The college basketball offseason is here, and we decided to have some fun over the next few months, ranking ALL 364 teams in D1. Number 360 is Chicago State basketball.
Before you say we’re crazy – or that all of this is up for debate, let’s go over the very intricate process of how we came to this conclusion. We took a very statistical approach – with the help of Chat GPT – taking into consideration everything from March Madness wins and finishes, to AP Poll appearances, to conference players of the year. And then, a good friend of ours, Scott Blanchard, took our approach to the MAX.
Click here to visit the FIRST article, which explains how the formula works!
Here’s the breakdown of Chicago State basketball!
NCAA Tournament Success
- Championships: 0
- Finals appearances: 0
- Final Fours: 0
- Elite Eights: 0
- Sweet 16s: 0
- NCAA wins: 0
- Bids: 0
Consistency Over Time
- Wins per season: 7.5
- Bids per season: 0
- AP Polls: 0
Player Quality & Talent
- All-Americans: 0
- NBA players drafted & played: 0
- Conference Players of the Year: 0
Conference & Other Success
- Conference regular season titles: 0
- Conference tournament titles: 1
- NIT titles: 0
- Other tournament titles: 0
Overall scoop on Chicago State basketball
Unfortunately for Chicago State, historically, they’ve been far behind the competition in college basketball. Over 42 seasons, they have averaged just 7.5 wins per season. That includes EIGHT seasons of three wins or fewer.
It’s odd how the Cougars have struggled so much, because their first two D1 seasons were quite solid. The Cougars went 16-11 in 1984-85 and followed that up with an impressive 22-6 campaign. Since then, they’ve finished with a winning record just once, going 19-13 in 2008-09.
Their biggest claim to fame might be winning the Great West Conference Tournament in 2013, despite going 11-22 overall and 3-5 in conference. However, the conference didn’t even receive an auto-bid to the NCAA Tournament, instead placing them in the CIT, where they fell to UIC in the opening round.
Recently, it’s been a frequent changing of the guard, as Chicago State has had a new coach in three straight years, with Landon Bussie taking over in 2025. He’ll look to head into year two with a Cougars team that finished near the bottom of the NEC in 2025-26.
While history may not be on Chicago State’s side, they did have one of the top three-point shooters in NCAA history. David Holston made 450 threes between 2005 and 2009, ranking 10th all-time. He’s also Chicago State basketball’s all-time leading scorer.
Chicago State had a pretty unfortunate run in D1 college basketball, but who knows if being in the windy city can help out the NIL fund and get things going.