After two first time ever opponents, it’s time to play a team that MU saw just two seasons ago.
Name: Central Michigan University
Location: Mount Pleasant, Michigan
I’m bad at geography, where’s Mount Pleasant? It’s in central Michigan.
Ha ha, very funny. I mean, it is pretty right there in the middle part of the Mitten section of Michigan. It’s in the northern half of the lower peninsula, if that helps. North of pretty much every city in Michigan that a non-native has ever heard of, I’d imagine, with the possible exception of Traverse City.
Founded: 1892, as Central Michigan Normal School and Business Institute. Even though “Normal School” is old-timey code for “teachers college,” the college didn’t actually fall under the jurisdiction of Michigan’s Board of Education until 1895, which seems….. weird. The state changed the name to Central Michigan University in 1959.
Enrollment: 10,079 undergraduates as of the end of the Fall 2023 semester, along with 4,344 graduate students.
Nickname: Chippewas
Why “Chippewas”? Well, the short answer is “a campus vote in 1942,” but it’s more complicated than that. They had a brief flirtation as Dragons in the 1920s thanks to a tradition connected to a homecoming bonfire, but it never really caught on. Bearcats caught on in 1927 and held on til 1941. The argument was made that bearcats didn’t have any real connection to the area of Mount Pleasant, but Chippewas did. Yeah, sure, the yearbook held the name and the Chippewa River is near campus, fine. But I don’t think that the following argument from football coach Lawrence Sweeney is a very good one, even in the light of 1941:
“…the name Chippewa opens up unlimited opportunities for pageantry and showmanship for the band as well as athletic teams. The Indian chief would be an outstanding marker for athletic uniforms, the Indian pow-wow could replace the pep-meeting and Indian ceremonies could be conducted on many occasions. School flags could be made much more attractive and finally all types of Indian lore have a strong appeal and could be used to great advantage.”
It was put to a campus vote on January 16, 1942, and Chippewas won, 351-90. Is it weird to have a campus vote five weeks after Pearl Harbor? YES, IT IS, seeing as CMU’s own history notes that less than half of campus voted. 441 votes was recorded as less than half of campus and I am guessing this is largely because wide swaths of college age Michiganders were busy enlisting in the armed forces at the time.
Okay, why still “Chippewas”? FANTASTIC QUESTION. The Michigan Civil Rights Commission recommended changing the name in the 1980s, but an advisory committee to the university president recommended they keep the name in 1989, but with conditions:
Those conditions included developing educational programs in conjunction with the local Saginaw Chippewa Tribal Council, sessions to familiarize CMU students and staff with traditional Native American culture, dropping the two official CMU Native American logos (a Native American profile and a spearpoint with a feather inside a block “C”), eliminating Native American drumbeats by pep bands and other measures.
CMU’s own nickname history webpage has a link right at the top that explains what it means to be a Chippewa. The short answer of “why still Chippewas” is that they are attempting to honor the original settlers of the area of Mount Pleasant, and I respect that. The fact that they have to even to this day keep this list of “DO NOT DO THESE WILDLY RACIST THINGS” on their website kinda tells me that this isn’t a great idea anyway.
Is Campus Haunted? Well, I don’t know if CMU’s campus is actually haunted, but they have a nearly 30 year tradition of turning the older section of campus effectively into a haunted house for Halloween. The idea of doing tours and telling ghost stories about campus is pretty cool on its own, but the idea of working people in costumes into the whole enterprise is a very cool twist.
Take It Easy: A lot of college campuses have some sort of “okay, finals are coming up, here’s a study day before they start” kind of thing. Central Michigan has gone so far as to brand it as Gentle Friday. It started in 1960 and has evolved into an actual campus sponsored/operated block party.
Notable Alumni: Bad news, everyone. We have to make Tom Crean sad, as he graduated from CMU in 1989. Also on the list: Sports broadcasting legend and noted Al McGuire friend Dick Enberg; pro wrestler George “The Animal” Steele; Emmy winning actor Jeff Daniels, maybe best known for his role as Harry in Dumb and Dumber; NBA icon Dan Majerle; former Kentucky governor Matt Bevin; actor Terry O’Quinn, best known for his role as John Locke on Lost; former NATO Supreme Allied Commander Joseph Ralston; author John Grogan, best known for his memoir Marley & Me; MMA fighter Phil Baroni; and finally, William Nolde, U.S. Army colonel and the official final combat casualty of the Vietnam War.
Last Season: 18-14, 12-6 in the MAC, had their season end after one game in the conference tournament.
Final 2023-24 KenPom.com Ranking: #277
Final 2023-24 BartTorvik.com Ranking: #269
So Far This Season: 1-1 with a road win over South Alabama and 1 point home loss to the Stony Brook team Marquette beat by 40. The Chippewas went 2-for-6 on free throws in the final minute, including missing a pair with 23 seconds left that let SBU’s Collin O’Connor drain a layup with three seconds to go.
Current KenPom.com Ranking: #249
Current BartTorvik.com Ranking: #258
Preseason Poll: Central Michigan was picked to finish 8th in the 12 team MAC this season. They are projected to be the best of the three directional Michigan schools in the league. Senior guard Anthony Pritchard is CMU’s only rep on the preseason all-conference teams, earning First Team honors.
