Ball State Redux

 And back it.  No time to rest on its rivalry win.  BG now moves to a re-match with Ball State.

The season is in complete flux.  BG is in 6th place at 7-7.  The two other teams with 7 losses only have 1 win.  It's hard to know how many games BG will even play--there are three left on the schedule and there's three more to be made up.  There's a big hole in BG's schedule but the teams we need to play have a lot of games to made up.  And more teams could be paused--even BG or UT, which have not been.

Tomorrow's game is a re-match with Ball State.  Ball State (it seems like so long ago) was the game that actually started the skid.  BG lost by 24 at the Stroh to the Cardinals, who, as you can see, are not having a great year.

The Cards are 2-4 since the BG game, beating NIU and UT and losing to Miami, Ohio, Akron and Buffalo.  They have played their last 3 games without their star guard, KJ Walton, who has been injured.  No idea if he can be expected back tomorrow, but if he doesn't play there's a much better chance for BG to win.

The first game was about as one-sided as they get.  In fact, when you look at the stats, it's hard to believe it wasn't way worse.  BG turned the ball over more than normal, got next to nothing on the offensive boards and got to the line but only made 65%.  Meanwhile, Ball State shot the lights odd, which sadly is only the second-worst defensive game of the year.  Also, at .86 points per possession, only their second-worst offensive game of the year.

Ishmael El-Amin is their leading scorer at 14.5 PPG.  He's shooting 44% and 32%, so not terribly efficient.  Walton was scoring 14.5 PPG and 5.3 RPG before he was injured.  Their only other double-figure scorer is Brachen Hazen, who is scoring 10.4 PPG on 51% 2FG  shooting and 5.9 RPG.  

El-Amin had 20 in the first game. with Hazen and Walton at 14.

BG certainly can't be happy with the result of the first game.  Hopefully, they will be on a burst of confidence and ready to continue to reverse the trend.  This is a game BG should win--and its even more likely without Walton.