Ryan Pedon was named the 20th head coach in Illinois State men’s basketball history on March 7, 2022 and is in the second season leading the Redbird program.

In his second season with the Redbirds, Pedon led the program to their biggest win on the road against a ranked Indiana State team that was in first place in the Missouri Valley. In his first season, ISU finished 11-21 while setting a program record for free throw percentage (.793). He inherited a roster that had saw five of his top six scoreres coming in to Illinois State for their first season, and had four players average at least nine points per game.

Prior to being named the head coach at Illinois State, Pedon spent the last five seasons at Ohio State. In his time with the Buckeyes, OSU had a record of 106-53 with an NCAA tournament berth during all of his seasons, with two trips to the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

In 2021-22, Pedon played a significant role in both the recruitment and player development of E.J. Liddell and Malaki Branham who earned All-Big Ten honors, in addition to being drafted in the 2022 NBA Draft in the first and second rounds respectively. During the 2020-21 season, he helped lead the Buckeyes offense that finished third in the conference in scoring offense and put two players on All-Big Ten teams including a second team honor for Liddell and a third team placement for Duane Washington Jr.

In his initial season in Columbus, Pedon helped mentor consensus All-American and Big Ten Player of the Year Keita Bates Diop, who was eventually selected in the second round in the 2018 NBA Draft as well as Jae’Sean Tate who signed with the Houston Rockets as an undrafted free agent.

Prior to his time in Columbus, Pedon was on staff at Butler, where in 2016-17 they advanced to the NCAA Sweet 16 and he played a key role in the development of Andrew Chrabascz and Kelan Martin, who earned All-Big East honors. In the prior season, the Bulldogs made another NCAA Tournament Appearance and saw three players earn All-Big East Honors in Roosevent Jones and Kelan Martin who were named to the All-Conference Second team, with Kellen Dunham earned honorable mention honors.

Prior to his time in Indianapolis, Pedon spent two seasons as the Assistant to the Head Coach under John Groce at Illinois where they advanced to the NIT in both seasons he was there. He has also spent time on as an assistant coach at Toledo (2010-13), Miami Ohio (2005-2010), was the director of basketball operations at Kent State (2002-05) and began his coaching career as a graduate assistant at Miami Ohio from 2000-02.

Pedon played college basketball at the College of Wooster, where he was a three-year letterwinner and helped the Fighting Scots to three NCAA Tournaments and three North Coast Athletic Conference regular season championships. In 2000, he won Wooster’s prestigious “Bear Award.”

He and his wife Stephanie have a son, Maddox.