CARBONDALE, Ill. - The Illinois State men's basketball team looks to extend its two-game win streak on Tuesday night when the Birds travel to take on the Southern Illinois Salukis in a 7 p.m. Tuesday battle.
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 326 position rankings and .095 percentage points and currently rank 10th in the country in three-point field goal percentage
• Chase Walker is the MVC leader in field goal percentage, making 60 percent of his field goal tries on the season. He is on pace to be the first Redbird since Dinma Odiakosa in 2009-10 to lead the MVC in the statistic.
• Illinois State is one of two schools in the country to have two sophomores that average 15 points or more, as Chase Walker (15.6) and Johnny Kinziger (15.3) are joined by a duo from Toledo
• Among players with at least 50 three-point field goals made, Jack Daugherty's .495 percentage is second-highest in the NCAA
• This season Illinois State has had six games with five or fewer turnovers in a game, which is tied for the second-most this season in the NCAA
• ISU forward Chase Walker gets fouled at a rate of 7.6 fouls per 40 minutes, which is the seventh-highest rate in the NCAA
• Illinois State has an effective field goal percentage of .581, which is the third-best in the NCAA this season
• This season the Redbirds have had 13 games with single-digit turnovers, which is the most by an ISU squad in a season since at least 1988-89
• If maintained, ISU's .387 three-point field goal percentage is on pace to be the fourth-best single-season average in school history
• Jack Daugherty's 52 three-point baskets are the fourth-most in a season by an ISU freshman in program history
• Illinois State guards Johnny Kinziger (15th) and Malachi Poindexter (36th) rank inside of the top-40 in career free throw percentage. The Redbirds are one of four schools to have two student-athletes inside of the top-40
• The Redbirds are one of seven schools to rank inside of the top 25 of the NCAA in three-point field goals made, and three-point percentage
• Among players that are shorter than 6-0, ISU sophomore Johnny Kinziger has the sixth-highest field goal percentage in the country at 45.6 percent
• 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
• This season Illinois State has a KenPom adjusted offensive percentage of 114.8, which is the highest by a Redbird squad in the KenPom era (1996 to present)
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SCOUTING THE SALUKIS
Southern Illinois enters the mid-week game riding a four-game losing skid with losses at Bradley and at home against Belmont, Murray State, and Valparaiso.
In the most recent game, an 83-79 loss to the Valparaiso Beacons, Kennard Davis Jr. scored a team-high 21 points, leading five players in double-digit scoring. Ali Dibba scored 16 points, while Drew Steffe and Damien Mayo Jr. each scored 11, while Jarrett Hensley scored 10. Hensley pulled down a game-high 12 rebounds with the Salukis out-rebounding the Beacons 42-to-34 in the game. Davis Jr. gave out six assists, as the team had four steals in the contest.
Dibba is the team leader in scoring average during the season, at 16.8 points per game, with Davis second on the team at 15.9 points per game. Hensley also averages in double-figures at 10.7, while his 6.0 rebounds per game is the top mark on the squad.Â
Davis (70) and Steffe (64) are the team leaders in assists, as there are five total players that have 50 assists each. Hensley's 25 blocked shots are the team-leading total, while Dibba (44) and Davis Jr. (37) have the two highest assist totals for the Salukis.Â
PERCENTAGE PLAYS
Chase Walker has made 60 percent of his field goal tries this season, which is the best percentage in the MVC with two more regular-season games to go. His total is also on pace to be the eighth-best single-season field goal percentage in school history, and the first Redbird to shoot 60 percent or better since 2009-10. The last ISU player to lead the MVC in field goal percentage was Dinma Odiakosa, who made 61.1 percent of his field goal tries during the season in 2009-10.
SUPER SOPHS
Illinois State sophomores Chase Walker (15.6) and Johnny Kinziger (15.3) are one of two sets of sophomore teammates to each be averaging 15 or more points per game this season, with only the Toledo duo of Sonny Wilson (15.4) and Sam Lewis (15.4) matching the ISU pair.
EFFECTIVELY MAKING
In the statistical category effective field goal percentage (taking the sum of made field goals plus 0.5 times the made three-point field goals, then dividing that total by the total field goal attempts, essentially giving more weight to three-pointers because they are worth an extra point compared to two-pointers; the formula is: (FGM + (0.5 * 3PM)) / FGA), the Redbirds have the third-highest effective field goal percentage in the country.
SMALL FIELD GOALS
Illinois State guard Johnny Kinziger ranks sixth in the country in field goal percentage among players that are shorter than 6-0, and who have played at least 600 minutes this season.
FOULED A LOT
Illinois State sophomore forward Chase Walker draws an average of 7.6 fouls per 40 minutes played, the seventh-highest total in the country this season.
STRONG WITH THE BALL
Five times this season Illinois State has had games in which it has committed just five or fewer turnovers, five on November 7 at North Dakota State, on December 29 at home against UIC, and on February 1 against Valparaiso, and just four at home against Belmont on January 29 and against Bradley on February 19. Those are five of the eight lowest single-game turnover totals in program history.
FRESHMAN DEEP MAKES
Through the first 29 games of the season, Illinois State freshman Jack Daugherty has made 53 three-point field goals, which is the fourth-most in a season by a freshman in program history. His three-point field goal percentage  of .495 currently stands as the second-highest single-season total in program history, regardless of class.
HIGH ON MAKES AND PERCENTAGE
This season the Redbirds rank 13th in the NCAA in three-point field percentage (.387) and 21st in three-pointers per game (10.2). There are just six other schools to sit in the top-20 in both categories, and the Redbirds have faced off against three of them this season.
LOW TURNOVERS
This season, through 29 games, Illinois State has 13 games with single-digit turnovers. Since 1988-89, this season's total is the most in a season, and recently bested the previous record of 12 set last season.
EIGHT IS GREAT AND NINE IS FINE
This season Illinois State has strong depth across its lineup, as the team's eighth- (Jordan Davis) and ninth-leading scorers (Caden Boser) are averaging 5.3 and 4.5 points per game each. Among players who have seen action in at least half of their teams' games, Davis has the third-best eighth-player scoring average, while Boser has the second-highest 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 114.8, 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 115.9 this season is nearly 10 points higher than the previous season-high (dating back to the 1996-97 season).
PERCENTAGES ACROSS THE BOARD
Ten 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 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 21 games overall, with the No. 19 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 21st highest. ISU's win over UAB is the only game in the top-28 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.
