On numerous occasions, Ball State coach Tim Buckley has said his team is looking for an answer. Heading into tonight's game at Bowling Green State University, the Cardinals are hoping to put into effect an answer that Buckley forced them to understand in practice on Sunday.
After Saturday's 105-104 overtime loss at Akron, it was his team's defensive effort that Buckley was most displeased with.
In an effort to change that, Ball State's Sunday, hour-long practice focused entirely on that.
"We didn't use a ball yesterday in practice. We put a big defensive emphasis on practice (Sunday)," Buckley said.
In the absence of the ball itself, Buckley seemed pleased with the way his team responded to the challenge.
"I didn't have to crack the whip," he said. "They came in with a great mentality for it. Chris Williams led the charge by being really positive about it by understanding that was what we needed to do.
"They had some fun with it but it was challenging, it was very demanding," Buckley said of the practice. "Our guys battled through it and did some of the things we needed to do."
Perhaps more than ever, Buckley is hoping his continued emphasis in practice will result in a win. For the first time in Buckley's head coaching career at Ball State, his team heads into tonight's game on a four-game losing streak - a streak Ball State has not endured since the 1999-2000 season when Ray McCallum was the head coach. In fact, the Cardinals have lost four straight just twice in the last 15 seasons.
"I would say that tomorrow's game is a 'must-win level of effort,'" Buckley said. "I don't look at this as a losing streak. We played at Dayton, at Xavier and we played Indiana. Put anybody in the country in those environments and tell me how they do. I don't look at it as a streak," Buckley said.
Williams also placed a great deal of importance on tonight's game saying, "We just have to get it done. It doesn't matter how. We must win."
Williams also took time Monday to recognize the defensive woes he and his team are experiencing.
"We gave up 105 points," Williams said. "It's definitely a problem. We weren't ready to go from the tip off. We have to make a turnaround."
Williams erupted offensively on Saturday. The senior guard, named Mid-American Conference West Player of the Week Monday, set a new single-game scoring record for Ball State, knocking in 48 points. Even with that, Williams remained focused on the defensive problems.
"Anytime you think of somebody having 48 points, you look at any level, college, high school or the pros, they usually win the ball game," Williams said. "I think we had some real lapses on defense."
Even with an emphasis on defense, Bowling Green will present some problems for Ball State, mostly in the form of Kevin Netter, the Falcons leading scorer at 17.5 points a game.
Ball State will turn to freshmen Kevin Cates and Tom Howland as well as Cameron Echols.
"There is no question that Howland, Cates and Echols are going to have to defend very well," Buckley said. "Netter is one of the better players in our league. He's proven that against some good competition this year." Netter had 26 points against (Associated Press) No. 1 Alabama earlier this season.
"He's a guy that we definitely have to battle," Buckley said.
Bowling Green put an end to BSU's season last year, defeating the Cards 69-57 in the MAC Tournament Semifinals.
The Falcons carry a four-game winning streak into tonight's MAC contest, having defeated Northern Illinois 64-63 on Saturday. They have won all four home games this season.
"They run very good offense," Buckley said about BG. "One thing they really try to do is take advantage of miss-match situations. They will take one of their perimeter guys and post him up, and they run the motion offense as well as anyone I've seen run it."
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