NORMAL, Ill. - The Illinois State Redbirds will play their opening game on the newly-installed Doug Collins Court on Wednesday evening, as the Birds host the Belmont Bruins in an 8 p.m. tip-off at CEFCU Arena.
QUICK HITTERS
• Over the past 10 seasons in the NCAA, few schools have made a jump from one season to the next better than ISU. From last season to this season the Redbirds have jumped 329 position rankings and .101 percentage points and currently rank 10th in the country in three-point field goal percentage
• ISU forward Chase Walker gets fouled at a rate of 7.6 per 40 minutes, which is the eighth-highest rate in the NCAA
• This season the Redbirds have had 10 games with single-digit turnovers, which is the second-highest total by an ISU squad since 1988-89
• If maintained, ISU's .393 three-point field goal percentage is on pace to be the fourth-best single-season average in school history
• Against Indiana State, Caden Boser scored his 1,000th career point between his time at UMKC, Valdosta State, and Illinois State.
• Jack Daugherty's 38 three-point baskets are the ninth-most in a season by an ISU freshman in program history
• Illinois State guards Johnny Kinziger (11th) and Malachi Poindexter (30th) rank inside of the top-30 in career free throw percentage. The Redbirds are one of three schools to have two student-athletes inside of the top-30.
• This season the Illinois State Redbirds have had seven different players lead the team in scoring through the opening 21 games of the season
• Illinois State's win against UAB on November 23 was the program's third game in a four-game stretch where the Redbird opponent was picked as the preseason favorite in their conference: Ohio (Mid-American Conference), McNeese (Southland Conference), and UAB (American Athletic Conference). In those games, the Redbirds went 2-1
• The Redbirds are one of just of six schools in the country to rank inside of the top-20 in the NCAA in both three-point field goals per game (10.3 - 17th) and three-point field goal percentage (.393 - 10th)
• This season Illinois State has a KenPom adjusted offensive percentage of 111.6, which is the highest by a Redbird squad in the KenPom era (1996 to present)
• Dalton Banks' three blocked shots against Saint Louis is tied for the fourth-most in the country this season in a game by a player 6-2 or shorter
• Eight times this season, ISU has had games with shooting splits of at least .500/.400/.750. No other team in school history has had more than four such game splits in a single season, and the Redbirds are tied for the most in the NCAA
• ISU forward Caden Boser and guard Jordan Davis are the among the top players in the conference of each program's eighth- and ninth-leading scorers
SCOUTING BELMONT
Belmont comes into the late Wednesday game having won six of its last seven games, with the only loss coming at home to Bradley.
In the Bruins' most recent game, a 95-77 win against Murray State, Drew Scharnowski scored a game-high 20 points off the bench, while Carter Whitt scored 17, Sam Orme 13, Aidan Noyes 11, and Jonathan Pierre 10. Scharnowski and Isaiah Walker each pulled down eight rebounds to lead the team, as Whitt had a team-high six assists and three steals.
Whitt is the team's scoring leader, averaging 13.7 points per game, with Jonathan Pierre close behind at 13.5. Walker (11.1) and Tyler Lundblade (10.8) are also in double-figures on the year, with Orme (8.7) and Brody Peebles (8.3) close behind. Pierre is the team leader with 137 rebounds - 6.5 per game - while Walker averages 5.5 boards per contest.Â
Whitt's 102 assist and 29 steals both lead the team, while Orme has a team-best 20 blocked shots with Brigham Rogers (12) and Scharnowski (11) sitting with double-digit blocks.
FOULED A LOT
Illinois State sophomore forward Chase Walker draws an average of 7.8 fouls per 40 minutes played, the eighth-largest total in the country this season.
FRESHMAN DEEP MAKES
Through the first 21 games of the season, Illinois State freshman Jack Daugherty has made 38 three-point field goals, which is the ninth-most in a season by a freshman in program history.Â
REBOUNDING MARGIN
Against Northern Illinois on December 18, the Redbirds had a +20 rebounding margin, which is the highest by a Redbird team against a NCAA Division I opponent since November 29, 2014 against Youngstown State. There have been just five games with a larger margin for ISU since the 2009-10 season.
HIGH ON MAKES AND PERCENTAGE
This season the Redbirds rank 10th in the NCAA in three-point field percentage (.393) and 17th in three-pointers per game (10.3). There are just six schools in the country who rank inside of the top-20 in each category.
LOW TURNOVERS
This season, through 21 games, Illinois State has 10 games with single-digit turnovers. Since 1988-89, this season's total is tied for the second-lowest in a season, along with the 2008-09 squad, and trailing only the 12 that last season's team put together.
