When they met on Jan. 24, Ball State and Western Michigan both had just one league loss, but the two teams have gone in opposite directions since.
The 70-66 loss in that contest started the Cardinals on their current skid of just one win in five games, while the Broncos (17-2 overall, 10-1 Mid-American Conference) have not lost since.
Ball State has a chance to reverse both trends when it plays host to WMU today at 7 p.m. in Worthen Arena. With seven MAC contests left, the Cards (9-10, 6-5) have a slim chance of catching Western in the West Division but are just 2 1/2 games back of Toledo and the third bye to the MAC Tournament Quarterfinals.
Cardinals coach Tim Buckley wants his team to keep the mindset that Western and East leader Kent State (16-3, 10-1) have developed.
"What separates them from the middle group, I think, is a mentality more than anything," Buckley said. "They get every loose ball. When we win, we get every loose ball, and when we don't win, we don't get every loose ball. They get them in every game. That's an awareness, that's recognition, that's wanting it. Now they're teams playing with a lot of confidence."
Ball State still has the best 3-point defense in the MAC, with opponents shooting 30.9 percent. But Western sharpshooters Ben Reed (16.7 points per game, league best on 53.7 percent on 3-pointers) and sixth man Reggie Berry (40.5 percent) will again test the Cards on the perimeter. In addition, the last two opponents to defeat BSU -- Buffalo and Ohio -- shot 45.5 and 43.3 percent, respectively, from long range.
"They were not very good overall defensive performances," Buckley said, "and when we had our lapses, those teams took full advantage of that.
"It would concern me against any team we're playing, but obviously those guys are prominent 3-point shooters. You've got to know where they are and you can't leave them."
Ohio's Jaivon Harris burned Ball State on Saturday with several treys from 25 feet or further, but Buckley doesn't see his team needing to defend that far out against the Broncos.
"Usually you're OK with your heels on the 3-point line -- usually," he said. "Then a guy like Harris, I haven't seen him make any of those in any game I watched. But I don't see Ben Reed as being a deep 3-point shooter, or Reggie Berry as a deep 3-point shooter, other than they're good 3-point shooters."
Reed isn't Western's top scoring threat, however. That would be 6-8 forward Mike Williams (18.9 points, 7.2 rebounds), a MAC Player of the Year candidate. Senior center Anthony Kann (12.0 points) also pulls in 7.2 boards, and his tip-in for a 3-point play put Western up for good with under a minute to go in the Jan. 24 contest.
Kann's tip-in came after Ball State erased a 13-point deficit, but Buckley doesn't want to see his team have to make another big second-half comeback.
"There was too much of a lapse, defensively and offensively," Buckley said of his team's play earlier in the half of that game. "I don't think we were as good defensively (then) as we have been of late, because I think Cameron (Echols) and Robert Owens are defending at a higher level than they had been."
According to guard Matt McCollom, neutralizing the Broncos' quickness and the fast breaks that can create are important to avoiding another slow start.
"We definitely have to stop their transition game," said the junior captain, who led the Cards with 21 points in Saturday's loss at Ohio. "It's just a mindset we have to have, and that has to come from the leaders."
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