On Sunday November 22 at 1pm Central, NU (1-1) takes on Tennessee State University ("TSU")(0-2). This will be NU's third game of the season and first game of the Chicago Invitational Challenge. The game is at the Welsh and streamlined online at bigtennetwork.com (available for $2.99).
TSU Quick Facts:
Location: Nashville, TN
Nickname: Tigers
Coach: John Cooper (1st Year)
Team Colors: Blue & White
Conference: Ohio Valley
Student Population: 9K
Most Famous Alum: Oprah
Other Notable Alums:
Richard Dent (Da Bears)
Ed "Too Tall" Jones (Da Boys)
Anthony Mason (Da Knicks)
TSU finished sixth in the Ohio Valley Conference last year with a 12-18 record overall. TSU is a much different team this year for better or worse. They have a new coach (John Cooper) and return only four lettermen total and two starters (Darius Cox and Jeremiah Crutcher). Cox (#20) is a forward who averaged 10.7 PPG, 7.0RPG, and made 52% of his FGA last year. Crutcher (#1) is a guard who led the Tigers in assists (121), had an impressive A/TO ratio of over 2.0, but wasn't much of an offensive threat (4.2 PPG, 34.5 3FG%).
TSU took on NIU in DeKalb on Friday and lost by a score of 57-85. TSU rotated 11 players with at least 10 minutes with no player logging more than 27 minutes. The leading scorer was sixth man Jaquan Nobles (#0) who scored 21 points on 7-11 shooting including 5-6 from distance.
TSU's Projected Starting Lineup:
F Hamilton Nash (#11)
F Darius Cox (#20)
F Robert Covington (#33)
G Josh Sain (#2)
G Wil Peters (#10)
Game forecast:
This is classic cupcake city as NU defeated NIU in its first game of the year by a score of 77-55 while NIU took TSU behind the woodshed. No need for deep analysis in this game (not like there is much information out there on TSU to go on).
