Is Illinois State the New Valley Favorite?

Ryan Pedon’s Team is Loaded

(St. Louis, MO) – Chase Walker is back. Johnny Kinziger is back. So are Ty Pence, Landon Wolf and Jack Daugherty. Is Illinois State the new Valley favorite? Redbird head coach Ryan Pedon has also signed a top-flight freshman class. If the season started today, the Redbirds would be the heavy favorites to win the Missouri Valley Championship.

Pedon’s spring season has been spectacular. The Redbirds participated in and won the ‘Purple College Basketball Invitational’. Illinois State (22-14) defeated Presbyterian, Incarnate Word and Cleveland State. Pedon says playing in a postseason tournament was a great experience for his young team.

 

Illinois State averaged 78.6 points per game and his players learned what it was like to play ‘tournament basketball’ in March. Pedon says any kind of win you achieve in March is a great learning lesson. He says his seniors helped the younger players know how to prepare.

Returning Stars = New Valley Favorite

The return of the sophomore class of Walker, Kinziger and Pence is enormous. Walker was the first to commit to return and the other dominos followed. Those are three are three of the top four scorers from last year’s team. The 6’9 Walker is the only first-team, all-Valley player returning to the MVC. Kinziger is the only second-teamer coming back. Northern Iowa’s Trey Campbell is the only third-teamer returning.

Three members of the league’s all-freshman team return and Illinois State’s Daugherty is one of them. Pedon says winning the CBI helped the players choose to return, but it wasn’t the deciding factor.

Walker was the first to commit to return and that brought some momentum to the idea of all those players returning. Pedon is quick to point out that he wants what is best for each individual player and prioritizes that above his own desires. However, this group of sophomores, Daugherty and Wolf all began to see that by returning, something special could be achieved.

Walker led the team in scoring (15.2 ppg) and rebounding (6.2).While Kinziger was second in scoring (14.6), he led the Redbirds in three-pointers (78), assists (101) and free throw percentage (.896). Daugherty connected on an outstanding .476 of his long distance shots.

While each player’s decision was made individually, Pedon says those sophomores have a lot of pride in what they are pursuing and they have a high level of camaraderie.

Flying a little under the radar are the return of Boden Skunberg and Brandon Lieb. Skunberg was an all-Summit League player in 2023 and missed all of last season with an injury. Pedon expected big things out of the 7’1 Lieb last year, but he too, sat the entire campaign with injury problems.

Loaded Rookie Crop

Pedon put together an outstanding, four-person, freshman class. Tyreek Coleman and Nick Allen are two of the State of Illinois’ top ten prep players. The 6’11 Allen and the 6’2 Coleman are each, two-time all-state players. Allen amassed nearly 1,600 high school points. Coleman accumulated over 1,300.

Pedon is excited about the potential of his two Land of Lincoln players, but also believes they can contribute this coming season. He describes Coleman as an electric athlete.

Out of state players Mason Klabo and Isaac Ericson are on their way to Bloomington-Normal. Klabo is the top ranked player and all-time leading scorer (2,395 career points) in the State of North Dakota. Pedon says Klabo’s competitiveness reminds him of Kinziger’s. Ericson hails from North Carolina where he scored over 1,800 points.

Pedon says they ‘stumbled upon’ Ericson and he believes they’ve found a jewel.

 

Head to YouTube to watch our entire interview. We discuss the ‘War on 74’, the ‘portal pandemic’ and much more. We call that video, ‘Ryan Pedon’s Great Offseason’.

With Walker and Kinziger leading the way, there seems to be little question that Illinois State will be the new Valley favorite.

Do Good

 

Editor: Cover photo of Johnny Kinziger, courtesy of the Missouri Valley Conference.