Non-Conference Preview: Chicago State

We are counting down the days to the start of the college basketball season.

If you’re reading this on the day is was published, we have 47 days to the official start of College Basketball, and 36 days until we can see the team in action against K-State (presuming it’s televised).

The Full Non-Conference Schedule:

• October 23rd — at Kansas State (exhibition)
• October 29th — at UNLV (exhibition)
• November 3rd — vs Cleveland State
• November 6th — vs Saint Louis (in St. Louis)
• November 9th — vs SIU-Edwardsville
• November 15th — vs Marquette (in Chicago)
• November 18th — vs Alcorn State
• November 20th — vs Le Moyne
• November 24th — vs Evansville
• November 27th — vs Arkansas Pine Bluff
• December 1st — vs Pittsburgh (ACC-SEC Challenge)
• December 6th — vs Kansas (in Kansas City)
• December 12th — vs Nebraska (in Kansas City)
• December 18th — at Indiana
• December 20th — vs Illinois (in St. Louis)
• December 22nd — vs Chicago State

After the last few years of a poor lineup of Q4 games in the non-conference schedule, Missouri pulled a 180 and have schedule as well as anyone in the country. On top of playing Illinois and Kansas as previously scheduled, the Tigers are playing neutral court matchups against SLU, Marquette, Nebraska, and a road game at Indiana. There’s no question Dennis Gates stepped it up.

Let’s Meet: the Chicago State Cougars

Does anyone know where Chicago State is located? I’ve never heard of the state of Chicago. *rim shot*

Formerly Cook County Normal School, the Chicago Normal School, the Chicago Teachers College, and then Chicago State College, the now University has been around in some form since 1867. For those who don’t know, the “Normal School” thing is mostly about teaching. Instead of an explanation, I’ll link to this.

In the early 1970s, the school moved from its Blue Island location to where it’s located now off 94 on the southside of Chicago.

The Cougars didn’t begin playing basketball until 1966 when they joined up as an NAIA school. In the mid 1980s they made the jump to DI basketball. While they haven’t yet played in an NCAA Tournament, the program hasn’t been devoid of success at the D1 level. In their second season they went 22-6, but they’ve moved from conference to conference, searching for a home.

They’re now in the Northeast Conference, with teams like Le Moyne, Long Island University, and Wagner.

Head Coach | Landon Bussie | 2nd Season 7-25

We mentioned Landon Bussie in the Alcorn State preview. He was pretty good at Alcorn, winning the league twice, but not advancing to the NCAA Tournament. But after finishing 6th in year five, Bussie decided to take a chance and make the move to Chicago State.

He doesn’t have a ton of experience, he was an assistant at his alma mater, Xavier University in Louisiana. Then he went to Prairie View A&M where he was an assistant coach for the women’s team, then the men’s team. Then he took the head coaching job at Alcorn State.

So he’s young. He’s been a head coach since he was 32. He’s at a really tough job, but he’s shown he can win in tough places before.

Series History | Mizzou leads 5-0

The Torrence Watson game. How many of you remember it? On December 30th, 2019, a rough non-conference season for the Missouri Tigers was coming to a close in a nearly empty gymnasium against Chicago State. The Tigers raced out to a lead of 20-5 and never looked back. The threes were falling at a rapid pace, and the makes were led by sophomore Torrence Watson.

Watson canned his first three to put Missouri up 40-14, and would hit another right before the halftime buzzer to go up 45-14. In the second half, Watson would go on to set a building record by making six more threes.

The 1997 team beat Chicago State by 30 points in the season opener, and the 1996 team won by 72 points. They also played in 1995, and Mizzou again won by a lot, this time 34 points.

Then there was the first ever meeting between the two teams, a 1988 win in mid January by 28 points.

What about the team now?

It looks like Bussie has added 13 transfers to the roster in an attempt to turn their fortunes around.

At guard they’ve got Amari Carraway, a former JUCO point guard who spent time last season at Charleston Southern. He started 17 games and averaged 6.7 points per game. There’s Jaylen Pazon, a 6’5 junior combo guard who averaged 6.7 points last season at Southern. Chicago native and Cal State Bakersfield sophomore Mike Price will challenge for a starting spot after averaging 6.5 points in 31 games.

Wing Kameron Fornan transferred from Alcorn State to D2 Benedict College in South Carolina, where he averaged 10 points a game. There’s also former James Madison and Northern Illinois wing Will Lovings-Watts, who averaged 15 points a game at Union (D2) last season. And to round out the wings is Foday Sheriff, a terrific name, but Sheriff has bounced around as well, playing last season at William Penn where he scored 16 points per game.

Davius Loury started 22 of 33 games for Cal State Northridge, but he only averaged 4.9 points in 16.9 minutes. He and Marcel Bryant, an Alcorn State transfer, will likely battle it out at the 4 spot.

Ben Kalonji is the only real addition with any size. Which means Missouri should be able to clean up the glass.

Early BartTorvik.com projections has the Cougars 350th out of 365 teams. This game shouldn’t be close, but a good chance for everyone to get some exercise before conference play.