The Illinois State Redbirds men's basketball team represents

Illinois State University Illinois State University (ISU) is a public research university in Normal, Illinois, United States. It was founded in 1857 as Illinois State Normal University and is the oldest public university in Illinois. The university emphasizes teachin ...

, located in

Normal, Illinois Normal is a town in McLean County, Illinois, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the town's population was 52,736. Normal is the smaller of two principal cities of the Bloomington–Normal metropolitan area, and is I ...

, in

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...

Division I

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

competition. They are currently led by head coach Ryan Pedon and play their home games at CEFCU Arena as a member of the

Missouri Valley Conference The Missouri Valley Conference (also called MVC or simply "The Valley") is the fourth-oldest collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States. The conference's members are primarily located in the Midwestern Unite ...

. They have the distinction of earning the most

National Invitation Tournament The National Invitation Tournament (NIT) is an annual men's college basketball tournament operated by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Since 2023, all rounds of the tournament are played at various sites across the country whi ...

berths (14) without making the semifinals, and also have the longest current NCAA tournament drought (26 seasons) among

members. The Redbirds have appeared in the NCAA tournament six times, most recently in 1998.

Season-by-season records

NCAA Division I

Source

Postseason

NCAA Division I

The Redbirds have appeared in six NCAA Tournaments. Their combined record is 3–6. Source

NCAA Division II

Illinois State made the NCAA Division II men's basketball tournament five times and had a combined record of 6–7.

NIT results

The Redbirds have appeared in 14

s (NIT). Their combined record is 11–14. Source

CBI results

The Redbirds have appeared in the College Basketball Invitational (CBI) twice. Their combined record is 5–1. They turned down a bid in the 2015–16 season and again in the 2017–18 season. They were the 2025 champion. Source

Players

Retired numbers

Illinois State has retired only one number in program history, that of first-team All-American and Olympian Doug Collins.

Redbirds drafted into the NBA

Redbirds in international leagues

Jackie Carmichael Jackie Carmichael (born January 2, 1990) is an American professional basketball player who last played for KK Igokea, Igokea of the Adriatic League (ABA) and the Basketball Championship of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bosnian League. He was a standout ...

(born 1990) * Daishon Knight (born 1991) * Nic Moore (born 1992) * Zach Lofton (born 1992) * DeVaughn Akoon-Purcell (born 1993) * Deontae Hawkins (born 1993) * Nick Banyard (born 1994) * Kaza Kajami-Keane (born 1994) * Reggie Lynch (born 1994), for Bnei Herzliya of the

Israeli Basketball Premier League Ligat HaAl (, lit., ''Supreme League or Premier League''), or the Israeli Basketball Premier League, is a professional basketball league in Israel and the highest level of basketball in the country. The league's name is abbreviated as either BSL ...

* Paris Lee (born 1995) * Elijah Clarance (born 1998)

Rivalries

The I-74 Rivalry is the rivalry between Illinois State and Bradley.

Plane crash

On April 7, 2015, while flying home from the NCAA Tournament Final game in Indianapolis, a plane carrying Illinois State assistant coach Torrey Ward and six others crashed just outside Bloomington, Illinois, leaving no survivors.

References

External links

* * {{Missouri Valley Conference men's basketball navbox