The term better late than never applies to Illinois States basketball schedule for the upcoming season. The full 27-game regular season slate, including all Missouri Valley Conference games, was announced Tuesday.
For the first time since the 1995-96 season, Illinois State will not play a league game in December. In fact, the MVC opener does not come until Jan. 6 (versus Indiana State), making it the latest conference start for ISU since the 1989-90 season.
The result is an 18-game Missouri Valley schedule that will cover just 51 days.
You have to play all the games no matter when theyre scheduled and well be ready, said ISU head coach Tom Richardson.
I am concerned that our league schedule is compact. That said, there is very little that could dampen my enthusiasm for this season. Im just so excited about the players weve added. This is a team that will have multiple weapons and a number of other facets that were not available to us last season.
With six new players, the preseason will be important in terms of getting to know each other, but if we can build some chemistry, I really feel like we can be a good team.
After the Redbirds open MVC play with Indiana State, they get one day off before hosting Creighton.
The up side is the fact that we open the league with two games at home, albeit against two of the toughest teams in the league, Richardson said.
That wraps up a pretty good stretch for us. We have five straight non-conference games at home, a road non-conference game at Western Illinois then our first two Valley games at home. We need to take advantage of playing in Redbird Arena.
The non-conference schedule, which was announced earlier, has ISU on its home floor six times, including the season opener at Chicago State. After road trips to Kansas and Central Michigan, the team settles in for a five-game homestand.
Once league play begins, Illinois States longest home stint will be two games, which occurs four times. The longest stretch of road games is three from Jan. 11-17, but there are two other road trips that concern Richardson.
ISU plays swing trips (no return to Normal between games) when it goes to Creighton and Wichita State, then against when it goes to Indiana State and Evansville.
We had hoped to avoid any swings, but it didnt work out that way, Richardson said. Trips like that require sharp focus. Once that first game is over, you have to be good about getting it out of your mind and moving on to the next one.
Season tickets for basketball are on sale now from the Redbird Arena Ticket Office. General public tickets range from $90-$180 per ticket. The ticket covers 17 games, including both exhibition contests.
