BALL STATE
Record: 0-2 (0-0 MAC)
Last Game: L, 108-69, at Oklahoma 11/15
Last Meeting: First meeting
Listen/Watch:TV:
http://www.espn.com/watch/Ball State radio:
http://player.streamtheworld.com/liveplayer.php?callsign=WLBCFMStony Brook radio:
http://www.whli.com/listen-live.aspxNotables:6-1/180 jr G Jontrell Walker 14.5 ppg, .533 FG%, 6-9 3-pt FG
6-7/220 so F Kyle Mallers 12.0 ppg, 3.0 rpg
6-8/220 so F Tahjai Teague 10.0 ppg, 10.5 rpg, 1.0 bpg
6-3/220 jr G Tayler Persons 9.0 ppg, 7.0 apg
6-6/220 fr F Zach Gunn 9.0 ppg, 3.5 rpg
Up one at Dayton with three seconds to go, here's how Ball State coughed that up. Egad.
https://twitter.com/DaytonMBB/status/929210683702562816Ball State got blown out last night in Norman, but OU might be really good. 100-plus points in back-to-back games to start the season, including 60 in the first half against BSU.
The offense revolves around Persons, who led the team in points, assists, steals, three-point FG% and minutes as a freshman. Hes 6-3 and a thick 220 pounds; with some pretty good size all around, Id imagine that McKenzie and Iroegbu may draw him. He started his career at Northern Kentucky and earned conference ROY, but left when the coach got shown the door. He had interest from Purdue and Xavier but chose Ball State. I expect that he will be a handful.
His highlight reel from last year:
. Good, not incredible.
They've gotten a good jolt from their bench in the first two games. Considering the lopsided OU result, it's hard to gauge who played the meaningful minutes and who played in garbage time, but Walker led the way with 23 against OU, and BSU got 31 bench points in the Dayton game, or 40 percent of their production. All this has been without much help from Trey Moses, who was second last year in minutes and tops on the glass but is recovering from a back injury.
44 percent of Ball State's shot attempts have come from three, which is right around last year's clip. They went 21-13 overall last year and 11-7 in conference, falling to IPFW in the first round of the CIT last year; a year earlier they won 21 games, bowing out in the CIT quarters against Columbia. after winning a combined 12 games in 2013-14 and 2014-15.