NORMAL — Ryan Pedon got together with his team for individual player meetings in the week before Illinois State held its first official practice for the 2025-26 men’s college basketball season last month.

The fourth-year Redbirds coach and former Illinois assistant didn’t limit those meetings to his office. Or even Illinois State’s home venue at CEFCU Arena.

Pedon met with Ty Pence at a coffee shop in Normal the day before that first practice. Part of their discussion centered on how much had changed since Pence’s freshman season.

The former St. Joseph-Ogden standout arrived at Illinois State as key recruit in the Class of 2023. A top 10 player in the state and top 50 at his position nationally with a handful of power-conference offers. That made getting the 6-foot-6, 205-pound Pence to pick the Redbirds a big deal.

What transpired that first season wasn’t what Pence — or Illinois State — expected. He started once in 24 games as a true freshman and ultimately filled a small, inconsistent role off the bench as the Redbirds finished with a 15-17 record that included a first-round exit at the Missouri Valley Conference tournament and no postseason play.

“His freshman year didn’t go as he wanted, as he would have planned,” Pedon said. “It showed so much character on his behalf and the people in his life and the people around him to stay the course. In this era, we all know, probably 95 percent of guys that didn’t have a good season as a freshman and expected to do better would have gone straight to the portal. He didn’t. To me, that defines him.”

Sticking with it

Pence avoided the transfer portal after the 2023-24 season, saw his role grow last season as a sophomore and now returns again for Illinois State an upperclassmen with leadership responsibilities on a team with real NCAA tournament expectations.

The Redbirds were picked as the Missouri Valley Conference favorites, and Pence and Co. will get their first chance to test themselves at 2 p.m. Sunday in an exhibition against No. 17 Illinois at State Farm Center in Champaign.

Pence can look back at his freshman season with some positive perspective. At least now. In the moment? It was tougher to deal with then.

“There’s a lot of things I’m really thankful about the way my freshman year went,” Pence said. “There were a lot of struggles, but it really taught me what I need to improve on and things I could learn from it. I think that’s really helped me push to become the player I am today.”

Pence had to learn how to fail after blitzing through a high school career that saw him earn All-State honors his final three seasons, win The News-Gazette’s All-Area Player of the Year honor in 2023 and leave SJ-O as the Spartans’ all-time leading scorer with 2,328 points. And he had to learn that it was OK to fail.

Lessons he applied last season in a bigger role for Illinois State because he never considered leaving. That he never saw or felt Pedon waver in his support was a difference.

“Throughout that (freshman) year in the morning after almost every single game when I wasn’t playing as much, he would come in here and work out with me,” Pence said. “That’s just something that’s always stuck with me. It shows he cares about his players and he wants what’s best for us.

“He’s always stuck with me and continued to push me. He never babied me in those situations and he always told me to stay with it and it would reward me in the end.”

Having a support system

Pence had the support of his teammates — and roommates — Chase Walker and Johnny Kinziger during that difficult freshman season. Those three have formed the core of Illinois State’s preseason MVC favorites heading into this season, but two years ago, they were all new — all feeling out how they fit at the college level.

“We saw everything from Ty (freshman year),” said Kinzinger, a 5-11, 170-pound junior guard who averaged 14.6 points last season. “It didn’t go as he planned. It didn’t go as he hoped. He never flinched. He always kept an upbeat spirit and just came back every day working. It just shows who he really is.”

“Super positive, super resilient and a great teammate is how I would describe Ty,” added Walker, a 6-9, 280-pound forward who averaged a team-high 15.2 points and 6.2 rebounds last season. “He’s always there when I need him.”

The support he receives doesn’t just come from those close to him at Illinois State. But also those from his hometown.

“He’s such a great kid, and he’s so easy to root for,” said Brian Brooks, the SJ-O Superintendent and former Spartans boys’ basketball coach. “Being the head coach here for 15 years, we had some good players, but we never had a player like him. You don’t have a player like him at St. Joseph-Ogden very often. I don’t know if people understand that. You just don’t.”

Watching from afar these days, Brooks said Pence staying at Illinois State despite some early struggles speaks to the type of person Pence is.

“It’s something he should be super proud of is he’s fought through the adversity and come up on the other side,” Brooks said. “It’s really hard to play college basketball. You go from getting 20-plus shots a game in high school to maybe getting three or four in a college game, and people expect every one to go in, and if they don’t go in, people think you’re not any good. It’s just tough to deal with. Most players today can’t deal with the roller-coaster ride of not playing much one night and then playing a lot the next. He has. He’s come out on the top side of it. I thought he had a great sophomore season, especially at the end. He’s in line to have a phenomenal junior year.”

Starting to break through

Pence said the spring after his freshman season was where he decided to make the mental switch to not have a repeat performance in year two. That he wouldn’t let it happen again. That he’d put in the work required to get physically and mentally stronger.

Pence returned for the 2024-25 season and was a part-time starter for Illinois State. He played in all 36 games, transitioning from a starting role early in the season to a primary role off the bench in mid-January. He was just as effective in both, averaging 7.4 points and 4.0 rebounds while shooting 52 percent from the field, 37 percent from three-point range and 83 percent from the free-throw line.

Pence was even better in postseason play as Illinois State went 22-14 and won the College Basketball Invitational title. He earned all-tournament team honors during the Redbirds’ run to a CBI championship and put up 14.3 points and 6.3 rebounds per game while shooting 61 percent overall and 57 percent from three-point range in three CBI games.

“Late in the season last year, I saw a different look in his eyes,” Pedon said. “I saw a competitive edge that was game-changing for us. … He’s as good a teammate as I’ve ever been around in 25 years. He has battled some tough times. He has never flinched. I’m so proud of Ty Pence and the guy that he’s become — not only the player. What you’re seeing is a total maturation here on and off the floor.”

Pence said the way he practiced between the end of the MVC tournament and CBI last season gave him a sense of how successful his how postseason run might be.

That successful finish to his sophomore season propelled him into the offseason where he, and the rest of the Redbirds’ returning players, decided to run it back and try to be the first Illinois State team to make the NCAA tournament since 1998. It’s why Pence, Walker and Kinziger all chose another year together.

“We’re still all roommates,” Pence said. “Those two, those are my best friends. We’ve been together since day one. We all push each other. It’s crazy that we’re already juniors. (Reaching the NCAA tournament is) a goal we’ve put to ourselves since we got here. We hope we can get it done.”