by A new opportunity.
That is what Bree Salenbien and Karsyn Norman were both looking for when they put their names into the transfer portal following the 2024-25 women’s college basketball season. Almost 2,000 miles apart between their original schools — Gonzaga and Butler — the two chose the same destination: Ball State.
However, it wasn’t the name alone that drew them to Muncie, nor was it solely the fact that the Cardinals were coming off a Mid-American Conference (MAC) regular season and tournament championship season. It was not entirely because the program played in the NCAA Tournament.
It was head coach Brady Sallee and his staff.
“There is a system,” Salenbien said. “But at the end of the day, you have to play hard and compete. That’s all he’s about … That’s the speech before games, and it’s just the heart of the program.”
Since making the journey to Muncie, the Cardinals are 12-4 and undefeated in MAC play (4-0), with the former Bulldogs playing a key role in leading the charge.
“We’re just fortunate with those two,” Sallee said. “Maybe the best thing I did was get lucky [because] we’ve got two good ones right there.”
‘Two hardest years of basketball’
Norman dreamed of playing for Butler basketball after idolizing former Bulldog Alexa Bailey from a young age.
She began competing in basketball and softball as a child, but as AAU became popular, she chose to stick with hoops. It did not take long for scouts to notice her game as Wright State offered Norman when she was just in the eighth grade.
“I’m in middle school. I don’t know what that even means,” Norman said. “I guess it meant I was decent.”
During her time at Bedford North Lawrence High School, Norman started all four years and scored 1,329 total points while averaging 12.2 per game. She also set the Stars’ career record in assists with 352. In 2023, she was named an Indiana All-Star and was given the Mental Attitude award after the Stars won the Class 4A State Championship game that same season.
Ranked as the No. 6 player in Indiana by Prep Girls Hoops, her dream offer came through. It was Butler, and they wanted her to be a Bulldog.
“I believed in them a lot, and that’s kind of why I went there,” she said. “I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, it’s written in the stars. I got to go to Butler.’ It sounds kind of corny.”
But the dream did not become reality.
In her first season with the BIG East affiliate, Norman averaged 4.7 points and 1.8 assists in 32 games. Playing the same number of contests her sophomore season, she recorded 3.2 and 2.6. She said the system that was implemented was not one that favored the point guard position.
“It was very passive … It was just not enjoyable for me,” Norman said. “It was really freaking hard, and I would say those were the two hardest years of basketball I’ve ever had in my life. I feel like, in a sense, I have still not [fully] recovered from it.”
Though she was frustrated with the results, it was not just her numbers that bothered her. It was the sport itself.
She even questioned if she should continue playing.
“I’ve given my whole life to this, and I’ve literally played it since I was five years old,” she said.
”I didn’t want to give it up, but at the same time, I just didn’t have that love for it.”
Originally, Norman did not like the transfer portal. Though she said it made sense in some situations, other scenarios she witnessed proved to her that it could be a negative move for a player’s career.
However, she was ready to find something new. Hoping to regain her love for basketball, she entered the portal.
‘A completely different person’
Though she did not always love basketball, Salenbien saw the talent she possessed in middle school. After working to become a weapon with the ball in her hands, she said success began to seep through the cracks.
Salenbien’s positive play transferred to the high school level as she finished her time at Lenawee Christian High School with 2,059 points and 920 rebounds.
While recording those numbers, she led the program to back-to-back state championships (2018 and 2019), was awarded the Division IV Player of the Year all four seasons and was Michigan’s Gatorade Player of the Year in 2019.
When it was time to be recruited, she was ranked the seventh-best guard in the United States. When Salenbien committed to Gonzaga, she was the highest recruit to ever sign with the program.
But that was not on her mind.
“A number’s just a number, and anyone will tell you that,” she said. “When you get to college, you’re playing the best of the best, so it doesn’t really matter what your number is coming out of high school.”
But the path to doing so was not all rainbows and sunshine. During her junior year of high school, she tore her right ACL. Driven to see the court, she returned in about six months.
That would not be the last time the injury bug would hit.
After the initial setback, she tore her left ACL and meniscus during her freshman year at Gonzaga. Then Salenbien tore her left meniscus again to start her junior season and went on to tear her right ACL to close the campaign.
“There was definitely a lot of pressure going into Gonzaga … I kind of didn’t get to live up to the hype, I think, and that’s really hard,” Salenbien said.
