MADISON, Wis. - If there was a basketball game scheduled for the middle of Times Square on a January afternoon, Gerald Gillion would be one of the first coaches to volunteer for his team. Coaching in one of the harder situations currently in college basketball, Gillion is never willing to shy away from a challenge from the sport he is so passionate about.

“Basketball is basketball,” said Gillion, who is in his third season as the head men’s basketball coach at Chicago State. “Anything that involves basketball isn’t hard at the end of the day. We have players playing the game that we love. Putting planes in the sky was hard. Playing basketball on someone else’s court is not hard at all.”

The positivity that radiates from Gillion has made a difficult situation on the south side of Chicago easier for his team, one that has dealt with a packed schedule, being a college basketball nomad, and NCAA lawsuits. That upbeat persona is part of the reason why the Cougars (7-9) have pushed on and are riding a four-game winning streak – the longest since the 2008-09 season – into their Friday game at No.24 Wisconsin (8-3) at the Kohl Center.

And as the only independent program in Division 1, all four of the wins on their streak have come since December 13 and started with a 75-73 victory over No.25 Northwestern, giving the program its first win over a ranked opponent in 39 tries.

“When you look at our record, the numbers don’t indicate nearly how good we are,” Gillion said. “I spent August, September, and October looking to play one way with five stars. Now we’re having to adjust to a totally different style of basketball where we are quicker and faster. It’s taken the guys a little time to get adjusted to.”

A common problem for mid-majors in today’s transfer portal era is seeing talented players enter the portal in search of bigger exposure or a larger payday. Not only did Gillion maintain 70 percent of his offense from the previous year, he signed 6-9 brothers Matt and Ryan Bewley, both former five-star recruits, to be the focal point of the roster.

They have yet to play for their former AAU coach and are currently suing the NCAA in federal court after they were denied eligibility for receiving money they say was generated from their name, image, and likeness while competing for Overtime Elite Academy.

Their absence has allowed junior Wesley Cardet Jr. to shine. A former four-star prospect and the No.65 player in his class, Cardet committed to Samford over a dozen high-major offers largely because of Gillion, an assistant with the program at the time.

Cardet leads the program in points (18.9), field goal percentage (.466), and assists (44). In the upset over Northwestern, Cardet led all players with 30 points on 13-of-21 shooting.

“Wesley Cardet isn’t shy of the big moments,” Gillion said. “When he’s playing against these Power-Five schools as a junior, it’s what he’s been doing his whole life. You add that mindset to someone who is 6-6 with a 7-3 wingspan who can dribble, past, shoot, post, and defend, you’re going to create a great player. Whether he’s at Chicago State or whether he’s at Duke, Wesley Cardet is going to impact winning. That’s what he’s done since he’s been at Chicago State.”

Outside of the Northwestern victory, Cardet’s exploits have largely gone unnoticed with Chicago State’s low television exposure due to no conference affiliation. In the hectic-paced world of college conference realignment, Chicago State was left without a landing spot after leaving the Western Athletic Conference before the 2022-23 season, a decision brought about by rising travel costs of a league adding multiple teams outside the Midwest.

Chicago State will join the Northeast Conference next season but that has left the Cougars as the nation’s only independent Division-1 college. Without the benefit of having at least half its games scheduled by a league office, Gillion and his staff are responsible for filling out an entire season on their own.

Games are easy to find in November and December but more challenging when schools move into conference play and are not as willing to schedule a “buy game” during a bye week in the conference schedule. UW hasn’t done it since it lost to North Dakota State in January 2006, five games into the Big Ten season.

While schools will typically play lower division schools early in the season as an early tune-up, Gillion’s approach was to play those games later in the season when games were harder to find. Chicago State also took advantage of its location by playing at nearby DePaul on New Year’s Eve and will play back-to-back games at Big 12 schools Kansas State and Oklahoma State and scheduled a home-and-home against Stetson. All those games will be on national television or a streaming platform.

“I always have the mindset where some people see obstacles, I see opportunities and I try not to focus on the negatives. I focus on the many positives of being the only independent. I am the only team that can pick and choose who I play in January and February. Last year, we were playing on the Pac-12 network in the middle of January. If you’re not in the Pac-12 conference, there’s no way that’s happening.

“It’s a tremendous opportunity for my guys. I don’t look at the negatives as much as I look at all the mini positives.”

The Cougars had a lowly NET ranking of 327 out of 362 teams when it played Northwestern, coming into the game 324th in the nation in field goal shooting and 310th in rebound margin.

Eight days and four wins later, the Cougars are 311th in field goal shooting (40.97), 300th in rebound margin (-2), and 300th in the NET rankings. Baby steps, sure, but steps in the right direction for a program that is overcoming plenty of hurdles.

“Our first third of the season we were getting adjusted to playing without a second group of guys,” Gillion said. This second third, we’re starting to get our feet under us and comfortable with our new roles.”

“We are doing something special on the south side of Chicago in terms of building really good habits, creating a standard, getting people to understand that we’re moving and we’re building,” he added. “We’re making things happen on the south side.”

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