Marquette Madness has come and gone. The season is so close, we can taste it. Marquette fans know who we will battle but might not know anything about our future opponents. To remedy this, Paint Touches is taking an in depth look at each of Marquette’s opponents, both conference and non-conference, to see what we have to look forward to. These will be released in order of what Paint Touches believes to be the easiest matchups to the toughest. The creamiest of cupcakes all the way to the most unbeatable of opponents. Next on the list is a non-conference opponent who is one of the closest to Marquette in terms of distance, but one of the furthest from in talent, Chicago State.
Opponent: Chicago State
Mascot: Cougars
Conference: WAC
14-15 Record: 8-24 (4-10)
14-15 RPI: 333
14-15 KenPom: 333
Coach: Tracy Didly (5th season)
Date: 12/22/15
Location: BMO Harris Bradley Center
Departures from 14-15:
Anthony Glover: Starting PG: 21.2 mpg, 6.8 ppg, 1.4 rpg, 1.2 apg, 0.8 spg, 0.1 bpg, 1.3 tpg, .336 3P%
Sean Hill: Starting SG: 24.9 mpg, 8.2 ppg, 2.1 rpg, 2.1 apg, 1.1 spg, 0.1 bpg, 2.0 tpg, .280 3P%
Clarke Rosenberg: Starting PF: 28.3 mpg, 12.6 ppg, 3.9 rpg, 2.0 apg, 1.2 sp, 0.4 bpg, 2.4 tpg, .309 3P%
Joshua Meier: Starting C: 20.7 mpg, 5.0 ppg, 4.0 rpg, 0.6 apg, 0.6 spg, 0.5 bpg, 1.9 tpg, 1.00 3P% (1-1)
Johnny Griffin: 1st off bench: 18.5 mpg, 3.6 ppg, 3.9 rpg, 0.3 apg, 1.1 spg, 0.7 bpg, 0.6 tpg, .077 3P%
Kurt Karis: 3rd off bench: 14.0 mpg, 1.6 ppg, 2.1 rpg, 1.5 apg, 0.6 spg, 0.0 bpg, 1.0 pg, .000 3P%
Aaron Williams: 8th off bench: 10.4 mpg, 1.8 ppg, 1.8 rpg, 0.1 apg, 0.5 spg, 0.2 bpg, 0.7 tpg, .048 3P%
Jesse Tesmer: 9th off bench: 8.5 mpg, 0.9 ppg, 0.7 rpg, 0.0 apg, 0.2 spg, 0.1 bpg, 0.4 tpg, .000 3P%
Rahjan Muhammad: Benchwarmer: 7.4 mpg, 3.4 ppg, 1.2 rpg, 0.2 apg, 0.8 spg, 0.0 bpg, 0.8 tpg, .267 3P% (Only appeared in 12 games)
Michael Johnson: Benchwarmer: 4.8 mpg, 0.3 ppg, 1.8 rpg, 0.3 apg, 0.1 spg, 0.1 bpg, 0.1 tpg, .000 3P% (Only appeared 12 games)
Elijah Robertson: Benchwarmer: 3.0 mpg, 0.7 ppg, 0.3 rpg 0.1 apg, 0,0 spg, 0.1 bpg, 0.2 tpg, .000 3P% (Only appeared in 9 games)
Sharieff Medlock: Benchwarmer: 2.3 mpg, 0.8 ppg, 0.3 rpg, 0.0 apg, 0.5 spg, 0.0 bpg, 0.0 tpg, 1.00 3P% (Only appeared in 4 games)
64% of Scoring, 57% of Rebounding, 73% of Assists, 66% of Steals, 67% of Blocks, 55% of 3PM
Arrivals:
Clemmye Owens: SG midseason transfer from Bethune Cookman
Elliot Cole: JUCO PG, unranked
Jordan Madrid-Andrews: JUCO SF, unranked
Marcelo Reudiger: C transfer from Monmouth
Anthony Eaves: 2 star PG, unranked
Delundre Dixon: 2 star SG, unranked
Probable Starters:
PG: Elliot Cole: 5-11 170 JR: 31.2 mpg, 17.4 ppg, 2.7 rpg, 1.8 apg, 1.3 spg, 0.2 bpg, 2.5 tpg, .372 3P% (for Gulf Coast State College)
SG: Clemmye Owens: 6-2 185 JR: 32.9 mpg, 15.3 ppg, 1.8 rpg, 1.3 apg, 1.1 spg, 0.0 bpg, 1.8 tpg, .316 3P% (for Bethune-Cookman)
SF: Trayvon Palmer: 6-4 185 JR: 24.5 mpg, 7.7 ppg, 4.8 rpg, 0.7 apg, 0.8 spg, 0.6 bpg, 1.8 tpg, .411 3P%
PF: Jared Dimakos: 6-5 205 RSSR: 18.0 mpg, 6.1 ppg, 3.1 rpg, 0.6 apg, 0.6 spg, 0.0 bpg, 1.6 tpg, .362 3P%
C: Quron Davis: 6-10 235 JR: 11.7 mpg, 2.6 pg, 2.6 rpg, 0.2 apg, 0.3 spg, 0.4 bpg, 0.9 tpg, .000 3P%
Probable Bench:
Jawad Adekoya: 6-6 190 SR SF
Jordan Madrid-Andrews: 6-8 240 JR SF
Marcelo Reudiger: 6-10 245 JR C
Anthony Eaves: 6-1 152 FR PG
Probable Benchwarmers:
Delundre Dixon: 6-3 180 FR SG
Montana Byrd: 6-4 215 SO SG
Joshua Baston: 6-0 175 RSSR PG
Quick and Dirty Analysis: There’s no way around it. Chicago State is a very bad team that is only going to get worse. After finishing in the basement of the WAC and south of 330 mark in both RPI and KenPom, the Cougars lost six players to transfer, including two starters. Add in the five players who exhausted their eligibility and you have team that lost 11 players and 55% or more of their production in every major statistical category. 5th year coach Tracy Didly has only had limited success finding players to replace all those departures. Though he did gain some recruiting headlines when 5 star prospect Caleb Swanigan listed Chicago State in his top 5. Unfortunately for Didly, his personal connection to Swanigan’s family was not enough as Swanigan took his talents to Purdue instead. Didly did manage to land Elliot Cole, an undersized JUCO PG who put up very good numbers for a solid (by NJCAA standards) Gulf Coast State team. This will also be one of the first games (if not the first game) that midseason transfer Clemmye Owens will be eligible. The Ohio native decided to return to the Midwest from sunny Daytona Beach after playing a semester at Bethune Cookman, where he put up very respectable numbers.
Despite the solid additions of Cole and Owens, Chicago State will take a step back this year. They simply lose too much production to even match their terrible record from last season. The Cougars top four players are all guards and will probably run a four guard offense for much of the game. This means we will see 6”10 Henry Ellenson posting up on 6”5 former walk on Jared Dimakos. Chicago State does feature several good three point shooters, so there may be some frustrating moments. But the sheer size and skill of Marquette’s players should allow them to control the game from the opening bell.
Early Prediction: This game should be a very sizable victory for Marquette. I would expect a 20-25 point victory with it never being very close.
Paint Touches 