Despite suffering one of the worst seasons in school history, the No. 9 seed Ball State University's men's basketball team feels like it could win in the Mid-American Conference tournament.
"We still have life left in us," coach Ronny Thompson said. "I don't see a team that's belly-up and has no fight in them. I see us with as much of an opportunity as anybody."
The Cardinals (9-21, 5-11 MAC) will face No. 8 seed Eastern Michigan University in the first round today. The Eagles (12-18, 6-10 MAC) defeated the Cardinals twice in the regular season, but Anthony Newell thinks that it's a good matchup for the Cardinals.
"I know we're not giving up, that's for sure," Newell said. "I don't think they should have beat us twice at all. They're not a better team than us, definitely not. We can beat them."
While Newell sounded off on his school's chances, senior Skip Mills, who could be playing in his final game for Ball State this afternoon, chose for a quiet approach.
"I'm not trying to give them anything to read in the papers," he said. "I'm just keeping my thoughts to myself."
In the two regular season matchups the Cardinals struggled during stretches, and Eastern Michigan is the only team this season that kept Mills and Newell under 10 points in the same game.
"Eastern Michigan is a team that struggled a lot last year and got a little bit better as the season went on this year," Thompson said. "We're going to have to be prepared to play. I think we owe them. They've knocked them down twice and we have a chance to get back at them."
Beyond that, Thompson thinks the tournament is wide open.
"I don't think there's any team that you can look at and say, 'Oh yeah, that's a team that's going to win it all,'" he said. "I think that every night each team is going to have to bring it and be prepared to win."
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