Returning Stat Leaders
Points: Anthony Pritchard, 12.8 ppg
Rebounds: Anthony Pritchard, 5.1 rpg
Assists: Anthony Pritchard, 4.7 apg
Current Stat Leaders
Points: Jakobi Heady, 14.5 ppg
Rebounds: Jakobi Heady, 8.0 rpg
Assists: Anthony Pritchard, 6.0 apg
Bigs? Sophomore center Hunter Harding is listed at 7’0” and 245 pounds, and he has started both of Central Michigan’s game this season. He’s also only played 25 total minutes in two games. It just wasn’t working for him after eight minutes in the opener, but he did get the Chippewas nine points and six rebounds in 17 minutes against Stony Brook.
Junior Armani Mighty is a transfer from Boston College that’s listed at 6’10” and 240 pounds. The Toronto native appeared in 51 games for the Eagles but has yet to play for CMU. Junior Ugnius Jarusevicius has played at least 15 minutes off the bench in both of CMU’s games so far this season, and the 6’10”, 220 pound Lithuanian is averaging 10.0 points, 5.0 rebounds, and 1.5 blocks per game.
Do you want to include sophomore Bryan Ndjonga? He’s 6’9” and only 200 pounds, but he’s starting and averaging over 24 minutes a game. 5.5 points and 5.5 rebounds per game is pretty decent given what’s going on around him.
Shooters? Junior college transfer Damarion Bonds didn’t play in the opener, but went 2-for-3 from long range against Stony Brook. He shot nearly 39% from out there for Henry Ford College last year, so Marquette’s going to have to keep an eye out for #7 if he checks in.
Other than that? It starts getting sparse quickly. Sophomore Cayden Vasko is 4-for-10 this season with two makes in each game…… but he shot 23% on 66 attempts last season. Bethune Cookman transfer Jakobi Heady is 5-for-15 on the year and there’s nothing wrong with 33% when you’re the leading scorer….. but he was under 31% last year for the Wildcats. Junior Kyler VanderJagt is 3-for-9 on the year after missing all three attempts against Stony Brook….. but he was 5-for-24 from long range in two seasons at Belmont.
If Marquette can get Anthony Pritchard to settle for threes, that’s a pretty solid plan. He’s now a career 25.8% three-point shooter after starting the campaign 1-for-10. That counts his two seasons at Tulsa, so he’s only a 23.9% shooter for CMU. Pritchard is also 9-for-11 inside the arc this year, so it’s like “What if Kam Jones couldn’t shoot threes but shot just as many threes as twos?”
Head Coach: Tony Barbee, in his fourth season at Central Michigan and 12th year as a Division 1 head coach. He has an overall record of 167-186 and a mark of 36-59 with CMU.
What To Watch For: Two things live in my head regarding this game.
The first is the fact that Central Michigan coughed up a 65-61 lead with five minutes to go at home against the Stony Brook team that Marquette just beat by 40 at Fiserv Forum. If they make a couple of free throws in the final minute, they win….. but that didn’t happen and also the game did come down to that. Yes, MU played 10-ish minutes of competitive basketball with the Seawolves themselves…. but after the Golden Eagles turned the gas on, that margin just kept on growing the rest of the way.
The second is what happened the last time that these two teams collided. That would be Marquette uncorking a 28-4 run in the first half and not really having to worry about all that much for the last 26 minutes. Now, yes, at a glance, absolutely no one remains on the CMU roster from that team. But Marquette’s entire starting five in their first two games this year return from that one, which means maybe they remember the scouting report against the systems that Tony Barbee is throwing out there for the Chippewas. If you’re thinking “oh yeah, but that was a team with Tyler Kolek, Oso Ighodaro, and OMax Prosper,” well, I can’t deny your point.
But I can say that David Joplin went for 23 points on 8-for-12 shooting in that game. I’m not saying it’ll happen again, I’m saying that Tony Barbee’s team had nothing for Jop that time and maybe Jop’s a more polished Division 1 player now.
I think Central Michigan’s offense provides two interesting problems for Marquette’s defense to solve. The first is their shooting, and no, I don’t mean the outside shooting as discussed above. The Chippewas are hitting over 69% of their two-pointers this season, with Anthony Pritchard, Hunter Harding, and Ugnius Jarusevicius all shooting better than 80% inside the arc. That’s not typical for a Tony Barbee CMU team, so maybe the bloom is about to come off the rose, but it is what’s happening so far for them.
The other riddle is Central Michigan’s offensive rebounding. They’re at 34.4% on the season with a 32% and a 36% in their two games. Marquette is just barely better at defensive rebounding than they were last season. Last year’s rate per KenPom.com was 30.8% and that was #270 in the country. So far this year: A slightly better 29.6%. That number would have still been a sub-200 ranking in 2023-24, so while it’s slightly better through two games, it is not great, and at least so far, CMU is doing better than even MU’s best outing this year.
You know what’s going to solve any defending the paint or rebounding problems Marquette might have? Not letting Central Michigan shoot the ball in the first place. So far this season, CMU is turning the ball over 22.8% of the time. I don’t know if you heard about this, but Marquette likes creating deflections on defense. The Golden Eagles have generated a turnover on 23.1% of their defensive possessions….. which is even more than CMU’s very bad offensive number. There are four players on the Chippewas’ roster, three of them starters, who have a personal turnover rate north of 24%. Knives out, gentlemen.
And Marquette better be willing to give the Chippewas the business in that regard, because they’ll return the favor. CMU isn’t quite on the Golden Eagles’ level as a team there, but they have three guys averaging a steal per game this year, including 2.5 for Cayden Vasko and 5.5 steals per game for Anthony Pritchard. That is a legitimate average right now, with Pritchard posting six against South Alabama and five against Stony Brook. He is quite obviously not going to be able to keep this up all season, but he kept it up in Game #2. It would be in Marquette’s best interest to not let Pritchard keep it up for a third straight game.