Purdue’s search for its first win of the season gets no break on Monday night, because Illinois State comes to Mackey Arena looking like a team with plenty of answers.
The Boilermakers are 0-2 after an 83-80 double-overtime loss to Valparaiso on Friday, with earlier defeat coming against Gonzaga. Now Matt Painter’s team has to deal with a Redbirds squad that brings experience, shooting and a staff that knows Purdue’s tendencies better than most.
One of the biggest edges Illinois State has is on the sideline. Assistant coach Ethan Morton spent his college career at Purdue from 2020-24 and was part of the program’s first Final Four run in more than 40 years. He’s only three seasons removed from playing under Painter, so he knows how the Boilermakers want to function on both ends.
Head coach Ryan Pedon also has deep Big Ten roots. Before taking over at Illinois State in 2022, he worked at Illinois as an assistant from 2013-15 and then at Ohio State from 2017-22.
The Redbirds also arrive with a roster built on experience. Eight players on the team have at least three years of college basketball under their belts, and many of them are among the top contributors. That matters in a game like this, especially in a place like Mackey Arena.
Illinois State has also been efficient offensively through two games. It opened with a 90-85 overtime loss to St.
Mary’s, then rolled past Central State 100-55 last Thursday. Three players are already scoring in double figures: Johnny Kinziger at 23.0 points per game, Malik Messina-Moore at 17.0, and Nick Allen at 10.0.
The shooting numbers jump off the page. Illinois State is hitting 55% from the field and 50.9% from three-point range.
The Redbirds went 13-of-27 from deep against St. Mary’s and 16-of-30 against Central State.
Six different players are shooting at least 44% from beyond the arc.
The top-end talent is there, too. Chase Walker and Kinziger have both earned All-MVC honors during their careers.
Walker was a first-team pick after the 2025-26 season, when he averaged 13.7 points, 5.5 rebounds and 2.1 assists per game. Kinziger was a second-team selection at the end of the 2024-25 season after putting up 14.6 points and 3.9 rebounds per contest.
Pedon’s program has also climbed every year since he arrived. Illinois State went 11-21 in his first season, improved to 15 wins the next year, then finished the 2024-25 campaign at 22-14 and won the CBI championship. Last season, the Redbirds went 23-13, finished third in the MVC, earned an NIT bid and reached the semifinal round before losing to Auburn 88-66.
So while Purdue is still trying to get its season moving, Illinois State walks in with momentum, veteran pieces and a track record that says this is no soft landing.
In Other News...
Purdue Makes A Late Defensive Change As Barry Odom Tries To Stop Slide
Purdues defensive struggles finally prompted a change after the loss to Maryland, with head coach Barry Odom moving on from defensive coordinator Kevin Kane effective immediately. Kane had been hired after the 2025 season and was no stranger to the program, having previously served as Purdues defensive coordinator in 2023 and 2024, but the Boilermakers issues on that side of the ball have only grown more difficult to ignore.
For Odom, the timing underscores how urgent the situation has become as Purdue tries to halt its slide and salvage some stability on defense. The move leaves the Boilermakers with a major staff question in the middle of the season, and it puts the focus squarely on how quickly they can reset before the next chance to respond on the field. [Read more 🡒]
Barry Odoms Purdue Defense Gamble Just Blew Up
Barry Odoms first major defensive move at Purdue has already come undone, with the Boilermakers parting ways with Kevin Kane after just nine games of the 2026 season. The decision came after a stretch of poor defensive play that left the unit under heavy criticism, and Odom has since acknowledged that bringing Kane in was a mistake.
Even with the dismissal, Purdue is still tied to Kane financially for the long haul, with his salary set to run through the end of his contract in December 2027. It is the kind of expensive misfire that underscores how quickly a staff decision can turn into a program-wide issue, especially when the results on the field never catch up to the expectation. [Read more 🡒]
Purdues Latest Collapse Exposed A Bigger Problem For Barry Odom
Purdues 34-29 loss to Maryland landed with the kind of thud that lingers beyond a single Saturday, especially for a program trying to steady itself under Barry Odom. Afterward, Odom met with the media alongside Ryan Browne, Charles Correa and DNylon Morrisette, and the mood was unmistakably grim as the Boilermakers tried to sort through another game that slipped away in the margins.
What made this one sting was how familiar the problems sounded. Odom pointed to defensive breakdowns and situational mistakes as the difference, the sort of issues that can turn a competitive afternoon into a frustrating loss in a hurry. For Purdue, the bigger concern is not just the result itself but the pattern it suggests, with the staff now facing a harder question about how quickly those lapses can be cleaned up. [Read more 🡒]