Eleven years ago, Brady Sallee was an assistant coach at Kent State, trying to help the Golden Flashes beat MAC opponents.
Now, he is the head coach at Ball State, gameplanning against the team for which he worked for seven seasons.
Sallee downplayed the impact of playing against his former coaching home.
“I had some good years there, and I know Kent is a special place,” Sallee said. “With them letting my mentor go last summer, it’s kind of a little bit more lackluster for me.”
Sallee’s mentor is Bob Lindsay. Lindsay was Kent State’s coach for 23 seasons, before being surprisingly fired over the summer after a 6-21 season.
Ball State (5-11 overall, 2-1 MAC) will face Kent State in its fourth conference game of the season. The Cardinals won their first two by nine total points, then lost to Bowling Green by 31. The final was 73-42.
Freshman Nathalie Fontaine has stepped up her game in conference play. She averaged 12.7 points per game in non-conference games, then increased her scoring to 17 and 18 points against Miami and Northern Illinois, respectively. She did have a down game against Bowling Green, though. The forward scored just five points in Wednesday’s loss.
Despite beginning Wednesday’s game on a 0-16 shooting streak, Sallee downplayed the importance of a fast start for his team.
“It definitely would make things easier, but it can’t always be easy,” Sallee said. “So regardless whether shots are dropping at the beginning of the game or not, we’re going to have to follow a 40-minute gameplan.”
Sallee said rebounding and defending will be the focal point of coming back from Wednesday’s tough loss.
“When we’ve been at our best, it’s been when we’ve won the game on the defensive end and rebounded the ball,” Sallee said. “Those two things definitely didn’t happen on Wednesday.”
Bowling Green outrebounded Ball State 47-30, and outshot it by over 20 percent.
“I’m much more interested in seeing those two things play out than necessarily shooting 80 percent from the field,” Sallee said. “Although 80 percent would sure make it easy.”
Kent State’s leading scorer is guard Tamzin Barroilhet. Barroilhet is 6 feet tall, and averaging 10.4 points per game.
Barroilhet is also Kent State’s leading rebounder, averaging 6.7 per game.
Sallee said his team will try to keep her from going left, which is something she likes to do, despite being a right-handed player.
Despite his history with the team, Sallee will see this game as every other one: A potential ‘W.’
“Just like anyone, I want to beat them, and that’s a big one for us tomorrow for sure,” Sallee said.
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