Ball State only has five regular season games against Indiana schools, and those are the last five in the non-conference schedule for the Cardinals. In the second of those games, Ball State (3-2) will host IUPUI (4-2) on Saturday, part of a three-game home stand.
The Cardinals are hoping to avenge last year's 78-60 loss, which was the second of a five-game skid.
"That wasn't good last year, getting beat the way we got beat," senior guard Matt McCollom said. "I mean, the score showed it to. Definitely, we want to get this game."
If IUPUI is going to repeat, it will do so without graduated Odell Bradley, who put up 23 points and 18 rebounds last year.
IUPUI, like Anderson, uses a fast-pace offense and has four players averaging over 10 points, as does BSU. The Jaguars are coming off a 88-67 loss to DePaul.
"After the first four games it's kind of like being let out of jail," coach Tim Buckley said. "Those (first four) teams like to really slow the tempo and walk the ball up the floor and we like to play at a quicker pace."
"(I expect) lots of threes, transition style basketball, a multitude of changing defenses. I think they'll switch things up a lot. They'll press, they'll play zone, they'll play man, they'll switch up their man, they'll go to triangle and two. It's way too complicated for me to figure out," he joked.
IUPUI's offense is led by Brandon Cole, who puts 16.4 ppg and 11.0 rpg. He also leads the team with 12-27 from beyond the arc.
Michael Bennett is listed as a probable starter over Anthony Kent after starting Wednesday against Anderson.
"I just want to be on the court," Bennett said. "I don't care about how many points I score. I'm not really worried about how many assists I get, how many points I get. I'm just worried about little stuff."
The Cardinals are 2-0 at home against IUPUI and 3-1 all-time against the Jaguars.
Ball State will look to Peyton Stovall, who is second in scoring in the Mid-American Conference, to continue to put up big numbers for the Cardinals. Skip Mills, Dennis Trammell and Terrance Chapman are also listed as probable starters and all have come on fire of late, as each have lifted their scoring average to double digits.
The Cardinals will also see if McCollom can continue his play. After seeing limited playing time and few points in the first four games of the season, McCollom exploded against Anderson, putting up 18 points and eight rebounds against the Ravens.
"I think it's probably helped out everybody's confidence a little bit," he said. "Sometimes it is difficult when you don't play a lot to keep your head -- that's what I've been concentrating on."
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