Illinois State Men’s Basketball Starts the Regular Season in Ohio

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NORMAL, Ill. – After two exhibition games, the Redbirds are ready to roll for their regular season.

ISU heads to Athens, Ohio, to face the University of Ohio. This is the second matchup of the Redbirds and Bobcats home-and-home series that started last season. Last season at CEFCU Arena, the Redbirds won against Ohio by a score of 85 to 75.

This is Ohio’s second matchup of the season as they hosted Arkansas State on Nov. 3. The Bobcats are 0-1 to start the season after losing to the Redwolves 89-85.

Heading into season openers, Illinois State is 82-45 all-time. This is the first time since the 2020-21 season that the Redbirds open the season on the road. Their last season-opening road victory came back in the 2009-10 season.

While this is the opening to Illinois State’s regular season, the Redbirds got some preseason games in back in October. The first exhibition on Oct. 19, they were on the road at Illinois. ISU lost to the Fighting Illini with a final score of 92-65. The second exhibition matchup was at Northwestern on Oct. 29. Illinois State also lost that one to the Wildcats 100-65.

Illinois State, coming off a CBI Championship last season, is looking to have its best season in a long time. ISU is returning the fifth-highest scoring total in the NCAA with 1,786. The duo of Chase Walker and Johnny Kinziger combined for 1,042.

Jack Daugherty is coming off an impressive freshman season, where the guard made 59 three pointers, with a .476 shooting percentage. Daugherty helped the Redbirds demolish the school record for most threes made in a season. The new record being set with 341 three pointers to the previous record being 301.

Being picked as the preseason favorites to win the Missouri Valley Conference, ISU is looking to make a March Madness birth for the first time since 1998.

To stay up to date throughout the Redbird men’s basketball season, follow along here on WZND.com