Illinois State Looks to Rebound Against River Hawks

COLUMBUS, Ohio - After falling in their season opener, the Illinois State Redbirds will look to bounce back on Saturday afternoon when the team faces off against the UMass Lowell River Hawks in a noon tip-off.

QUICK HITTERS

• In Illinois State's season opener against Ohio State, Josiah Strong scored 15 points in a starting role. He was one of just eight players on the opening day to have a game with three or more three-point baskets, while also blocking two shots.
• This season's Illinois State team has the seventh-highest average height in program history, as the 15 players on the team have an average height of 6-5.80.
• The Redbirds have no seniors on this season's team, the seventh time in program history a squad had no seniors. Of the six previous occurrences, four times the team made a postseason (NCAA or NIT) the following season. Illinois State is one of 10 NCAA Division I schools with no seniors on their roster.
• Along with having no seniors and just four juniors, the team's average athletic year is 1.80 (freshman = 1, seniors  = 4), which is tied for the least experienced team in program history.
• In the opening game, ISU freshman Howard Fleming Jr. dished out seven assists, while also scoring eight points. Fleming Jr. has a KenPom Assist Rate of 88.6, which is the highest of any player in the country. His seven assists were also the fifth-most by a freshman on the opening day of games.
• Illinois State has four players from outside of the United States, the most foreign players on a Redbird team in program history. The previous most was from the 1996-97, 2012-13, and 2013-14 seasons that had three players each from outside of the USA.
• ISU has faced just one other team from the America East conference, Vermont.
• There are 11 current NCAA Division I head coaches that either played or coached at Illinois State, including two other head coaches in the Missouri Valley Conference.
• Illinois State head coach Dan Muller is one of 34 head coaches in the country who is coaching at his alma mater. Of that group, he has the seventh-most victories. Leading the list is Jim Boeheim (Syracuse), Roy Williams (North Carolina), Matt Painter (Purdue), and Bob Huggins (West Virginia).
• Illinois State is 149-118 under head coach Dan Muller. Since he took over, he has the second-best record in the state of Illinois.
• Illinois State is 9-2 all-time on November 28, having won the last six games on this date.

SCOUTING THE RIVER HAWKS

UMass Lowell comes into Illinois State's second game of the season, as the River Hawks face off against the Redbirds on Saturday and against Ohio State on Sunday.

In their last game, the River Hawks used a 52-point second half to pull away to a 76-68 win over San Francisco in Uncasville, Connecticut. In the game, Obadiah Noel scored a team-best 22 points while Connor Withers scored 15 and Max Brooks 12 points. Of Noel's points, 14 came from the free throw line where he went 14-of-21. Noel and Kalil Thomas each pulled down eight rebounds to tie for the game-high, with Noel and Withers each dishing out four assists.

Noel is the team's leading returning scorer, as the 6-4 senior averaged 18.2 points a season ago, while also leading the team with 85 assists. Withers led the team in blocked shots with 37, was second on the team in rebounding (5.9 per game) assists (68), and steals (37); and was third in scoring (9.2) during the 2019-20 season. Ron Mitchell also returned this season after averaging 8.5 points

UNIQUE STAT PAIRING

In Illinois State's opening game against Ohio State, junior guard Josiah Strong went 3-of-5 from long range and scored 15 points while also blocking a career-high two shots. The three three-point baskets and two blocked shots are a unique combination that only eight players on the opening day accomplished, as the Redbird newcomer was joined by Davidson's Hyunjung Lee, Arkansas' Connor Vanover, Jacksonville's Dontarius James, Seattle's Riley Grigsby, Virginia Tech's Keve Aluma, Western Michigan's Patrick Emilien, and UC Davis' Cameron Ba.

TALL TEAM

With the team having four players standing 6-9 or taller, this Illinois State squad has the seventh-biggest average height of any team in program history with an average height of 6-5.80, this years' team trails the tallest two teams (1976-77 and 1987-88) by just over 1/4 of an inch per player. 

FEW SENIORS

For the 2020-21 season, Illinois State has zero seniors on its roster. Since 1962-63, there have been just six other Redbird rosters with no seniors. Those other seasons include 1965-66, 1988-89, 1996-97, 2011-12, 2013-14, and 2017-18. In six of those previous seasons, four times the team advanced to postseason play the following season, three times (1966-67, 1989-90, 1997-98) the team earned a spot in the NCAA Tournament, while the 2014-15 team advanced to the NIT second round.

Illinois State is also one of 10 schools in the country without a senior on the squad. The other nine schools include Auburn, Belmont, Colorado State, Florida, Memphis, Rice, St. Bonaventure, Tulane, and USC Upstate.

BIG HELPER

In his first collegiate game, Illinois State freshman Howard Fleming Jr. gave out seven assists, which is the third-highest single-game freshman assist total in the Dan Muller era at Illinois State. Additionally, Fleming has a KenPom.com Assist Rate (assists divided by the field goals made by the player's teammates while he is on the court) of 88.6, which is the highest of any player in the country that played on opening day. Second on that list is Vonnie Patterson of East Tennessee State with an assist rate of 66.7. His seven assists are the 22nd most in a game by a Division I player on opening day, and the 5th-most by a freshman.

NOT FROM AROUND HERE

The first Redbird student-athlete to come from outside of the United Stats was Roy Herald, a native of Finland, that played for Illinois State from 1977 through 1981. Since then 16 foreign-native student-athletes have played for the Redbirds. This season's team has four foreign-born student-athletes, the most on a single team in program history. The previous high mark for foreign players was three, set three times, the first in 1996-97, along with 2012-13 and 2013-14.