The 2024–25 Chicago State Cougars men's basketball team represented

Chicago State University Chicago State University (CSU) is a Historically black colleges and universities, predominantly black (PBI) public university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. It includes an honors program for undergraduates and offers bachelor's and master ...

during the

2024–25 NCAA Division I men's basketball season The 2024–25 NCAA Division I men's basketball season began on November 4, 2024. The regular season ended on March 16, 2025, with the 2025 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament that began with the First Four on March 18 and ended with t ...

. The Cougars, led by first-year head coach

Scott Spinelli Scott Anthony Spinelli (born April 22, 1966) is an American college basketball coach who was most recently the head coach of the Chicago State Cougars men's basketball team. Playing career Scott Spinelli was born in Leominster, Massachusetts. H ...

, played their home games at the Jones Convocation Center located in

Chicago, Illinois Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

, as first-year members of the

Northeast Conference The Northeast Conference (NEC) is a collegiate athletic conference whose schools are members of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Teams in the NEC compete in Division I for all sports; football competes in the Division I Foo ...

. They finished the season 4–28, 4–2 in NEC play to finish in a tie for last place. They lost to

LIU Liu (; or ) is an East Asian surname. pinyin: in Mandarin Chinese, in Cantonese. It is the family name of the Han dynasty emperors. The character originally meant 'battle axe', but is now used only as a surname. It is listed 252nd in the clas ...

in the quarterfinals of the NEC tournament. On March 7, 2025, the school fired head coach Scott Spinelli. On March 20, the school named Alcorn State head coach

Landon Bussie Landon Everett Bussie (born November 11, 1987) is an American college basketball coach who is the current head coach of Chicago State. Playing career Bussie played his first two years at Livingstone College before finishing his playing career ...

the team's new head coach.

Previous season

The

Cougars The cougar (''Puma concolor'') (, '' KOO-gər''), also called puma, mountain lion, catamount and panther is a large small cat native to the Americas. It inhabits North, Central and South America, making it the most widely distributed wild ...

finished the 2023–24 season 13–19. As an independent, they did not participate in any conference tournament. They received an invitation to the CBI, receiving the #15 seed, where they would upset

UC San Diego The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego in communications material, formerly and colloquially UCSD) is a public land-grant research university in San Diego, California, United States. Established in 1960 near the pre-existing Sc ...

in the first round, before losing to Fairfield in the quarterfinals. This season was the Cougars' last as an independent, as they joined the

for the 2024–25 season.

Preseason polls

Northeast Conference poll

The Northeast Conference released its preseason coaches' poll on October 24, 2024. The Cougars were picked to finish in sixth in the conference. ''() first-place votes''

Preseason All-Conference Team

No Cougars were selected as members of the NEC Preseason All-Conference Team.

Roster

Schedule and results

, - !colspan=12 style="", Non-conference regular season , - !colspan=12 style="", , - !colspan=9 style="", Sources

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:2024-25 Chicago State Cougars men's basketball team Chicago State Cougars men's basketball seasons Chicago State Chicago State Chicago State