playing Gonzaga in the finale, as a program, that's where we're trying to get and seeing that firsthand will be an invaluable experience for our student-athletes."
The complete schedule is listed
HERE. Dates and times are subject to change
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 transitioningm 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.
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