That’s the Way Ball St. Bounces

Welcome to their inferiority complex.

South Bend is about 150 miles to the north, a distance greatly reduced during football season, when the echoes of Notre Dame carry across the open fields.

West Lafayette, home to Purdue of the Big Ten and a Sweet 16 team a year ago, is 100 miles or so to the northwest.

Bloomington, home to Indiana of the Big Ten and Robert Montgomery Knight, is 130 miles to the south, Generally speaking.

Muncie’s Ball State Cardinals have been triangulated, forced into playing a prince’s role in the state in which basketball is king. Still home again in Indiana, in case anyone was wondering.

On the other hand, at least they’re used to playing little brother. It will save the transition this week.

Ball State plays UCLA on Thursday in the Midwest Regional at Minneapolis in a matchup of teams that have taken similar paths to the tournament.

Each had a good start, followed by a bad January, and endured a stretch of six losses in seven games before a strong finish.

Each has concerns about depth at center.

Each has the versatility to play big and small, only Ball State has far fewer options.

Each has had 12 consecutive winning seasons.

Each has had to live up to the standards set by others, Ball State with its neighbors, UCLA with its ancestors.

The difference is, the country knows of the Bruins.

UCLA didn’t know much about Ball State after the pairings were released.

“I just know that [Ray] McCallum’s a really solid basketball coach and they’re a hot team,” UCLA Coach Steve Lavin said.

“I know they have senior guards who are experienced,” UCLA guard Earl Watson said.

The rest of the story is that Ball State is 22-8 and got an automatic NCAA bid by winning the Mid-American Conference tournament. The Cardinals are making an NCAA appearance for the fifth time in 12 years and the first since 1995.

“We were probably picked sixth, at the highest, in our conference,” said McCallum, the hometown product who also played for Ball State in the early ‘80s. “We had five teams that won 20 or more games in a very good league. We got off to a tremendous start [10-1]. We had a 20-point win over Purdue, which was a great opportunity and win for us on a neutral site. And then we stumbled the month of January.”

Ah, yes. January.

Having lost to tournament-bound Wisconsin on the road in the season opener, the Cardinals began the new year with an overtime win over Toledo, but then had consecutive triple-overtime losses, to Eastern Michigan and at Miami of Ohio. Two more losses followed, by 12 against Northern Illinois and by 22 at Kent. Ball State beat Central Michigan, only to again suffer back-to-back defeats, by 12 at Marshall and 11 at Ohio.

Happy New Year.

Ball State started its recovery before UCLA got untracked. Beginning Jan. 29, the Cardinals--3-6 in conference-- won eight of their last nine games, tying Toledo for the MAC West regular-season title, then won the conference tournament.

Ball State got better by getting smaller. Nine of the last 11 games came with a three-guard starting lineup--6-0 Duane Clemens, 5-11 Mickey Hosier and 5-10 Patrick Jackson, arguably the quickest player in the conference--along with 6-8 forward Theron Smith and 6-11 center Lonnie Jones. When matchups dictated, as they might with UCLA’s 6-7 Jason Kapono, 6-7 Josh Murray played small forward in place of Jackson.

There, the Cardinals have some flexibility. The concerns are much greater at center, and never more apparent than against Ohio in the MAC semifinal, when an asthma attack sidelined Jones.

Brian Burns came in. In seven minutes, he had zero points, zero rebounds and four fouls.

Corey Harris came in next. In four minutes, he had zero points, one rebound and three fouls.

Now, they all get UCLA, a team with a lot more depth, tournament ready with wins over Oregon and Stanford, and options behind Dan Gadzuric at center. Now, they all get the chance to make their mark on Indiana basketball.

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MARCH MADNESS

MIDWEST REGIONAL

UCLA vs.

Ball State

Thursday,

7:15 p.m. PST

Channel 2