by Ball State men’s basketball is off to a 3-8 start in the 2025-26 season. The Cardinals are 1-8 in their last nine games.
On Saturday, Dec. 20, they will get their first chance to face a Mid-American Conference (MAC) opponent. But that is no other than the league’s No. 1 team: the Miami Redhawks.
“They’re really good, and they’re a couple of things,” Ball State head coach Michael Lewis said. “They can really shoot … Their spacing is great. The pace at which they operate is really good.
Their defense has continued to improve, and they can hurt you at all five positions.”
The Redhawks are 11-0, including a 4-0 mark on the road. In Worthen Arena, Ball State is 2-2 and overall is in last place of the conference. It’s not just the records that are polar opposites. Statistically, it’s the same case.
Miami leads Ball State in points per game (92.3-64.9), field goal percentage (52.8-39.7) and 3-point percentage (40.5-28.8).
“They have the record that they have because they’re so efficient in the way that they are,” Lewis said. “It’s really impressive.”
In seven of Ball State’s eight losses, the Cardinals have been up by as much as four points or down as two at halftime. But once they return to court, things change.
While Lewis said it’s the same mistakes they have throughout the entire 40 minutes, the players believe the final 20 have hurt them exponentially.
“I’m glad it’s not only us seeing that [because] we’re sitting in the locker room at halftime and it happens all the time,” redshirt sophomore forward Kayden Fish said. “We set ourselves up for a good situation, and end up shooting ourselves in the foot.”
Whether that is missed shots, untimely turnovers or other mistakes, the Cardinals have yet to play a full game.
Lewis said the team has been working on all of that for the last week. In the Cardinals’ last three games, they have received sophomore guard Joey Hart from injury. Though Ball State’s guard play has been inconsistent in the shooting department, Hart has given them a spark.
In three games, he is averaging 12.0 points and has a field goal percentage of 57.1 percent. Some other Cardinals who have had some successful moments include Fish, junior forward Mason Jones and freshman forward Preston Copeland.
Jones is tied for first in the rebound category with 4.7 rebounds per game. He said the MAC might be the ‘best’ he has seen since joining Ball State three seasons ago. But whatever the competition looks like, he said it is a fresh start.
“I’ve been trying to spread the idea that it’s a brand new season,” he said. “Conference record matters more than your out-of-conference record. I feel like all those games have prepared us to have a good MAC season. Whether it’s a loss or a win, you learn from it, and we have to maintain our confidence.”
According to the players, that’s the main goal: staying confident.
“You can’t just up and quit in the middle of the season,” Fish said. “You only got one path, and that’s forward. Urgency, intensity and communication. It’s all the things that put together winning that are in emphasis now.”
The Cardinals have two non-MAC games left this season, with those being a Dec. 29 matchup with Earlham and a MAC vs Sun Belt Conference contest Feb.27. Besides those, it is conference play from here on out. After Miami, Ball State’s next three league games will be Buffalo (9-2), Eastern Michigan (6-5) and UMass (8-3).
With the team’s emphasis on finding ways to befriend the friend column, Lewis, Fish and Jones all said that it does not matter who gets that accomplished. It just needs to happen.
“We got good kids. They show up to work every day, and they’ve got decent energy,” Lewis said. “Now, our practices resemble games … Our practice is much like a roller coaster, so we have to be able to just continue to try to put them in situations where they’ve got to overcome adverse situations.”
Contact Zach Carter via email at zachary.carter@bsu.edu, zachcarter039@gmail.com or via X @ZachCarter85.
