Hilltoppers host Chicago State for tune up before Louisville

As a fan of a mid-major school, we more than anyone should know the power and dangerousness of underestimating an opponent, or worse, looking ahead to the next opponent. You never know what can happen during the course of a 40 minute game, and you could have an off night or the opposing team could have a night to remember and play out of their minds.

However, I feel as if its a pretty safe bet to go ahead and say the Hilltoppers are safe from a shocking upset tonight, although their matchup with Chicago State has all the makings of the ultimate “trap,” game. But, the Cougars come into tonight with a 2-9 record, are 0-6 on the road (0-7 if you count a loss to Georgia State at a neutral site) and are on a seven game slide, which started with that game against the Panthers on November 24th.

The Cougars have a pair of double-digit scorers in Clarke Rosenberg (13.6 points per game) and Sean Hill (10.0 points per game), but outside of those two, there’s really  not much to talk about with the visitors.

Its the ultimate trap game for the Hilltoppers for obvious reasons – its sandwiched between a game against an SEC team, which they’re coming off a huge road victory after combating a 17 point deficit to shock Ole Miss and they have an ACC and in-state foe in Louisville coming in over the weekend, which makes it almost too easy to overlook Chicago St. The Tops have the reigning conference co-Player of the Week in T.J. Price, who lead all scorers in the game against the Fighting Bjork’s and co-Freshmen of the Week in Justin Johnson, who’s 42 rebounds through eight games are the most for a Hilltopper freshmen since Chris Marcus had 77 through the same time span at the turn of the century.

Like I said, I usually hesitate to overlook an opponent, but tonight I think it’s a safe bet that the Tops will win their ninth home game in their last 11 tries.

Holy cow, I just realized we haven’t given you a projected starting line up in a few games. It probably won’t differ much (although, if I’m Ray Harper, I start the young guys and see where it goes), but I like to make myself feel smart, so here it goes:

Chris Harrison-Docks G
Trency Jackson G
T.J. Price G
George Fant F
Ben Lawson F

Tip off is set for seven and will be on the Hilltopper Sports Satellite Network through Fox College Sports. Good luck finding it if you’re not in Bowling Green.

Next: Here's Why T.J. and Justin Were Named Players of the Week