Get To Know A Marquette Basketball Opponent: Chicago State

Name: Chicago State University

Location: Chicago, Illinois

Somehow That Was Disappointing: Right? I was somehow expecting CSU to actually be in Oak Lawn, or something.

Founded: 1867

Woah, That Was A While Ago.  When Was Chicago Founded? Incorporated as a town in 1833, city status followed in 1837.

I'm Guessing It Wasn't CSU Right After The Civil War Ended: You would be correct.  CSU was founded as Cook County Normal School.

San Jose State Was A "Normal" School, Too.  What's Up With That? All that means is that it's a school designed explicitly to train high school graduates to become teachers.  The terminology comes from the French concept of école normale, which provides teachers with a model school with model classrooms for the teaching students to get a handle on what they're doing.  While the primary goal was to instruct and train new teachers, it was a fully functional school for the children who were enrolled in the "model" classrooms.

Enrollment: 7,131 (4,531 undergrad, 2,304 graduate)

Nickname: Cougars

Why "Cougars?" Why not?  Seriously, though, I can't find anything that explains the nickname history.  I did find this, even though it's from the Utah-BYU bowl game in Las Vegas:

HOLY WAR pic.twitter.com/Lmn7wxlsda

— Matt Brown (@MattSBN) December 19, 2015

Notable Alumni: Dennis DeYoung, John Panozzo, Chuck Panozzo, and John Curulewski, collectively known as the band Styx.

Last Season: 5-24 against Division 1 teams.  8-24 overall.

Uh Oh.  How's This Season Going? You were right to be afraid.  They're 4-9, but just 1-9 against D1 teams.

UGH. Who'd They Beat? Western Illinois.

WAIT. *nods*

*THAT* Western Ilinois? The one that beat Wisconsin at the Kohl Center?  YUP.  The Cougars got the 77-70 win at home over the Leathernecks.

So, By The Transitive Property... Chicago State is better than Wisconsin, sure thing.

Current KenPom Ranking: #334

KenPom Projection: 8-23, with a 4-10 record in the WAC.

The WAC Makes No Sense: Chicago State has to make road trips to Seattle, Cal State Bakersfield, New Mexico State, and Grand Canyon. How is this a smart thing for them financially?  Or for any of those schools to travel to Chicago?  This schedule is actually an argument for Gonzaga to be in the Big East.

Stats Leaders:

Points: Clemmye Owens V, 15.0 ppg
Rebounds: Trayvon Palmer, 8.1 rpg
Assists: Clemmye Owens V, 4.5 apg

A Slight Note About The Stats: Clemmye Owens V has only played in CSU's last two contests.  Owens spent a semester at Bethune Cookman before transferring to Chicago State, so he only became eligible just now.  For what it's worth, Owens was Bethune Cookman's leading scorer when he left.  Given that he transferred halfway through his sophomore year, I'm not entirely sure why Chicago State is listing him as a redshirt sophomore.

Head Coach: Tracy Dildy, in his sixth season as a head coach.  He's never finished over .500 with the Cougars, and has never won more than 13 games in a season.  Dildy has a career record of 46-126.

Say, Speaking Of Head Coaches: If you have a note in the back of your head about CSU and ties to Marquette, you'd be right.  After serving as a Marquette assistant for 10 years, Bo Ellis was head coach at Chicago State from 1998-2003.  Things didn't go very well for Bo, as he finished his head coaching career with a record of 23-105.

All Time Series: Marquette is 6-0 all time against the Cougars.  MU has never won by fewer than 19 and the Golden Eagles have broken 100 in each of the last two matchups.  The most recent game was in November of 2008, as Marquette won 106-87.