GAME NOTES: The Illinois State Redbirds will host the Green Bay Phoenix in first-round action of the 2015 NIT on Wednesday night at Redbird Arena.

Illinois State is the four seed in the Old Dominion Region, while Green Bay is the fifth seed. The winner of this game will advance to face the winner of Wednesday night's top-seeded ODU versus eighth-seeded Charleston Southern matchup.

Illinois State almost earned a berth in the NCAA Tournament, but lost to Northern Iowa in the championship game of the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament after upsetting Wichita State in the semifinals. The Redbirds tied for third in the MVC standings and have won six of their last seven games overall.

ISU is 9-12 all-time in the NIT, with a 7-5 mark in NIT first-round matchups.

Green Bay, meanwhile, also lost in its conference championship game, falling to Valparaiso in the Horizon League Tournament. The Phoenix won three of its final four games and was a game off the pace set by Valpo in the league.

This marks the program's fourth overall appearance in the NIT and third straight postseason appearance for head coach Brian Wardle's program, which has won 48 games in the past two seasons.

This is the 13th meeting between the schools, but the first since Illinois State won back in 2005. The Redbirds lead all-time, 9-3.

Daishon Knight led the Redbirds in scoring on the campaign with 14.3 ppg, his 83 assists second only to Paris Lee (6.6 ppg) who has delivered on 116 such passes. DeVaug Akoon-Purcell is responsible for another 12.7 ppg and is first with 5.5 rpg, but he is only a fraction of a rebound ahead of Reggie Lynch (9.4 ppg) who, in addition to pulling down 5.4 rpg, is by far the best shot blocker for the program with 85 rejections, all while having fouled out of nine contests.

ISU is the only program in the nation to feature players in the top-20 for both steals and blocks per game. Lee led the MVC and ranked No. 8 nationally with 2.4 steals per game, while Lynch leads the league and ranks No. 16 in the country with 2.7 blocks per game.

Keifer Sykes is the player to watch for Green Bay. Not only did he lead the team in scoring at 18.8 ppg, but he also served up a club-best 129 assists. In addition, Sykes' 54 steals were just 10 fewer than Jordan Fouse, who also led the team with 7.3 rebounds per game. Greg Mays (12.2 ppg) and Carrington Love (10.2 ppg) round out a trio of double-digit scorers for the Phoenix.

Green Bay has accumulated 231 steals, tied for second-most on its all-time single-season steals list. In addition to the quick hands with the ball on the floor, the Phoenix logged 158 blocks this season, ranking third on the single- season blocks list. Fouse has more steals than any junior in program history and already holds the freshman and sophomore records. Mays has a career-high 46 blocks this season, ninth-most in program history. With four more blocks, he would have more in a season than any player not named Alec Brown.

These are two evenly matched teams, but the home crowd may be just enough to get the Redbirds by in this one.