California Baptist Lancers 95 at Chicago State Cougars 53 (NCAA Basketball, WAC)

With the NCAA basketball season swiftly coming to a close, I wanted to visit a few more venues to get my total college hoops count into triple digits (it was 98 when the weekend started). For these short trips, I prefer a minimum of three games to make it worthwhile, which means that they have to be reasonably close to each other. With 303 venues still to choose from, it is still relatively easy to find such a cluster of contests. I spent a few minutes with the schedule and quickly discovered that Chicago had four schools at home this past weekend. Flights from New York were cheap enough to make this a worthwhile venture, and off I went.

Three of the four games were on Saturday, with start times that allowed for a true tripleheader (three games from tip-off to finish in three different venues) with the first a 12:05 tip at Chicago State. My flight from LaGuardia arrived at O'Hare 45 minutes early, landing at 9:15, and I took the Blue Line to the Loop and then the Red Line to the southern terminal 95th/Dan Ryan, from where the gym is about a 15-minute walk. The neighbourhood is not the safest and I would think twice about walking here at night, but early in the day, there were few on the street. Along the way there is a Burger King and a Checkers, one of which is worth a pregame stop as there are limited choices at the venue. I chose Checkers and was greeted by a rather bemused cashier, who probably isn't used to seeing pasty white dudes at 11 am.

I reached the front of the Jones Convocation Center at 11:15, more than enough time to tour this somewhat barren facility. From the outside, it looks rather nice. Opened in 2007, its full name is Emil and Patricia A. Jones Convocation Center, abbreviated as JCC. Emil Jones Jr. was the Illinois Senate President in 2003 and allocated $38 million from the state treasury to fund the construction of the building. That sounds awfully suspicious to me, but then again, Illinois politics is always suspicious. There is a dedication to the couple just inside the main entrance; Patricia, who passed away in 2001, was a graduate of the school.

I was there quite early and found the place nearly deserted. There was a single ticket-seller who called me over, worried that I might sneak in without paying. Nonsense, I wanted the stub from this historic visit. Tickets, which should be free given the sorry state of the team, were $10. As you could expect for a game featuring a 0-12 team hosting one that is 7-4, there was not a lot of demand. Not that there ever seems to be; for the first game ever here, attendance was around 400.

The interior design is quite interesting, with two rounded stairways that take you from the lobby to the main concourse. At one end, behind the ticket window, is the Chicago Public League Hall of Fame. You cannot go in this way because those green doors lead to the stairway, even though they are locked.

Enter via the same doors on the other side of the lobby (where your ticket will be scanned), walk up one level, walk back to this side, walk down, and you will see even more inductees on the interior wall (below). There are several famous names among them and it can be fun to seek them out. Make sure to not lock yourself out if you exit the doors here.

Inside, the concourse is mostly concrete and very empty. With 7,000 seats and just 200 fans, this is what you would expect. Attendance was announced at 368, but that was a significant exaggeration. There is just a single concession stand that opened a few minutes before tip and had no menu when I passed by, and very limited options.

The seating bowl is quite nice on the lower level, with a few rows of green box seats all very close to the floor. Sit where you want, except courtside.

The upper deck is steep and the benches are just concrete from what I could tell. The Chicago Public League games draw very well from what I understand.

I did briefly stop in the upper deck to take a picture of the court from the second deck. From here, it is actually quite an attractive venue. I have grown fond of the different court designs at this level and the cougar at center court is a nice touch.

Chicago State is now in the Western Athletic Conference, but back in 2013, they were a member of the five-team Great West Conference, which was a new conference in Division I. As such, tournament winners were not eligible for March Madness. The Cougars finished in a three-way tie for third that year, and as the third seed, won two games, played here at the JCC, to get an automatic invitation to the CIT (they lost to UIC). That is the school's only accomplishment in men's hoops, recognized by redundant banners.

Overall, I didn't expect much from the JCC and so I wasn't disappointed. Only die-hard stadium chasers will make this trip; if you are one, then look for an afternoon game or drive.

The Game

There are 353 schools in Division I men's basketball and Chicago State was ranked 353rd in Ken Pom's rankings. They were 0-12 in WAC play and 4-23 overall, with three of those wins coming against schools from lower divisions. The only Division 1 school to lose to the Cougars: SIU Edwardsville of the Ohio Valley Conference.

The Cougars wore black uniforms as part of a blackout promotion. Black t-shirts were given to students, but again, with about 3,000 green seats and 200 fans, the blackout is sure to fail. Especially when most fans don't bother to wear black anyway.

I was surprised that there was a Canadian in the starting lineup as Amir Gholizadeh, rightmost in the above shot defending the Invisible Man, is from Toronto. This turned out to be the start of a trend as every game I saw on the weekend had at least one Canadian in the starting lineup.

As for the game, the Cougars grabbed a 3-0 lead and it was upset alert time. But Cal Baptist went on a 17-5 run and from that point on, it was blowout alert time. The Lancers went 9-15 from three-point land in the first half as they took a 46-19 lead, and then 9-14 in the second half. That's 18 treys (54 points), one more point than Chicago State scored in the entire game. The final is below.

Near the end, Chicago State did run two great plays that resulted in thunderous slam dunks, giving the few fans something to cheer for. But overall, this was the ugliest game I have attended at this level.

Notes

There was something mildly amusing I had never seen before. At one point, the ball was slapped out of bounds and bounced into the seats behind one of the baskets, where there were exactly zero fans sitting. After a few seconds, a ref had to go up a few rows to get it; even he looked surprised that there was no one even in the vicinity.

Best,

Sean