Announced on March 7, 2022, former Ohio State assistant coach Ryan Pedon was named as the 20th head coach in Illinois State men’s basketball history and is in his fourth season in leading the Redbird program.

Last season his squad won 22 games - the most overall wins since 2016-17 - a seven-win improvement from the year before, and the team won 4+ games more than the previous season in back-to-back years for just the second time in program history. The team's 22-19 record included a championship in the 2025 Purple CBI. Chase Walker was named First Team All-MVC, ISU's first first-team award winner in seven seasons, while Johnny Kinziger was named to the All-MVC second team. Walker was named the MVC Most IMproved Player, while freshman Jack Daugherty was named to the MVC All-Freshman and All-Bench teams, with point guard Dalton Banks earning a spot on the MVC All-Defensive Team. 

In 2024-25 the team's KenPom offensive rating was the highest in program history, and the team set school records for most total points and most three-pointers in a season. The team's field goal percentage of .482 is the highest in 28 years, and the team's effective field goal percentage was 14th nationally and the highest in program history.

His second season saw a four-win improvement, and the team had its highest assist-to-turnover ratio for the season since the 2016-17 season, and freshman Johnny Kinziger earned a spot on the All-Freshman and All-Bench teams during the year.

In his first season as head coach of the Redbirds, ISU finished the season 11-21 while setting a new program record for free throw percentage with .793 (was .775 from the 2001-02 season). He inherited a roster that had saw five of his top six scorers coming in to ISU for their first season, and had four players average at least nine points per game.

Pedon had spent the last five seasons at Ohio State after joining the staff in the summer of 2017. In his time with the Buckeyes, OSU has a record of 106-53 with an NCAA tournament berth during each of his seasons in Columbus, with two trips to the NCAA second round. 

In 2021-22 while with the Buckeyes, he helped lead two players – E.J. Liddell and Malaki Branham – to All-Big Ten honors, in addition to being drafted in the 2022 NBA Draft (Branham with the 20th pick to San Antonio and Liddell with the 41st pick to New Orleans. That season the Buckeyes went 20-12 during the season, and advanced to the second round of the 2022 NCAA Tournament.

During the 2020-21 season the Buckeyes finished with a 21-10 record – including a win over Illinois State in the season opener – before falling in the NCAA Tournament opener. During the season he helped lead an offense that finished third in the conference in scoring offense and put two players on All-Big Ten teams including a second-team placement to Liddell, as Duane Washington Jr. was named to the All-Big Ten Third Team.

A pandemic-shortened 2019-20 season saw the Buckeyes were 21-10 and had a projected berth into the NCAA Tournament before the team’s Big Ten Tournament appearance – and subsequent NCAA Tournament appearance – was canceled because of the pandemic.

During the 2018-19 season the Buckeyes put together a 20-15 record during the season with a first round NCAA Tournament win over Iowa State.

In his and head coach Chris Holtmann’s first season in Columbus, 2017-18, the Buckeyes finished with a 25-9 overall record with an appearance in the NCAA Second Round. During the season, Pedon helped mentor consensus All-American and Big Ten Player of the Year Keita Bates Diop, who was eventually selected with the 48th pick in the 2018 NBA Draft, while Holtmann earned Big Ten Coach of the Year honors. Jae’Sean Tate – also a member of Pedon’s inaugural season with the Buckeyes – ended up as an undrafted free agent who has played the last two seasons with the Houston Rockets.

He made the transition to Columbus alongside Holtmann from Butler, where he had helped the Bulldogs tally a 47-20 record in two seasons with two NCAA Tournament berths in Indianapolis.

In the 2016-17, the Bulldogs cruised to a 25-9 record, advancing to the NCAA Sweet 16 where they were ousted by eventual National Champion North Carolina in the opening game of the South Regional. Two players – Andrew Chrabascz and Kelan Martin earned All-BIG EAST honors during the season, as Holtmann was named the conference’s Coach of the Year. Martin went undrafted before spending parts of the last three seasons in the NBA with the Indiana Pacers and Minnesota Timberwolves.

The season prior, the Bulldogs finished the season with a 22-11 overall record, including a 10-8 mark in BIG EAST play. The team advanced to the NCAA Tournament, topping Texas Tech in the opener before falling to a Malcolm Brogdon-led Virginia squad in the second round. That season two Butler players – Roosevelt Jones and Martin – were named to the All-Conference second team, with Kellen Dunham earning honorable mention honors.

Prior to joining the Bulldogs he spent two seasons at Illinois as an assistant to the head coach for former Illini head coach John Groce. In his two seasons in Champaign the Illini twice advanced to the NIT. He has also spent time as an assistant coach at Toledo (2010-13) and Miami (Ohio) (2005-10), was director of basketball operations at Kent State from 2002-05 and was a graduate assistant at Miami (Ohio) from 2000-2002.

Pedon played college basketball at the College of Wooster, where he was a three-year letterwinner and helped the Fighting Scots to three NCAA Tournaments and three North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) regular-season championships. In 2000, he won Wooster's prestigious "Bear Award".

He received his bachelor's degree in communications from Wooster in 2000 and a master's degree in sport organization from Miami (Ohio) in 2002. He and his wife Stephanie have a son, Maddox.