Ty Pence to play basketball at Illinois State University
By FRED KRONER
The courtship started 21 months ago.
Before Ty Pence had played in a single basketball game as a high school sophomore at St. Joseph-Ogden, he had a Division I scholarship offer.
Western Illinois University was the first of more than a dozen suitors who would follow as Pence’s time on the court helped mold an athlete with three-point range who could also handle himself in the paint and play above the rim.
The question was not whether he would meet a childhood quest and play in college, but where he would choose to attend.
Pence ended all speculation this week, announcing that he would enroll at Illinois State University, in Normal, in the fall of 2023.
His sister Kenzie is an ISU graduate and a former Redbird softball player. His dad, Todd, is also an ISU alum.
“I was looking for the best fit for me that would shape my life for the next four years,” Pence said. “I’ve been there a number of times (to visit Kenzie) and like the campus.”
There’s a lot he likes about the basketball program, including the challenge of helping ISU qualify for the NCAA Tournament for the first time this century. The Redbirds had a 13-20 record last season.
“I trust Coach (Ryan) Pedon,” Pence said. “They look solid and I believe in ISU. I like what he has going on with his new program.
“To be part of the building excited me. It would be cool to be part of that.”
Fans and coaches alike have been excited since Pence made his prep debut in November of 2019 with seven points in his first varsity game.
He scored in double figures in his third game at SJ-O and eclipsed the 20-point mark in his sixth game.
As the Spartans’ boys’ basketball head coach, Kiel Duval has had a front-row seat to Pence’s progression.
“Over the last few years Ty has really committed to changing the type of player he is,” Duval said. “When he was a freshman, he was strictly a three-point shooter. He spent most of his time around the arc.
“At times he would attack the basket, but most of those times he spent on the ground after getting bumped. He committed himself to the weight room and his diet, and put on a lot of good weight. Now he is able to play at all three levels.”
Pence matured from a 6-foot-3, 170-pound ninth-grader into a person who will enter his senior year at 6-6 and nearly 200 pounds. He added 15 pounds to his frame after his freshman year and almost 15 more pounds last summer.
“I’ve worked hard to put on weight, build up strength and athleticism,” Pence said. “Now with the weight, it allows me to get into the paint.”
Pence has amassed 1,504 points for the Spartans (a 19.2 career scoring average) while nailing 151 three-pointers and collecting 501 rebounds.
The most telling statistic is that for his 78-game high school career, Pence is averaging almost five free throw attempts per game while dropping in 73.3 percent of those shots from the line.
SJ-O has a 55-23 record during Pence’s first three years with the Spartans.
Duval believes Pence will fare well at the next level.
“Illinois State will be a great fit for him because of their style of play and how it fits his game,” Duval said. “His next step to elevate his game will be improving his ballhandling and working when he doesn’t have the ball.
“As you go to the next level, you see more advanced athletes who are able to stay in front and stay with you at all times on the defensive end. He’ll need to understand that the effort he puts in to guard on the defensive end is nearly the same as the effort he’ll need to get open on the offensive end.
“As his ballhandling improves, he will be able to get by defenders that are pressuring on the perimeter. He knows that to be really good at that level, you have to put in the work to get there. I think he’s in a perfect spot to have a ton of success.”
Pence has never shied away from work.
His first foray into travel basketball was with The Illini Truth, for whom he played from third- through fifth-grade. He joined a travel team from St. Joseph – with mostly older players – as a sixth-grader and hooked up with the Illinois Manimals as a seventh-grader.
Since 2019, he has been part of the Midwest Prospect Academy AAU program.
“I’ve built a lot of lifetime friendships and had some of the best moments of my life,” said Pence, whose travel-ball season ended last weekend.
It was as a junior high student that Pence started zeroing in on his future.
“In seventh- and eighth-grade, it became more real,” Pence said. “I knew if I worked at it, I could accomplish my goal to play in college.
“I’ve always been in the gym. Basketball is special to me.”
Duval is pleased by how Pence has made himself a more complete player.
“He is able to play above the rim when he gets to the basket, which people have seen in some of his highlight videos,” Duval said. “The athleticism has always been there to play at the Division I level.
“It is just about putting it all together. He’ll be able to knock down that open three. He can elevate on his mid-range shot and knock down the 15-17-footer when he wants.”
As both a sophomore and a junior, Pence was an all-state first-team Class 2A selection by the IBCA.
He is undecided about his major at ISU, but is considering sports management. Pence’s long-range goal is to stay with basketball as long as he can.
“I would like to go into coaching, starting as a graduate assistant and work my way up,” he said.
When he graduates from SJ-O, it will be as a four-sport letterman. Pence lettered in football as a freshman. As a sophomore, he lettered in both golf and baseball. Basketball, however, is where he has made his name.
Before settling on Illinois State University, his list of scholarship offers included ones from Akron, Belmont, Bradley, Butler, DePaul, Eastern Illinois, Illinois, Illinois-Chicago, Indiana State, Iowa, Iowa State, Loyola, Wake Forest and Western Illinois.
Pence said Belmont and Wake Forest were the other universities in his final three.
Ultimately, the two out-of-state schools took a back seat to his lone in-state finalist.
“Overall, being close to home and being able to play in front of family and friends is important to me,” Pence said. “Family is one of the biggest things in my life.
“Now my focus is on my senior season.”
He feels like with his announcement, a weight has been lifted.
“This (recruiting) process seems like it has been going on forever,” Pence said. “Honestly, I didn’t think it would get as crazy as it did.”
The hardest part for the teen-ager wasn’t necessarily finalizing his decision. It was informing so many coaches that he would be declining their overture.
“It was hard, but you have to have the courage to call,” Pence said. “That helps shape you as a young man and build maturity.”
Pence, who is projected as a shooting guard or small forward, is the third incoming high school senior to have given verbal commitments to Illinois State.
He joins a trio that also includes John Kinziger, a 6-foot, 170-pound point guard from De Pere, Wis., and Chase Walker, a 6-8, 335-pounder from St. Charles, Ohio.