She said it had a huge impact on her physically, but also the idea of not living up to her fullest potential drained her mentally.
“I would definitely say I’m a completely different person from high school to like where I am now,” she said. “I think everyone goes through that change. But with those injuries, you learn a lot about yourself.”
In three seasons with the Bulldogs, Salenbien averaged 4.1 points per game while only grabbing 2.1 rebounds per game.
When she decided to play another year, she believed it was time to move on. To this day, she holds zero grudges against the Gonzaga women’s basketball program.
“I wanted to keep playing, and I think when you have that many injuries, it’s hard to come back to a team again,” she said. “There’s a lot of strain there on the team … They’re great people, and my friends are still there and [some have] graduated from there. It brought me my best friends.
“It brought me a lot of good things, but I definitely needed a fresh start and something different.”
Like Norman, Salenbien entered the transfer portal, hoping to find a place where she could thrive.
Enter Brady Sallee and Ball State
After the Cardinals ended the 2024-25 season with a first-round loss to Ole Miss in the NCAA Tournament, Ball State’s 14th-year head coach knew he was losing key players. Names including the ‘Core Four’ — Ally Becki, Marie Keefer, Alex Richards and Madelyn Bischoff — had come to the end of their careers.
Sallee needed new names to take the reins. When he found out Norman and Salenbien were available, he did not hesitate to make a move.
“We brought them here because we needed them to be something,” he said. “Part of the reason they came here was that they wanted a different version of themselves. And part of that is the role we’re asking them to play and the way we play.”
Norman said there was interest from Ball State when she first graduated from high school, and though she chose Butler, she said that Sallee jokes that it was always in the cards. The first person to reach out to the two this time was Ball State associate head coach Audrey Spencer. Norman still remembers the phone call, and there was one clear takeaway when she hung up.
“When I got off the phone, my high school coach, who was helping me, asked, ‘How’d you like her?’ I was like, ‘She’s real.
She’s genuine.’” Norman said. “I always explain to people that [Ball State] was real, and that’s what I was looking for. I didn’t want to be lied to again.”
Salenbien said she was given the same vibe when Spencer reached out. Then, when Sallee contacted the two, they said he reinforced that original thought. Norman said when he called her, the Cardinals’ coach was in the middle of a vacation.
He told Norman he wanted to talk to her personally and that he understood what she was looking for.
“I literally cried on the phone call because of the stuff that he was saying,” she said. “He was just like, ‘I know what you’ve been through, and I want to change that.’ That meant more than anything to me.”
If you ask them today if Sallee has delivered on continuing to help them find a better version of themselves, it is an astounding yes. While they are beginning to feel different both on and off the court, their numbers could also be seen as an answer to that question
Salenbien leads the team with 15.3 points per game and 1.6 steals per game. She’s scored 20 points or more five times and has four double-doubles throughout the Cardinals’ 16 games.
“She’s kind of that steady Eddie … She’s been what we hoped she would be,” Sallee said.
But she said her early success is not just because of her play. Salenbien credited the team dynamic that Sallee has pushed since the day the new roster arrived in Delaware County.
“X’s and O’s aside, playing hard and competing is hard to beat,” she said.
When it comes to sharing the ball, Norman has been non-stop as she leads Ball State with 4.7 assists per game while averaging 9.3 points per game. Sallee said she is the team’s ‘motor.’ When she is on fire, so are the Cardinals.
Norman said Sallee also calls her the ‘head of the snake’ and has asked her to become someone who is not afraid to shoot the basketball. Even though she claims she struggles with confidence, both Sallee and Spencer have pushed her to take that step.
“Her understanding that responsibility is ongoing,” he said. “After you graduate a kid like Ally [Becki] and get a kid like Karsyn, she’s been part of the reason we’re [12-4].”
Though the staff has asked the pair to become something more, they enjoy that. Salenbien and Norman came here to become something different. However, they believe it helps that it is not just the coaches who demand better play and a sense of urgency. They said the Ball State brand does that on its own.
“You’re the mid-major that can beat any team. On any given day, you are in it, and it’s not just another game you’re playing,” Salenbien said. “Then in the MAC, we’re the team to beat … Everyone has that game circled on their calendar.”
Contact Zach Carter via email at zachary.carter@bsu.edu, zachcarter039@gmail.com or via X @ZachCarter85.
