Redbirds Back In Action after Break

DES MOINES, Iowa. - After a nine-day break from action, the Illinois State Redbirds take to the court to take on the Drake Bulldogs in a 7 p.m. tip-off at the Knapp Center on Wednesday evening.

* MVC TV Network consists of: Bally Sports Midwest, Bally Sports Indiana Plus, Bally Sports Kansas City and NBC Sports Chicago. Within the footprint states of Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska the game will be blacked out on ESPN+, but ESPN+ will have the telecast on immediate tape-delay.

QUICK HITTERS

• Illinois State's 6.0 blocked shot per game average puts it 10th in the country in the category, and on pace to shatter the school record (5.2 blocks per game)
• Illinois State redshirt junior forward Sy Chatman was named the MVC Player of the Week on January 3.
• Reeves and Strong are two of just 21 student-athletes in the country to rank inside of the top-40 in both three-point makes per game and three-point percentage. 
• Antonio Reeves ranks 8th in NCAA Division I in scoring, averaging 21.1 points per game. 
• With his 26 points off the bench against Chicago State, ISU guard Josiah Strong is tied for the 10th most points in a game by a non-starter in program history.
• Reeves has scored 850 career points, which puts him 63rd in school history, and just 18 points away from climbing into sole possession of 62nd in school history.
• Reeves has scored in double figures in all 15 games this season, which is the 13th-longest such streak to open a season in program history. He is the only player in the MVC to have scored in double-figures in every game of this season.
• Illinois State has had five different players score at least 20 points in a single game this season, which is tied for the highest such total in the MVC this season.
• Illinois State head basketball coach Dan Muller is one of 44 head coaches in the country this season to be the head coach at their alma mater. His 164 coaching wins at Illinois State is the sixth-most among that group of coaches.
• The Redbirds' four overtime games are tied for the most in the country this season.
• The Illinois State trio of Antonio Reeves, Sy Chatman, and Josiah Strong combine to average 49.6 points per game, which is on pace to be the sixth-highest three-person scoring total in MVC history.
• Illinois State is 7-1 this season when shooting as well or better than its opponent.
• In five career games against Drake, Illinois State guard Antonio Reeves averages 16.2 points, including a pair of 20-point games last season against the Bulldogs.

SCOUTING THE BULLDOGS

Drake comes into the mid-week MVC battle having won five of its last six games, with the only loss coming at Missouri State on January 2. 

In the team's most recent game, a 60-59 win at Evansville, the Bulldogs were led by freshman guard Tucker DeVries who scored 15 points, while D.J. Wilkins scored 11 and Darnell Brodie added 10 off of the bench. Garrett Sturtz scored nine and nearly had a double-double with a team-high nine rebounds. Roman Penn dished out a game-high five assists, while Tremell Murphy and DeVries had the team's only two steals.

For the year the team has six players averaging at least nine points per game, and seven averaging eight or more points. DeVries averages 13.0 points to lead the squad, while Murphy averages 10.1. Four other players, Sturtz (9.8), Penn (9.7), ShanQuan Hemphill (9.4), and Wilkins (9.4) all average over nine, while Brodie puts in 7.8 points per contest. 

Sturtz leads the team in rebounding, pulling down 7.1 boards per game, while Hemphill (4.8), Brodie (4.7), and DeVries (4.7) all average nearly five rebounds per game. Wilkins has given out a team-best 37 assists, with Penn (35) and Ayo Akinwole (33) close behind. DeVries and Murphy lead the team with 12 blocked shots, while Sturtz' 19 steals are the high-mark on the squad.

SENDING AWAY

This season through 15 games, the Illinois State Redbirds rank 10th in the NCAA in blocked shots per game, averaging 6.0 per contest. The Illinois State school record for blocked shots in a season is 171 (5.2 per game)

HOME SWEET HOME

Two Illinois State men's basketball players - Harouna Sissoko and Ryan Schmitt - can claim the Des Moines area as home after spending many years there. Sissoko, originally from Kayes, Mali, attended high school at Grand View Christian School in Des Moines. Schmitt, originally from nearby Van Meter not only grew up in the area, but attended Des Moines Area CC for two seasons prior to enrolling at Illinois State.

PLAYER OF THE WEEK

On Monday, January 3, Illinois State forward Sy Chatman was named the MVC Player of the Week, his first collegiate Player of the Week honor. On the week, Chatman averaged 22.5 points and 6.5 rebounds per game, making 62 percent of his shots from the field and 76.5 percent of his free throw tries. He scored 22 points at nationally-ranked Wisconsin, and followed that with 23 points against Valparaiso. 
 

HIGH MAKES AND PERCENTAGE

Illinois State guards Antonio Reeves and Josiah Strong are two of just 21 student-athletes across NCAA Division I to rank inside of the top 40 in both three point field goals made per game and three-point field goal percentage. Reeves and Josiah Strong are the only teammates among the 19 in that list, as Reeves ranks 28th in three-point field goals made and 22nd in percentage, while Strong ranks 38th in makes per game and 9th in percentage.

SPECIAL GAME STATS

Against UTSA, Illinois State guard Antonio Reeves scored 21 points with a career-high 10 rebounds for his first collegiate double-double. He also gave out four assists while making three three-point baskets. That stat line has only been duplicated by 12 other players in NCAA Division I this season, with 10 others doing it against a NCAA Division I foe.

BIG NUMBERS

With 15 games played into the 2021-22 season, Illinois State's Antonio Reeves ranks 9th in NCAA Division I in points per game, averaging 21.1 per contest.

MILESTONE WATCH

Now 15 games into the 2021-22 season, Antonio Reeves is rising through the Illinois State career record book. Reeves is 150 points away from becoming Illinois State's 46th member of the 1,000-point club.

FIRST 15-GAMES SCORING START

With his 317 points over the first 15 games of the season, Antonio Reeves became the ninth student-athlete in program history to eclipse the 300-point mark by his ninth game of the season, and his point total is the seventh-most in a season through the first 15 games, and the most in that span since the 1976-77 season.