The Ball State University men's basketball team plays Eastern Kentucky University on Saturday in the second game of a season-high three-game homestand beginning with its loss to No. 14 Purdue University on Tuesday and ending with a match-up with Presbyterian College on Dec. 21.
Coach Billy Taylor said Eastern Kentucky, led by senior guard Mike Rose, has the ability to shoot the 3-pointer better than any other team on the Cardinals' schedule.
"They're a team that shoots a lot of 3-point shots - a lot more than any other ball club that we've seen so far this year - so they spread you out," Taylor said. "They shoot a lot of 3's, and they have a talented scorer that leads the way for them."
As a team, the Colonels (6-3) lead the Ohio Valley Conference with 10.3 3-pointers made per game and make 40.1 percent of their 3-point attempts. Taylor said defensive awareness will be key to defending the 3-point shot.
"We've got to be solid within our defensive principles," Taylor said. "We've got to be sure that we're not giving up open 3-point looks in transition and then in our half court, we have to make sure that we know where their shooters are and that we're there to contest while giving a little bit of space to the drivers and not allow them to break down our defense."
Led by Rose's 53.3 percent 3-point shooting this season, Eastern Kentucky has four of the OVC's top-12 3-point shooters. Rose, a 2007-08 OVC First Team and Tournament MVP selection, leads the team with 20 points per game and is tied with guard Papa Oppong in rebounding with 6.7 boards per contest.
Rose is also 19th in the nation with a 51 percent overall field goal percentage.
"Mike is a very dangerous scorer," Taylor said. "We're going to try to not let him get any easy opportunities. He's an efficient scorer and he shoots well from the field, so we need to limit the number of easy opportunities and make him take tough, contested shots, and hopefully the defense will stand tall."
The Colonels play a trio of guards that revolve around Rose, Oppong and junior guard Dayvon Ellis, who is third in the OVC with 4.4 assists per game.
"They've got some very talented guards," Taylor said. "Oppong will hurt you in a variety of ways as he is more of a slasher and a scorer and Ellis is a penetrator and a playmaker. They can break your defense down in a lot of ways and we're really going to have to play solid to contain these guys."
On offense, Taylor said his team is set on improving their ball handling and free throw shooting. In their last two games, losses to the University of Evansville and Purdue, the Cardinals recorded season-highs in turnovers and averaged 20 turnovers per game - more than six turnovers over their season average.
"In terms of turnovers, it was something that we had been very strong at in terms of the first few games of the season and it has had a little bit of a drop the past couple of games," Taylor said. "I'm hoping that we can get back to precise execution."
The Cardinals have shot a combined 54 percent from the free throw line in their past two games, including an 8-for-17 (47 percent) performance at home against the Boilermakers.
"We've got to be able to step up and make our free throws," Taylor said. "We've gotten into a little bit of a funk from the free throw line, and I'm hoping that our guys will be able to get back to the good shooting that we had at the beginning of the season and get into a nice rhythm there."
Ball State will play four games during Winter Break before returning for next semester. Taylor said while he's generally satisfied with his team's defensive effort thus far, he wants to use the extra time during break to work on the offense.
"I would like to see us be more precise in our offensive execution and try to improve that with these upcoming games," Taylor said. "We'll have some more practice time during the Christmas break time frame where we can come in and hopefully fine-tune our offense."
Saturday's game begins at 2 p.m.
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