forward Chase Walker | Illinois State Redbirds
forward Chase Walker | Illinois State Redbirds
For the first time in over two decades, the Illinois State University men's basketball team has been selected as the preseason favorite to win the Missouri Valley Conference (MVC). The announcement was made on Monday following a poll conducted among MVC head coaches, media members, and school communication professionals.
Illinois State received 34 out of 46 first-place votes, accumulating a total of 487 points. This put them ahead of Northern Iowa, which earned eight first-place votes and 442 points. Murray State followed with four first-place votes and 385 points, while Bradley and Belmont rounded out the top five with 370 and 344 points respectively.
This marks the Redbirds' first preseason top pick since the 2001-02 season and is only the fifth time they have held this position since 1985-86.
Last season, Illinois State finished with a record of 22-14 and won the Purple CBI postseason tournament. The team returns players responsible for scoring a combined total of 1,786 points last year. This figure represents approximately 65.49 percent of their total scoring from last season, ranking as the fifth-highest returning point total in NCAA Division I basketball for this year.
Among those returning is forward Chase Walker, who was named to the All-MVC First Team last season and served as captain of the MVC Most Improved Team. Johnny Kinziger also returns after earning All-MVC Second Team honors; Walker and Kinziger averaged 15.2 and 14.6 points per game respectively during their previous campaign. Additional returners include guard Ty Pence (7.4 ppg), Jack Daugherty—who was recognized on both All-Freshman and All-Bench Teams (6.3 ppg; made nearly half his three-point attempts)—and Landon Wolf (6.3 ppg).
The Redbirds will begin their season with exhibition games against Illinois on October 19 at 2 p.m., followed by Northwestern on October 29 at 7 p.m. Their regular-season opener is scheduled for November 6 in Athens, Ohio against Ohio University’s Bobcats. The home opener will take place on November 9 against Cornell.
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