Coach Steven Pearl and Auburn were gutted when the NCAA tournament selection committee left them out of the field.
“When I told the guys of our intention to play in the NIT, just being totally transparent, it was difficult because all year our sights had been set on making the (NCAA) tournament and trying to make a run,” Pearl said.
At Illinois State, coach Ryan Pedon sent his team home for nearly a week after an early exit in the Missouri Valley Conference quarterfinals. With the MVC tournament taking place a week before Selection Sunday, it was a rare opportunity for the players to clear their heads.
The Redbirds didn’t know if the NIT would include them, but Pedon called everyone back to campus for practice in the days leading up to Selection Sunday.
“Once we got that call that we were going to make it, we were all excited. We knew we had a chance to prove ourselves,” guard Johnny Kinziger said.
Despite the opposing emotions heading into the NIT, both teams have rattled off three consecutive wins to set up an NIT semifinal matchup Thursday. Auburn (20-16) versus Illinois State (23-12) will tip off at 8:30 p.m. from Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.
Their game will follow New Mexico versus Tulsa, which tips off at 6 p.m. The winners will play at 7 p.m. Sunday at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.
Here are three things to know about a resurgent Illinois State team and its matchup with Auburn.
1. Illinois State, the preseason MVC favorite, rallied after a disappointing finish.
Coming into the season, the Redbirds returned three of their top four scorers and 65% of the team’s scoring. In this day and age, that’s a rarity in college basketball.
Given the returning firepower, Illinois State was picked as the preseason favorite to win the MVC.
But after a 4-0 start to conference play, things didn’t quite go to plan in January and February. Illinois State finished with a 12-8 conference mark. Belmont won the MVC regular-season title, and it was sixth-seeded Northern Iowa that upset Illinois State in the MVC tournament quarterfinals and went on to win the conference’s automatic berth in the NCAA Tournament.
“Our season ended abruptly in the Missouri Valley Conference tournament, disappointingly,” Pedon said. “It wasn’t our best night. Our guys were very disappointed.”
The extra week off prior to the NIT selection gave Illinois State a chance to reset. The Redbirds beat Kent State by 21 points at home in the NIT’s opening round. They then won road games at Wake Forest and at Dayton.
As No. 1 seeds in the NIT, Auburn, New Mexico and Tulsa all had home-court advantage en route to Indianapolis. Not so with the Redbirds.
“They had the two best wins out of anyone that’s here right now with wins at Wake Forest and wins at Dayton,” Pearl said. “I wish I could say that those teams just weren’t excited to play them, but that’s not the case.”
Auburn overcame a slow start to beat South Alabama in the first round, then beat Seattle and Nevada for a spot in the semifinals.
2. The power conference vs. mid-major debate continues for another night.
Two weeks ago, there was much discussion about Miami (Ohio)’s inclusion in the NCAA Tournament. The RedHawks earned an at-large bid, despite no Quad 1 opponents on their schedule, and it made for a juicy debate.
Their inclusion in the field came at a cost for Auburn, which was among the teams on the bubble. The RedHawks proved themselves with a win over SMU in the First Four, but for the second year in a row there were no mid-major teams in the Sweet 16.
With the landscape the way it is now, good mid-major teams have a hard time scheduling power conference opponents. Northwestern and USC were the only power conference opponents on Illinois State’s schedule this year (the Redbirds lost both games).
“If you’re trying to beat the system and the metrics like most of them are — I’ve been on the other side, I know those conversations, I know how that goes — you don’t want to play a Missouri Valley Conference team that’s picked to win their league,” Pedon said. “So it goes with the territory for us.”
Already with a win over Wake Forest in this tournament, Illinois State will get its shot Thursday against an Auburn program that was in the Final Four a year ago.
“It’s (about) being able to compete with people that’s at the highest level,” Illinois State forward Chase Walker said. “If you’re a basketball guy and you like this game, that’s kind of what you want to do.”
3. A return to Hinkle Fieldhouse is a homecoming for Redbirds coach Ryan Pedon.
Illinois State is 71-64 in four years with Pedon at the helm, including back-to-back 20-win seasons. The 47-year-old coach is cherishing the opportunity to play at Butler’s historic Hinkle Fieldhouse. Pedon served as an assistant coach at Butler for two seasons under Chris Holtmann from 2015-17.
“My most meaningful stop without question was here,” Pedon said. “It had the greatest effect on me as a professional.”
Pedon said he models his Illinois State program after a Butler program that was a perennial NCAA Tournament team back then. Pedon followed Holtmann to Ohio State in 2017 before landing the Illinois State job in 2022. He also had past stops as an assistant at Miami (Ohio), Toledo and Illinois.
With the NIT and the Final Four both in Indianapolis, it presents a unique opportunity for the NIT to remain at the forefront of the basketball consciousness ahead of Saturday’s national semifinals.
“It’s brilliant,” Pearl said. “I know the NIT is probably going to be in Indy moving forward, (but) I think it makes a lot of sense for the NIT to be where the Final Four is every year. I think that would incentivize more teams at our level to play in the NIT.”