This Sunday Skip Mills, Chris Ames and D'Andre Peyton will step onto the court in Worthen Arena for Ball State University's men's basketball team one last time in their collegiate careers.
The times have been trying during their tenure at Ball State. Mills is the only senior to play at Ball State when the team had a winning season.
Coach Ronny Thompson, who did not recruit the seniors, says the program is losing a good amount in the three seniors this season.
"I think you're going to lose some guys that really, really have a passion for the game of basketball," he said. "You're looking at guys that have a passion and a zest about the sport. I think that's one of the things I'm really going to miss is their approach to basketball."
Mills, who averaged more than 18 points last season and might be the biggest name on the current Cardinals' roster, is currently 12th in Ball State's scoring. Depending on how he performs in his final games he could move into the top ten.
Ames and Peyton have not seen the scoring or the playing time that Mills receives. In fact, during the last month all three seniors have been phased out of the starting lineup for various reasons but are still looked at as leaders by members of the team.
"We come in every practice looking to work," Ames said. "We don't come into practice lazy, even though we may not feel like it. Every player feels like that. Some players when they come into the gym they show that they don't feel like being there. But you would never see that out of us. We come in the gym -¡- we come in and have three-a-days - you're not going to be able to tell that I do not feel like being there."
As the Cardinals (9-20, 5-10 in the Mid-American Conference) welcome Western Michigan University (14-15, 8-7 MAC), a team that has struggled on the road, for the final regular season game, the Cardinals will be playing for more than seeding in the MAC Tournament. However, on a night when most players are allowed to be emotional, Ames doesn't want to think about the end of his career just yet.
"I really try not to talk about the season being over with, because I feel like I'm not going to think about it until the horn is going off and we have lost the game," he said. "That's when I'm going to think 'man, it's over. Now what am I going to do?' Until then I'm just going to keep my head up, keep pushing."
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