2017–18 Illinois State Redbirds men's basketball team


The 2017–18 Illinois State Redbirds men's basketball team represented Illinois State University during the 2017–18 NCAA Division I men's basketball season. The Redbirds, led by sixth-year head coach Dan Muller, played their home games at Redbird Arena in Normal, Illinois as members of the Missouri Valley Conference. They finished the season 18–15, 10–8 in MVC play to finish in a tie for third place. They defeated Missouri State and Southern Illinois to advance to the championship game of the MVC Tournament where they lost to Loyola–Chicago.

Previous season

The Redbrids finished the 2016–17 season 28–7, 17–1 to finish in a tie for first place in MVC play. They defeated Evansville and Southern Illinois in the MVC Tournament before losing to Wichita State in the championship game. As a No. 1 seed in their conference tournament who failed to win their conference tournament title, Illinois State received an automatic bid to the National Invitation Tournament as a No. 1 seed where they defeated UC Irvine in the first round before losing in the second round to UCF.

Offseason

Departures

Incoming transfers

2017 recruiting class

Preseason

In the conference's preseason poll, the Redbirds were picked to finish in fourth place in the MVC. Junior forward Phil Fayne was named to the preseason All-MVC second team.

Roster

Schedule and results

!colspan=9 style=| Exhibition
!colspan=9 style=| Non-conference regular season
!colspan=12 style=| Missouri Valley Conference regular season
!colspan=9 style=| Missouri Valley Tournament