[November 12, 2022] Indiana State (1-0) vs Ball State (1-0)

[BlueBleeder]

This is definitely a game we should win, but Ball State will create a few matchup issues for us that will be interesting to watch.

Sparks, as others have mentioned, is legit. Last year he was top-10 in the country in drawing fouls and free throw rate, so he bangs hard and attacks the rim. We certainly could use all hands on deck from our bigs to try and slow him down. We didn't have a player like Sparks on our roster last year, and I'm still not certain we do this year. We did pretty well on the boards against Green Bay, but Sparks will be a different kind of test.

Bumbalough also killed us from three last year, hitting 4-6 and scoring 14 points very efficiently. He's one of the best guards in the country at limiting turnovers, with only an 11.6 TORate last year. Just for frame of reference, Cam Henry's TORate last year was 22.7.

In general, though, Ball State is not expected to be very good this year. They lost some players and have some unknowns on their roster right now, but with Sparks and Bumbalough, especially based on how they played against us last year, they have a chance. My prediction: 79-70 Sycamores.

I am not sure why you think Ball State won't be good this year. They are picked 4th in their conference this year and expectations in Muncie seem pretty high. Sparks will be a load for us, hopefully we can slow him down some and play strong perimeter defense.

I expect this to be a close game, but I think our depth will be the difference.

 

[PD INDY ALUM]

agreed. Thought we would hear something on Cade McNight and his status for Saturday sometime today. I understand Robbie Avilla is over his flu and ready to go. Any updates ?

 

[BrokerZ]

I am not sure why you think Ball State won't be good this year. They are picked 4th in their conference this year and expectations in Muncie seem pretty high. Sparks will be a load for us, hopefully we can slow him down some and play strong perimeter defense.

I expect this to be a close game, but I think our depth will be the difference.

I'll admit that I don't know much about Ball State other than what's on paper. There very well may be high expectations with local fans, but nationally the expectations are not high for Ball State.

• The MAC is considered the 18th best conference in basketball, and Ball State was picked to finish 4th in the preseason poll. They got zero first place votes while the three schools in front of them did, which implies to me that the conference has possibly three decent teams and a bunch of middling schools.
• KenPom has Ball State ranked 227 at the moment, up from 248. For reference, we finished the year last year at 230...and we were not a good team. Also, KenPom has them picked to finish 6th...not 4th like the preseason poll.
• Sparks is a preseason 1st team pick, but that's it.

 

[Jason Svoboda]

We definitely need one of the bigs back. I am interested to see if we have any game plan on trying to get Sparks in foul trouble with our smaller lineups. I would think getting Kailex in space would be a problem for him.

We're due for one against them after how several of the last ones have gone.

 

[Huff77]

I'm watching the BSU Earlham game. Okay, yes it's Earlham, but BSU looks pretty good. They seem to want to play fast like us. There will be a lot of possessions, a lot of points and a lot of turnovers. And we definitely need our bigs.

 

[krwilson2]

He was a total hot dog in high school.

Yes…and he was a stud player.

 

[landrus13]

I'm gonna predict a 91-85 ISU WIN.

 

[IndyTreeFan]

85-68 for the boys in BLUE

 

[Huff77]

97-87 Trees

 

[SycamoreStateofMind]

Trees 73-68

 

[BlueBleeder]

I would expect this to be a high scoring affair. I think our deep bench should help create breathing room as the game goes along. Sycamores 90 Ball State 76, but likely closer than that most of the game.

 

[TreeTop]

Trees 89
Birds 79

 

[King of Jones Hall]

ISU 86
BSU 3

Ball State will hit a three at the buzzer to avoid the shutout and then we’ll spend a week complaining on here about the terrible defense at the end of the game that prevented us from getting a historic result.

 

[Sycamorefan96]

ISU has looked really good in the past when we've played the little sisters of the poor in Division 3. If we lose at home to these pinch and rollers from Testicle Tech then we will likely end up being an average at best MVC team this year. I say we end up winning by around 15.

 

[treeman]

While he isn't entirely wrong I do like this quote on the BSU board. "both teams blowing out inferior competition in Game 1 there doesn't seem much to base predictions on." There is a little bit of a difference between a bad D1 basketball team and a bad D3 basketball team. But none the less, lets just kick their ass

 

[Huff77]

This is true...but they did win by 70 so I'm saying call it even.

 

[SycamoreStateofMind]

We’ve struggled in the past with Ball State - I really expect this to be more of a dog fight than people are anticipating. We shall see. But Ball State ain’t going to come in here and lay down. I think it will be tight throughout and quite frankly I’m okay with that - a test would be good it’s going to come sooner or later.

 

[swsycamore]

Yes…and he was a stud player.

I don't know if you saw him play in HS but after he would make a long shot he would pretend to draw pistols from a holster, shoot them toward the fans, twirl and put them back in the holsters. I don't know if he ever pulled this at IU but if he did I'm sure Knight would have slapped the shit out of him.

 

[Huff77]

I don't know if you saw him play in HS but after he would make a long shot he would pretend to draw pistols from a holster, shoot them toward the fans, twirl and put them back in the holsters. I don't know if he ever pulled this at IU but if he did I'm sure Knight would have slapped the shit out of him.

Shoot, half our team at Chauncey Rose was doing that long before.

 

[krwilson2]

I don't know if you saw him play in HS but after he would make a long shot he would pretend to draw pistols from a holster, shoot them toward the fans, twirl and put them back in the holsters. I don't know if he ever pulled this at IU but if he did I'm sure Knight would have slapped the shit out of him.

I played against him in '95 and '96 at South. I played WITH him for multiple years in Bloomington during the AAU season. He was an absolute prick to play against, but was incredible to play against. He and Knight butted heads, but he also left IU as the all-time assist leader.

I am partial because I like him a dude. There were a few of us who were apprehensive about being on the same team with him after watching some of the antics you described...but that faded quickly. He was awesome as a teammate.