The Chicago State men's basketball team has been selected to compete in the Ro College Basketball Invitational (Ro CBI) post-season tournament and will face No 2 seed UC San Diego on Saturday, March 23 at 2:30 p.m. CT. The 15-team field tips off Saturday, March 23 with first round games Saturday and Sunday, March 24. Quarterfinal games will be played Monday, March 25, semifinals on Tuesday, March 26 and the championship game on Wednesday, March 27. Chicago State is the No. 15 seed. No. 1 seed High Point is the only team with an opening-round bye. All games will be played at the Ocean Center in Daytona Beach, Florida. First round and quarterfinal matchups will be streamed on FloHoops while the semifinals and championship will be aired on ESPN2.
The Cougars finished the season with 12 wins, the most since 2013-14 and will participate in a postseason tournament for the first time since the 2012-13 season when CSU claimed the Great West Conference men's basketball tournament as a No. 3 seed and received the conference's automatic bid to the collegeinsider.com Postseason Tournament.
The Cougars made headlines during the regular season with a 75-73 upset win over Northwestern in Evanston. The Wildcats, who finished the Big Ten season as the No. 4 seed, had just entered the Associated Press poll at No. 25 and poised to win its first home game as a ranked team since 1959. Adding to the accomplishment was the fact Chicago State entered the game 0-15 all-time against Northwestern, 0-64 against members of the Big Ten and 0-39 against ranked opponents. The game was played 12 days after Northwestern upset No. 1 Purdue on the same court and averaged over 90 points per game in the three games leading up to the game versus the Cougars.
The Cougars, playing as the lone independent in the nation during the 2023-24 season, played five games against teams which qualified for the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament and posted a 3-2 record with a pair of wins over Stetson, the upset win over then No. 25 Northwestern and losses at Wisconsin and Duquesne.
Previous champions of the Ro CBI include Charlotte (2023), UNCW (2022), Pepperdine (2021) and South Florida (2019). The Bulls defeated DePaul in a best 2-of-3 finals series and the tournament shifted to the traditional championship game the following year.
The complete bracket is listed below.
Ro College Basketball Invitational
March 23-27
Daytona Beach, Florida
Ocean Center
First Round
March 24, 10a - (8) Northern Colorado vs. (9) Cleveland State
March 23, 12p - (4) Arkansas State vs. (13) Bethune-Cookman
March 24, 12p - (5) Montana vs. (12) Presbyterian
March 23, 2:30p - (2) UC San Diego vs. (15) Chicago State
March 24, 2:30p - (7) Fairfield vs. (10) Little Rock
March 23, 4:30p - (3) Seattle vs. (14) Delaware State
March 24, 4:30p - (6) Quinnipiac vs. (11) Evansville
Quarterfinals
March 25, 11a - (1) High Point vs. (8)/(9) winner
March 25, 1p - (4)/(13) winner vs. (5)/(12) winner
March 25, 3:30p - (2)/(15) winner vs. (7)/(10) winner
March 25, 5:30p - (3)/(14) winner vs. (6)/(11) winner
Semifinals
March 26, 6p - ESPN2
March 26, 8p - ESPN2
Championship
March 27, 4p - ESPN2
All times Central Time
First Round and Quarterfinals streamed on FloHoops
About Chicago State Athletics
Chicago State University competes in the Northeast Conference (effective July 2024) and sponsors 16 Division I intercollegiate athletics teams involving over 150 student-athletes that compete in basketball, cross country, golf, soccer, tennis, indoor and outdoor track, triathlon and volleyball.
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