Cougars Return Home to Host East-West University
Chicago State's men's basketball team will return home to the Jones Convocation Center for the first time since December 4 to host East-West University on Monday, January 9 at 7 p.m. This will be just the fourth home game of the season for the Cougars who just completed a seven-game road trip.
It will be Fan Appreciation Day against East-West and fans are encouraged to wear black to "black out" the JCC. The first 75 fans in attendance will receive a voucher good for popcorn at the concession stand.
Cougars Win Back-to-Back Home Games to Open the Season for the Second Consecutive Season
With victories over IUPUI, Valparaiso and Southern Indiana, Chicago State has opened the home schedule with three consecutive victories for the second season in a row, an accomplishment the Cougars previously hadn't accomplished since the 2018-19 season, when CSU won consecutive home games against East-West, Eastern Illinois and Trinity Christian. With a win over East-West Monday, the Cougars would achieve a four-game home win streak for the first time since the 2013-14 season when CSU won five straight at home between Nov. 9 and Dec. 16.
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.
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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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