EIGHT IS GREAT AND NINE IS FINE
This season Illinois State has strong depth across its lineup, as the team's eighth- (Caden Boser) and ninth-leading scorers (Jordan Davis) are averaging 5.2 and 4.4 points per game each. Among players who have seen action in at least half of their teams' games, Boser has the fourth-best eighth-player scoring average, while Davis also has the fourth-best ninth-leading scoring total.
STRONG NEW CLASS
With four signees, the Illinois State men's basketball recruiting class for the 2025 season was ranked 60th in the country according to the 247sports.com team ranking. ISU added forward Nick Allen, guard/forward Isaac Ericksen, and guards Tyreek Coleman and Mason Klabo. Allen, a 6-11 forward from Bradley-Bourbonnais HS, has a national 247sports ranking of 277, and is the top-rated center in the state of Illinois. He was named First Team All-State as a junior. Ericksen, a 6-9 guard/forward from Green Level HS in Cary, North Carolina, was named Second Team All-State as a junior, and is the 13th-rated prospect inside North Carolina. Coleman, a 6-2 guard from Waubonsie Valley HS, was named Third Team All-State as a junior. Klabo, a 6-1 guard from Fargo Davies HS in Fargo, North Dakota, was named First Team All-State three times heading into his senior season, as he is within grasp of the North Dakota boys basketball all-time scoring record.
KENPOM EFFICIENCYÂ
KenPom, the primary statistical and analysis college basketball site, and its work on tempo-based basketball statistics is compared by many to the work of Bill James in baseball. This season Illinois State's adjusted offensive total is 111.6, which is the highest total for ISU in the history of the KenPom ratings, which date back through the 1996-97 season. Stathead basketball has an offensive metric titled Offensive Rating, and ISU's 115.1 this season is nearly 10 points higher than the previous season-high (dating back to the 1996-97 season).
PERCENTAGES ACROSS THE BOARD
Eight times this season the Illinois State men's basketball team has had games where it has made over half of its field goal tries, 40 percent of the three-point attempts, and at least 75 percent from the charity stripe. No other team in school history - outside of this season's team - has had more than four such games in an entire season. The total is also tied for the most in the country this season with St. Thomas. Since 2004-05, the most such games in a season by an NCAA Division I school is 11, held by Oklahoma State (2004-05), Michigan (2016-17), South Dakota State (2021-22), and Colorado (2023-24).
EXCITING GAMES
Notable basketball analytics website KenPom has a statistic called Game Excitement, which is a measure of how much the win probability changed over the course of a game (using a win probability algorithm that assumes the teams are of equal strength). This season the Redbirds appear in the list twice within the top 16 games overall, with the No. 14 game coming from Illinois State's 84-83 win over UAB in the Virgin Islands, while the Redbird 99-97 overtime loss at Belmont is the 16th highest. ISU's win over UAB is the only game in the top-20 of the ranking to not have gone into overtime.
HALL OF FAMER DOUG COLLINS
On October 13, Redbird basketball legend Doug Collins was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, the highest honor for anyone associated with the game of basketball. Collins had played and worked in basketball at almost every level including being an All-American at Illinois State, an NBA top overall draft pick, an Olympian in 1972, playing for the Philadelphia 76ers, coaching the Chicago Bulls, Detroit Pistons, Philadelphia 76ers, and Washington Wizards, and an NBA and Olympic broadcaster for ABC/ESPN, CBS, NBC, TNT, and TBS. He was joined in the 2024 Hall of Fame class by 12 others including: Chauncey Billups, Vince Carter, Seimone Augustus, Bo Ryan, Michael Cooper, Walter Davis, Charles Smith, Dick Barnett, Harley Redin, Michele Timms, Jerry West, and Herb Simon.
ALL-AMERICA WATCH LIST
On Thursday, October 31, Illinois State sophomore guard Johnny Kinziger was named to the Bracketeer.org All-American watch list. Eligible conferences for the first-year award include: America East, ASUN, Big Sky, Big South, Big West, CAA, Conference USA, Horizon League, Ivy League, MAAC, MAC, MEAC, MVC, NEC, OVC, Patriot League, SoCon, Southland, SWAC, Summit League, Sun Belt, WAC. The 2025 Bracketeer.Org Non-Power Conference Player of the Year will be announced in the final week of March, 2025.Â
PRESEASON POLL
The Illinois State men's basketball team was picked to finish fourth in the preseason poll, with voters in the poll consisting of school's media, SIDs, and head coaches. Johnny Kinziger was named to the First Team, while Malachi Poindexter was picked on the second team.
