Men's Basketball Host Big Red for 2025-26 Home Opener

NORMAL, Ill. - The Illinois State men's basketball team will look to rebound on Sunday afternoon, as the Redbirds host the Cornell Big Red in the 2025-26 home opener for ISU.

QUICK HITTERS

• Illinois State comes into the season as the preseason favorite in the MVC from the conference's preseason coach's poll.
• Cornell has three players on its roster (Jax Abalos, Jake Fiegen, and Cooper Noard) who are Illinois natives
• Illinois State's 341 three-point field goals last season was a new Illinois State single-season record, breaking the previous record of 301 set during the 2017-18 season
• Johnny Kinziger's career free throw percentage of .884 is the fifth-highest active free throw percentage in NCAA Division I, and ninth-highest among all NCAA divisions
• The Redbirds are coming off a post-season tournament championship at the Purple CBI hosted in Daytona Beach, Florida
• Ty Pence is one of just two players in the country this season with a game of 14+ points, 7+ rebounds, 30+ minutes, while making 75 percent from the field and 50 percent from long range
• The Redbirds return 1,786 points from last season, which is the fifth-highest returning total in the NCAA
• The Illinois State junior duo of Johnny Kinziger and Chase Walker combined for 1,042 points last season, and as such were the highest scoring sophomore duo in program history, and the second-highest in the NCAA last season. The pair became just the eighth sophomore pair in the NCAA since 2020-21 to each have 500+ points in the same season
• Over the past 10 seasons in the NCAA, few schools made a jump from one season to the next better than ISU did last season. From 2023-24 to 2024-25 the Redbirds  jumped 313 spots in the three-point percentage national ranking and .083 percentage points, ending the season ranked 22nd in the country in three-point field goal percentage
• With 532 and 510 points, respectively, Chase Walker (5th) and Johnny Kinziger (6th) are both in the top-10 in single-season scoring by a sophomore
• Last season Illinois State has had six games with five or fewer turnovers in a game, which is tied for the seventh-most this season in the NCAA
• ISU forward Chase Walker got fouled at a rate of 7.4 fouls per 40 minutes in 2024-25, which was the seventh-highest rate in the NCAA
• With his 90 offensive rebounds, ISU sophomore Chase Walker had the second-most offensive rebounds by a sophomore in school history, and is tied for the sixth-most regardless of class in ISU history
• Illinois State had an effective field goal percentage of .563 in 2024-25, which was the 13th-best in the NCAA that season
 

CAREER FREE THROW

Over his two-plus seasons as a Redbird, ISU junior Johnny Kinziger has a career free throw percentage of .884, which is the fifth-highest active career free throw percentage in NCAA Division I and ninth overall in NCAA basketball. (minimum of 110 free throw makes)
 

BALANCED OPEN

With his season-opening game against Ohio, Ty Pence is one of just two players in the country in this early portion of the season to have a game of 14 points scored, seven rebounds, .750 field goal percentage, and a .500 three-point percentage, while playing at least 30 minutes.
 

RETURNING SCORING

The Redbirds return players that combined to score 1,786 points from last season — 65.49 percent of the team's scoring — which is the fifth-highest total in the NCAA returning, and the team's returning scoring percentage is 10th-best heading into the 2025-26 season.
 

COMBINED SOPHOMORE SCORING

Last season the Illinois State sophomore scoring duo of Johnny Kinziger and Chase Walker have combined to score 1,042 points, the highest sophomore scoring pair in program history. The duo is also the third-highest pair of scoring sophomores in the country, trailing only UC Riverside and Toledo. Chase and Johnny also became just the eighth set of sophomores in the NCAA since 2020-21 to each have each scored 500 points in the same season.
 

HIGH EXPECTATIONS

Returning three of its top four scorers from last season, including two All-Missouri Valley Conference selections, the 2025-26 Illinois State men's basketball team — and players on the team — have high expectations put on it from numerous preseason prognostications. Mid-Major Madness, Lindy's Basketball Magazine, Blue Ribbon Basketball Magazine, and the MVC media poll have the Redbirds picked to win the MVC in 2025-26. Mid-Major Madness, Lindy's Basketball Magazine, and Blue Ribbon all have returning forward Chase Walker named as the Preseason Player of the Year, while Johnny Kinziger was named to the Preseason First Team by Blue Ribbon Basketball Magazine and Lindy's Basketball Magazine. The Field of 68 ranked Illinois State as the #3 Mid-Major Team in the country in their preseason poll, while also naming Walker the Mid-Major Preseason Player of the Year.

MAKING AT HISTORIC LEVELS

Last season the Redbirds made 48.2 percent of their shots from the field, which stood as the ninth-best total in program history. The team's free throw percentage of 74.9 was the seventh-highest total in program history.
 

EFFECTIVELY MAKING

In the statistical category effective field goal percentage (essentially giving more weight to three-pointers because they are worth an extra point compared to two-pointers), the Redbirds had the 13-highest effective field goal percentage in the country. 
 

BIG-LITTLE REBOUNDING

Last season Johnny Kinziger pulled down 137 rebounds over the course of the season, which are the fourth-most in the NCAA last season among players that are 5-11 or shorter.
 

LONG MAKES

ISU sophomore Jack Daugherty had 59 made three-pointers last season as a freshman, and among players with at least 50 long-range makes, he ranked fourth in three-point percentage.
 

LOW TURNOVERS

Last season, in 36 games, Illinois State had 14 games with single-digit turnovers. Since 1988-89, last season's total is the most in a season, and recently bested the previous record of 12 set a season earlier.

YOUNG RECORD PACE

Last season Illinois State freshman Jack Daugherty made 59 three-point field goals, while making nearly half of the tries. He became just the 11th freshman in NCAA Division I basketball since 2014-15 to have made at least 55 three-point field goals while making at least 47.5 percent of his tries. 
 

HIGH ON MAKES AND PERCENTAGE

This season the Redbirds rank 22nd in the NCAA in three-point field percentage (.376) and 30th in three-pointers per game (9.8). There are just nine other schools to finish in the top-30 in both categories, and the Redbirds had faced off against three of the teams on the list last season.