Four players from the Illinois State men’s basketball team have been named to the 2026 Missouri Valley Conference (MVC) Scholar-Athlete First Team. The announcement was made by the conference on Thursday morning. The athletes recognized are Landon Wolf, Johnny Kinziger, Ty Pence, and Jack Daugherty.
Illinois State had more players selected for this honor than any other school in the MVC. Selection for the Scholar-Athlete Team follows criteria similar to those used by College Sports Communicators for Academic All-America nominations. To be eligible, student-athletes must have at least a 3.50 cumulative GPA as an undergraduate or graduate student, meet academic and athletic standing requirements of at least sophomore status, and either play in at least 75 percent of regular season games or start in at least half of their team’s games.
Wolf is a senior from Cedar Falls, Iowa, with a 3.93 GPA in risk management and insurance. He averages 7.1 points and 4.9 rebounds per game this season, shooting 51.6 percent from the field and 40.2 percent from three-point range with 25 steals.
Kinziger is a junior from De Pere, Wisconsin, holding a 3.61 GPA in finance. He ranks second on the Redbirds in scoring with an average of 11.5 points per game and leads the team with 98 assists and 37 steals.
Pence is a junior from St. Joseph, Illinois, maintaining a 3.74 GPA in business administration. He averages 9.1 points and 4.4 rebounds per game while contributing 53 assists, 13 steals, and ten blocked shots this season.
Daugherty is a sophomore from Brookfield, Wisconsin, with a GPA of 3.79 in sport communication. This year he has made 22 three-point field goals and averages 3.1 points per game along with collecting 43 rebounds and six steals.
The Redbirds will begin their participation in the MVC Tournament on Friday evening at 8:30 p.m., facing off against either Northern Iowa or Evansville depending on Thursday night’s result.
Illinois State Redbirds benefits from resources such as the Redbird Athletics Excellence Fund to support competitiveness and recruitment efforts within its programs (https://goredbirds.com/). The men’s basketball team started its season strong with an early record of eight wins out of ten games (https://goredbirds.com/). Student-athletes prepare using facilities like the OSF HealthCare Athletics Training Center (https://goredbirds.com/), while Illinois State Redbirds remains closely connected to Illinois State University (https://goredbirds.com/). The athletics department provides news updates, schedules, rosters, fan resources (https://goredbirds.com/), and competes across NCAA Division I events nationally (https://goredbirds.com/).
