With residence halls closing and plane tickets purchased months in advance, Ball State University students might be more likely to head home than to the men's basketball game against Georgetown University Wednesday.
The residence halls close at 8 a.m. Wednesday while the game begins at 7 p.m., leaving some students without a place to stay for 11 hours before the game.
Director of Intercollegiate Athletics Tom Collins said he did not realize that date was the day before Thanksgiving when the game was scheduled.
"It's unfortunate that the date fell that way," he said.
Last season, Georgetown made the Final Four of the NCAA tournament in addition to winning the Big East regular season and tournament titles. This season, the Hoyas are ranked fifth in the nation.
The fact that Georgetown's coach, John Thompson III, is the brother of former Ball State coach, Ronny Thompson, will have no bearing on the atmosphere of the game, Collins said.
Thompson resigned from Ball State as the Cardinals' coach in July after racist notes were found in his office. He said he worked in a racially hostile environment while at Ball State.
It will be a difficult task playing a team that went to the final four last year, Collins said. However, it is great for the Ball State fans to get to see the nation's top teams play on campus, he said.
"That's part of the goal," Collins said. "To deliver quality games for our fans."
The last time Ball State sold out a basketball game was a day when the residence halls were not open. When the Cardinals played Indiana University Dec. 31, 2005, 11.500 fans attended the game, which Ball State lost 80-56.
The last time the Cardinals played a game the day before Thanksgiving in Worthen Arena was in 2000. Ball State beat IUPUI 73-65 in front of 4,064 fans. The season's average home attendance was 4,983. The attendance of 4,064 was the third-smallest crowd at a home game that season.
Coach Billy Taylor said he did not know what to expect from the crowd against Georgetown.
"We had a great crowd against Butler and an energized crowd against Milwaukee," he said. "I don't know if a lot of people leave for break, or when they're leaving. Hopefully folks will stay around and want to see us play and see how we compete against an elite national team."
Collins said he would expect a great game Wednesday with a great college atmosphere like Ball State's first two games of the season.
While many students might not be able to attend the game, Collins said, hopefully there is good support at the game from the community.
"I wish we could change it so we would have the students here," Collins said.
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