EVANSVILLE, Ind. - The Illinois State men's basketball team takes to the road for a Wednesday evening battle against two of the seven schools tied for fourth place in the MVC standings, as the Redbirds and Aces face off at 7 p.m. inside the Ford Center.

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 332 position rankings and .116 percentage points and currently rank seventh in the country in three-point field goal percentage
• ISU's 10-5 record is the team's best 15-game start to a season since the team opened the 2016-17 season with an 11-4 mark 
• Illinois State is one of two schools in NCAA Division I basketball to rank inside of the top-20 in field goal percentage, three-point field goal percentage, and free throw percentage
• If maintained, ISU's .408 three-point field goal percentage is on pace to be the fourth-best single-season average in school history
• Illinois State fifth-year forward Caden Boser stands just five points away from reaching 1,000 for his collegiate career, spanning his time at UMKC, Valdosta, and now ISU
• Jack Daugherty's 34 three-point baskets are the 11th-most in a season by an ISU freshman in program history
• Malachi Poindexter has made 86.8 percent of his free throw tries over his three-year Redbird career, which is the 29th-highest active career percentage in the NCAA
• This season the Illinois State Redbirds have had seven different players lead the team in scoring through the opening 15 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 six schools in the country to rank inside of the top-25 in the NCAA in both three-point field goals per game (10.6 - 21st) and three-point field goal percentage (.408 - 7th)
• Ty Pence is one of five players this season to have played at least 350 minutes with shooting percentages of .515 / .375 / .895
• This season Illinois State has a KenPom adjusted offensive percentage of 110.9, 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
• ISU's Chase Walker ranks ninth in the country in the KenPom stat Offensive Rebounding Percentage
• Seven 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

SCOUTING EVANSVILLE

Evansville comes into the mid-week game with a 5-10 overall record; however, have won two if its last three games with wins over Missouri State and Southern Illinois while falling to Indiana State.

In the team's 66-62 loss to the Sycamores, the Aces got 24 points from MVC Player of the Week Tayshawn Comer, as the junior made 7-of-16 shots from the field, while also dishing out seven assists and nabbing a pair of steals. Tanner Cuff scored 11 points for UE, while Joshua Hughes and Connor Turnbull each had 10 points. Hughes pulled down a game-high nine rebounds, and picked up five steals for the game-high.

Through 15 games on the season the team is led by Gabriel Pozzato, who is averaging 15.4 points per game; however, has not played in any of the team's last five games. Comer averages 13.1 points per game, with Cameron Haffner averaging 12.6. Cuff is just off the double-figure scoring pace at 8.8 points per game, as he also leads the team by averaging 6.3 rebounds per game.

Comer is the team leader with 55 assists, just ahead of Cuff's 46, while Cuff and Hughes share the team lead with 19 steals. Connor Turnbull has a team-high 21 blocked shots, with Hughes just behind with 18.

SHOOTING STARS

Illinois State is one of two schools in the country to rank inside of the top-20 in field goal percentage, three-point field goal percentage and free throw percentage. The sum of ISU's three rankings is 42 (18th in FG%, seventh in 3FG%, 17th in FT%), and is the second-lowest sum in the country.

FRESHMAN DEEP MAKES

Through the first 15 games of the season, Illinois State freshman Jack Daugherty has made 34 three-point field goals, which is the 11th-most in a season by a freshman in program history. In his last game - the team's win over Southern Illinois - he passed former Redbird and current member of the New Orleans Pelicans Antonio Reeves.
 

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 seventh in the NCAA in three-point field percentage (40.8) and 21st in three-pointers per game (10.6). There are just six schools in the country who rank inside of the top-25 in each category, including 2024-25 Redbird opponents North Dakota State and Bradley.

ONE OF A FEW

This season, Redbird sophomore Ty Pence is one of five players in the country this season who have played at least 350 minutes with shooting percentages of .515 or better from the field, .375 or better from long range (on at least 30 attempts), and at least .895 from the charity stripe.

NEAR-CONFERENCE RECORDS

In ISU's win over Trinity Christian, the Redbirds made 20-of-40 three-point field goals, which is tied for the third-most in a game in conference history. Against Belmont, Illinois State's 18 made three-pointers are the second-most in a MVC game in conference history

OFFENSIVE REBOUNDING PERCENTAGE

Through 15 games of the season, Illinois State forward Chase Walker ranks ninth in the country in the KenPom statistical category Offensive Rebounding Percentage. The statistic is the percentage of possible offensive rebounds a player gets, and the denominator is scaled based on the percentage of a team's minutes played by the player.

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 EFFICIENCY 

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 110.9, which is the highest total for ISU in the history of the KenPom ratings, which date back through the 1996-97 season.

PERCENTAGES ACROSS THE BOARD

Seven 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 highest this season with St. Thomas. Since 2004-05, the most such games in a season 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 10 games overall, with the No. 8 game coming from Illinois State's 84-83 win over UAB in the Virgin Islands, while the Redbird 99-97 overtime loss at Belmont are the 10th highest. 

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. 

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.