Experienced Men’s Basketball Team Opens Practice

September 30, 2017 | Men's Basketball

Cardinals working toward Nov. 10 season opener at Dayton

MUNCIE, Ind. -- The Ball State men's basketball team held its first practice of the 2017-18 season Saturday afternoon at Worthen Arena.

The Cardinals have slightly more than a month of preparation in front of them before their Nov. 6 exhibition game and their Nov. 10 opener at Dayton.

Ball State returns a veteran group from its back-to-back Mid-American Conference West Division championship teams. All-MAC Second Team point guard Tayler Persons and MAC All-Defensive Team center Trey Moses both return for their junior seasons.

"We have a lot of returning guys who have been here for a long time, and they're very far along in knowing the way we try to play," Ball State fifth-year head coach James Whitford said. "And we have a lot of new guys where everything is completely new, and it's really about getting the new guys up to speed quickly. But we have more experience returning than we've ever had since I've been here."

The Cardinals welcome back two of the top 3-point shooters in program history in seniors Francis Kiapway and Sean Sellers. Both enter their final season ranked among the top five in Ball State annals for career 3-point makes. Another excellent shooter, Jeremie Tyler rounds out the three-man senior class.

Add redshirt sophomore Tahjai Teague in with the junior and seniors, and the Cardinals have six scholarship players in either their third or fourth year with the program.

Here is a class-by-class look at the BSU roster for the upcoming season …

Seniors
Francis Kiapway, G – Fourth in school history with 184 career 3-pointers
Sean Sellers, G/F – Fifth in school history with 172 career 3-pointers
Jeremie Tyler, G – Averaged 8.5 points per game last season

Juniors
Trey Moses, C – Led the MAC with 1.4 blocks per game in conference play in 2016-17
Tayler Persons, G – First BSU player with 500 points and 150 assists in a season
Jontrell Walker, G – Sat out last year; nation's top FT shooter (.933) as a sophomore at Incarnate Word
Josh Thompson, G – Appeared in three games off the bench last season

Sophomores
Kyle Mallers, F – Played in all 34 games as a freshman
Tahjai Teague, F – Averaged 7.3 points, 5.8 rebounds and 1.2 steals as a freshman

Freshmen
Ishmael El-Amin, G – All-conference player and state champion at Hopkins HS in Minnesota
Zach Gunn, F – Indiana All-Star; leading scorer and rebounder in Hamilton Southeastern HS history
Blake Huggins, C – 1,000-point scorer at Obion County Central HS in Tennessee
Tyler Leedy, G – Walk-on from Zionsville HS, where he was honorable mention all-conference

Sitting out as Transfers
Brachen Hazen, F – Former Indiana All-Star and transfer from Arkansas
K.J. Walton, G/F – Former Indiana All-star and transfer from Missouri