There’s a new favorite in the race for the Missouri Valley Conference men’s basketball title.
For the first time in two-plus decades, Illinois State was picked to win the St. Louis-based league in a preseason poll released Monday.
The Redbirds haven’t finished in the top four since 2017-18, but thanks to the strength of their returnees, the league’s coaches, sports information directors and media members backed the Redbirds.
In an era when mass transfers are common, Illinois State retained its top two scorers, Chase Walker and Johnny Kinzinger. The two are the only returnees from last year’s first- and second-team postseason all-conference teams. The other four would-be all-conference returnees across the league transferred to higher-profile conferences.
Overall, Illinois State returns more than 65% of its scoring from a year ago, a rarity in this age and especially at the mid-major level.
“They’re in a very healthy environment here,” coach Ryan Pedon said during an interview released by the league. “And I’m sure there’s a lot of healthy environments across the country where guys didn’t stay, so I feel really fortunate at the end of the day. Yeah, we’ve got a handful of guys that could have made a lot more money, probably, somewhere else. But we were we were fortunate. We were lucky.”
Pedon, a former Ohio State assistant entering his fourth year, has improved the Redbirds’ conference record each year, from 6-14 in his first season to 10-10 last year. ISU won the College Basketball Invitational postseason tournament last season.
The Redbirds, who received 34 of 46 first-place votes, will gain scoring in Boden Skunberg, who racked up more than 1,000 points at North Dakota State but sat out at Illinois State last year due to injury.
“We love his grittiness, his competitiveness,” Pedon said. “I think he has a real edge, competitive edge, that he plays with. So we identify with all the intangible qualities that he brings to the table.”
Northern Iowa, with eight first-place votes, was picked second. The Panthers are led by Ben Jacobson, the league’s all-time wins leader. He is in his 19th season in Cedar Falls.
Murray State, under the direction of new head coach Ryan Miller, received the other four first-place votes and was picked to finish third.
Bradley, which has finished in the top three each of the past three seasons, was selected fourth. Belmont was picked fifth, and the poll did not rank any teams below fifth place.
Rankings site EvanMiya.com puts Southern Illinois Carbondale and Illinois-Chicago in that next tier, just outside of the top five.
For the second straight offseason, the coach of the league’s top team departed, taking a couple of the conference’s top players with him to his new home.
Ben McCollum took the Iowa job in March after leading Drake to the MVC title last season, and the league’s top player, Bennett Stirtz, joined him. Much like Indiana State a year ago after coach Josh Schertz left for St. Louis University and brought Robbie Avila and Isaiah Swope with him, the Bulldogs are expected to finish toward the bottom of the league.
Early computer rankings have the league again among the nation’s top 10 conferences.
The conference’s postseason tournament, Arch Madness, returns to Enterprise Center again next March, this time with a slight tweak. There are only 11 teams after Missouri State departed for Conference USA in a move to upgrade its football program.
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Ethan Erickson | Post-Dispatch
Digital production editor
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