Brady Sallee isn’t the type of coach likely to get caught looking ahead in the schedule. A dangerous risk, teams sometimes pay the price of being distracted by a looming game against a strong team, and end up losing to a below average squad because they didn’t adequately prepare.
For Sallee, Ball State’s women’s basketball coach, this isn’t an option. Not because just because he doesn’t want to look ahead of the game at hand, but because he refuses to. When asked late last week about how he wants to game plan for Central Michigan and Toledo, he said he hadn’t even thought about it.
“Right now is the first time that I even knew who we play after Eastern Michigan,” Sallee said, laughing. “All I’m worried about is being 1-0 tomorrow and then we’ll worry about the next one.”
At the beginning of last week, Ball State was staring at a schedule that consisted of playing Western and Eastern Michigan, two teams whose combined MAC record is 5-11, and overall records are 11-31. It would have been easy to look past those games in anticipation of what would come next.
The Cardinals enter a critical part of their schedule this week. They’ll play Central Michigan and Toledo, who both share the Cardinals’ record of 7-1 in MAC play, and all three are currently tied for first in the MAC West.
Still, Sallee insists that looking ahead could have been detrimental, because they wouldn’t be tied for first if they hadn’t concentrated on last week’s games.
“I still think it’s early in the conference season, and you can’t afford to get caught up in all that other crap. You just have to get the next one on your schedule, that’s where my focus is,” Sallee said.
That focus propelled Ball State to victory last week, reeling off a blowout win in Western Michigan, and another in Eastern Michigan. Now facing the Cardinals most crucial set of games so far this season and battling for a conference title, Sallee isn’t fazed.
“I’ve been there and done it before,” Sallee said. “This isn’t anything new to me, we’re halfway through and we’ve positioned our self well. Now it’s all up to execution.”
One of the keys to Ball State’s success has been freshman Nathalie Fontaine. Winning the MAC West Player of the Week award for the first time, she led the team in scoring in each of their last two games, and has become the legitimate low post threat that Ball State has needed all season.
She scored 20 points against Western Michigan and shot a blistering 9-of-11 from the field. She turned around a few days later and led Ball State with 14 points and 10 rebounds against Eastern Michigan.
“Fontaine’s been great lately, she’s been in the gym a lot,” Sallee said. “I’ve seen her working on her jump shot and getting to the basket. We’re watching her develop as the season has gone on and we’ve been impressed with the amount of work she’s putting in.”
The Cardinals will need Fontaine to continue her recent hot streak, as the team’s final month of the season will be grueling. After playing Central Michigan and Toledo this week, they’ll head off to Akron, to play a Zips team that’s in second place in the MAC East and just one game behind Miami for first.
After a short home stand against Eastern Michigan and Northern Illinois, they turn around and have to go on the road to face Central Michigan again, face Western Michigan at home and then head to Toledo in the season finale.
Sallee won’t let his players be influenced by their 7-1 record going into the final month. He said that although he doesn’t know if they look ahead in the schedule, he’s confident that they dedicate all their work for preparing solely on the team they’re about to play.
“I keep telling the girls that we need to look at our record as if it was 0-0,” Sallee said. “We have eight more games to go, and it’s going to come down to how we play these last eight. We have a really tough stretch coming up but we’re playing some good defensive basketball. I think we’re ready to make a run at it, that’s the name of the game.”
Marge:
Ball State remaining schedule:
7 p.m. Feb. 7 vs. Central Michigan
2 p.m. Feb. 10 vs. Toledo
TBD Feb. 16 @ Akron
7 p.m. Feb. 20 vs. Eastern Michigan
2 p.m. Feb. 23 vs. Northern Illinois
7 p.m. Feb. 28 @ Central Michigan
2 p.m. Mar. 3 vs. Western Michigan
7 p.m. Mar. 6 @ Toledo
Player to watch:
Nathalie Fontaine:
MAC West Player of the Week
PPG: 12.7
FG%: 46.8%
Rebounds per game: 6.4
