Ball State Preview MBB

Next up, the Ball State Cardinals in Muncie.

The Cards were picked 6th in the MAC in Blue Ribbon and #7 in the MAC pre-season poll.  They had a tough pre-season.  They are 4-7 in D1 games and 1-1 in the MAC.  That's against the #334 ranked non-conference schedule.

That includes losses to Georgia State (290), Detroit Mercy (331), Richmond (214) and SIUE (256).  Their best win was over EKU (218).  They did beat Bellarmine, a team that smoked BG.

In the MAC, they started with an upset, winning a road game against Kent.  They then lost to Miami at home.

BG swept Ball State last year.  Before that, they had a four-game losing streak. Overall, the Falcons have won 4 of the last 10.

Ball State plays at 68 possessions, which is on the slow side.  The national average is 1.06 points per possession so you can see that in three of the four categories, the two teams are relatively typical.  The only area where something is different, is BG's defense.  BG played better defense than that against UA but worse against WMU.

The Cardinals are an average shooting team playing against a BG team that is easy to shoot against. They take 41% of their shots from 3FG, which is above average, and they make 33% which is exactly average.  They make 50% on 2FGs, slightly below average.  They take decent care of the ball, and are terrible on the offensive boards...BG is not great on the defensive boards.

The biggest strength of the BSU offense is getting to the FT line.  They don't take great advantage, making only 68.9%.  In fourteen games, they have 63 more FTs than their opponents.

Interesting side note:  BG has one thing against it that you cannot control.  Their opponents make 78.8% of their FTs, which is the fourth best in the nation.  You'd expect that to balance out.

Things should be pretty even here.  BG has been doing a little better on the offensive boards, so they might have a chance to take advantage of that.  And BSU gives up a few more FTs than BG is used to getting, 

As for the individuals, the Cards expected Peyton Sparks to be there big leader.  He was an all-MAC player who transferred and then came back. He's doing fine, scoring 11 PPG on 59% shooting, all from 2FG. He also leads the team with 6.7 RPG.  In the last few games, he has been coming off the bench in favor of Ben Hendriks.

Their leading scorer is JUCO transfer Jehrmari Hill.  He's scoring 16.9 PPG on 52% and 18% shooting.  He adds 4.9 RPG.  He also leads the team with 40 assists and 38 turnovers.

Mickey Pearson is back, scoring 10.6 PPG on 48% and 24% shooting. He averages 5.9 RPG. 

They best volume 3FG shooter is Juan Sebastian Gorosito, an Argentinian who transferred from Portland.  He makes 47% of his 3FG

Kenpom has them as a 65% favorite in this game.  ESPN has them as a 69% favorite.