They played Northwestern at the United Center, along with Illinois vs. BYU. It was called State Farm Chicago Legends.... basically just a stadium doubleheader. We should look into opportunities like that... if Northwestern or Illinois isn't available on a particular date, we could fill in. Also, we should look to do something with DePaul, UIC, or even Marquette.

I've been trying to figure out hypothetical fun ways to improve Loyola's schedule. I had a nice idea and format for a Jesuit tournament that would guarantee 1-2 home games with a neutral site game, but it's unrealistic because of NCAA rules.

But I've always been fond about Loyola, DePaul, UIC, and Northwestern doing a showcase in Chicago. If it's round-robin in 3 days or a 2 day tournament style, it could be a yearly event. If you want kids to stay in Chicago, why not promote 3 Chicago teams+Northwestern. Put them on a pedestal for a weekend. Really showcase guys like Ingram, Law, Odiase, and Gage to try and keep people home instead of letting Dayton swoop in and take them. Problem is all teams would need to agree, and it looks like DePaul and Northwestern don't want anything to do with us.

I think the option JCT is reasonable. Even if it's us and UIC+2 rotating teams. You may be able to get bigger names if you do something like LUC/Marquette UIC/Iowa on day 1 and LUC/UIC Iowa/Marquette on day 2. Give them a bigger name to play so there is less risk in playing 2 mid-majors. Plus we guarantee to keep our rivalry with UIC.

Looking back at some recruits from the 2013-2014 classes (sidenote: lot of familiar names), I've found the following seniors from the area who go to schools that don't traditionally have a game in Chicago (i.e. not in the B1G, Big East, Horizon League, or WAC so no games vs. NU, DPU, UIC, CSU):

-Paul White (Oregon) Jr.
-Josh Cunningham (Dayton; former Bradley Brave) Jr.
-Jalen James (San Jose St.) Sr.
-Michael Schlotman (William & Mary) Sr. - from Munster, IN maybe a former teammate of Crisman?
-David Cohn (William & Mary) Sr.
-Ty Greer (Hofstra) Sr.
-Miles Reynolds (Pacific) Sr.
-Amanze Egekeze (Belmont) Sr.
-Jevon Carter (West Virginia) Sr.
-Lamont Walker (Texas Southern) Sr.
-Xzavier Taylor (Ft. Wayne; another Bradley transfer) Sr.
-John Konchar (Ft. Wayne) Jr.
-Evan Boudreaux (Dartmouth) Jr.
-Kain Harris (Tulane) Jr.
-Prentiss Nixon (Colorado St.) Jr.
-Luwane Pipkins (UMass) Jr.
-Admiral Schofield (Tennessee) Jr.
-Josh Stamps (FIU) Jr.
-Weisner Perez (Harvard) Jr.
-Conner Cashaw (Rice) Jr.

Obviously, some won't come (i.e. Oregon & West Virginia). Most of the schools on the list though would make for nice replacements of whatever D2 schools we have on the schedule. Plus, this only includes ranked recruits. There are probably more walk-ons/other players who didn't make the recruiting rankings out there as well.

2 of those 4 would be all about that idea. The other two...