Expectations for Ball State University's men's basketball coming into this season were at an all-time low. People didn't expect them to win very many games. All they cared about was that the team always gave 110 percent.
The team has certainly given its all in each and every game. Whether that is continuing to play hard when down against Western Michigan University or still pushing hard when up by double digits against Central Michigan University.
As low as the expectations were I'm extremely frustrated by the Cardinals' 4-9 Mid-American Conference record. They could and quite honestly should be 8-5 in the MAC.
In four conference games the Cardinals have led late in the game but lost. The problem is the team hasn't learned to win. Over and over again in recent weeks the team has proved that when the game is on the line they for whatever reason do just enough to lose.
In the first game in the MAC season Ball State played at Toledo. The Cardinals led for a vast majority of that game. With 11 minutes to go in the game Ball State led 39-31. Less than two minutes later the game was tied at 39. With six minutes left they game was tied at 45, but a quick 7-0 run by the Rockets left Ball State down by multiple possessions with under four to play.
Lately the Cardinals have been losing because of an inability to convert the freebies. In Ball State's last two games, a MAC game at Central Michigan and the BracketBuster against Eastern Kentucky University, the team has shot an atrocious 16-30 from the free-throw line. For the non-math whizzes, that's comparable to a Shaq-like 53.3 percent.
Ball State lost to Central Michigan 63-58 and shot 13-24 from the charity stripe. If the Cardinals had shot 75 percent on their free throws the game would have gone into overtime.
In the game against Eastern Kentucky, which Ball State lost 51-48, the Cardinals once again had an opportunity to win late. A jumper by Colonels' Mike Rose put his team up one with 16.5 seconds left. What play did the Cardinals draw up? Who did they decide would take the last shot? Anthony Newell took an eight-foot jump shot that rimmed out. The Cardinals had found another way to lose rather than breaking through and finding a way to win.
The last play, particularly the person who took the shot, is perplexing. Obviously Newell is one of the best players on the team, but before that shot he had made just three of his fourteen shots against Eastern Kentucky.
"It was an eight-foot jumper from the player we wanted and from the place we wanted," Ball State coach Billy Taylor said.
For clarification, he is saying that he wanted a player who was shooting as cold as ice taking the deciding shot. Why not Peyton Stovall? You know the guy who is shooting 65 percent in the last four games and was nine of 13 in that particular game.
I don't like to put blame on one person, and the blame certainly goes around on the Cardinals' winning woes, but Newell is the player who needs to pick up the slack the most. He has not shot more than 40 percent since the Kent State University overtime loss. That was six games ago. Over this span he has averaged the most shots on the team by a large margin. For the season he is shooting 38.2 percent.
If he could raise that to even 40 percent Ball State would be fighting for a MAC West title rather than fighting to not finish last in the division.
Write to Levin at levintblack@gmail.com
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