A literary device used in all forms of entertainment is foreshadowing. For those not in the know, it simply means events that happen in the beginning foretell what will happen in the end.
This is the best analogy I could come up with to describe the Tim Buckley era at Ball State University. Almost every single Buckley team underachieved in his six years at the helm of the basketball team. This is exemplified by his most talented team, the 2001-02 squad.
I'm not sure how many students here remember that team, as you have to be either a fifth-year senior or a graduate student who did the undergraduate work here also. It was a loaded team with Theron Smith, Patrick Jackson, Chris Williams and Lonnie Jones carrying the team to a 19-10 regular season record. That record could easily have been 23-6 and a definite invite to the NCAA Tournament.
Everybody remembers the 2001 Maui Invitational, three of the most magical days in Ball State basketball history. On back-to-back days in November, the Cardinals knocked off the Associated Press's No. 3 ranked team, Kansas 93-91, and pummeled AP No. 4 UCLA 91-73. Ball State played well, but lost to Duke 83-71 in the championship.
What most may not remember, with all the talent, was an inconsistent team. Four discouraging losses that season marked the difference between earning a trip to the NCAA Tournament and an National Invitational Tournament visit. The first was a 75-66 home loss to Butler over Winter Break. In late January the team suffered back-to-back road losses to Miami and Marshall, with the Thundering Herds' Ronald Blackshear hitting a three-pointer with two seconds to go in the second overtime.
At that time, Ball State still had a pretty solid chance to make the NCAA's but went 4-3 over the last seven games to put their chances in jeopardy. However, it was a Feb. 27 home loss to a not-so-good Northern Illinois squad (12-16 overall, 8-10 MAC West) where Billy Lynch's baseline jumper at the buzzer went in-and-out that kissed Ball State's at-large chances goodbye. I can't accurately describe the feeling the predecessors to "The Nest" felt, as it was an instinctive feeling that the Cardinals had blown its chance.
With Ball State being forced to go to the NIT, it was time for Buckley's second brightest moment, which was a run to the Elite Eight in the NIT tournament, beating South Florida, St. Joseph's and Louisiana State before losing to South Carolina in its Elite Eight match-up.
The point is that with so much talent with that 2002 team, all the farther the Cardinals got in the MAC was a conference semi-final loss to a Bowling Green team who Ball State had beaten by 13 points in the regular season.
If a team that talented is losing games it shouldn't, then what's going to happen when the talent isn't there? You have seen that in the past four seasons. He's 11 games under .500 in those four seasons, including back-to-back losing seasons in 2003 and 2004, which hadn't happened since 1985. This year's squad accomplished something it had not done since the 1986-87 season: it lost at least 18 games.
But every season, Ball State seems to underachieve. In this pre-season, as in subsequent years, the Cardinals were picked to finish high in the Mid-American Conference West Division. Second place, to be exact. But it was not to be as Ball State finished fourth in the MAC West with a 6-12 record. Not exactly what was envisioned.
Even if you get past the high number of players that exited the program before their senior year, the "exciting offense" and substitution patterns, it is clear that a change was needed in the program if Ball State is to get to the next level. Hopefully Ball State's next coach will have plenty of head coaching experience or as an assistant at a power school. Maybe one that gets the most out of his players wouldn't hurt either.
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