Which Team had the Most Impressive Week? – Bryan Mauro (@threecolorbeard)
The first week has been impressive for a lot of teams. Gonzaga solidified that they are the number one team in the country right now. Wagner out of the NEC looks to be a very formidable opponent for everyone they play and then there is the UC San Diego Tritons who are in their second year of Division 1 basketball and have secured two huge victories to start the season. All of those were impressive but not as impressive as the Chicago State Cougars.
Chicago State is one of the historically worst programs in college basketball they struggle to win any games, have zero budget, have a terrible time recruiting, and are overmatched nearly every night. The Cougars out of WAC have started the season 2-0 winning games over the new D1 team the St. Thomas Tommies and the Southern Illinois Edwardsville Cougars.
Normally these are games that Chicago State would have lost and would have lost big, but they are playing with a newfound sense of optimism under first-year head coach Gerald Gillion. Gillion makes his way to Chicago after serving as an assistant at Samford.
Chicago State had never started off 2-0 in their history in Division 1. I’m not saying that Chicago State is going to win the WAC or even finish higher than last, but they are all feeling good on that campus and it should be recognized how hard those players have worked to get to 2-0 and even if they don’t win another game this season they have had a great first week of the 2021-2022 season.