Inside the Chart: Indiana Hoosiers

'Inside the Chart' is a new weekly column from Ball State radio voice Joel Godett with nuggets, stats and notes from his prep, or charts, for each game. Check it out every game week or weekly during basketball season.

PERSONA NON GRATA

Ball State and Indiana meet for the fifth time in 11 years Saturday in Bloomington, and it hasn't been a date that's looked too kindly on the Hoosiers over the last decade. Not only have the Cardinals fared well, going 3-1 over that frame, but they stack up well as one of the opponents Indiana least likes to see.

In the last 10 years (plus two games), Ball State is the 11^th most successful Hoosiers opponent of the 36 teams the Cream and Crimson have kicked-off against. Six teams are undefeated against IU (Duke and Nebraska (1-0), Minnesota (2-0), Michigan and Wisconsin (7-0) and Ohio State (8-0)) while four other teams stand at 10-1 (Penn State), 8-1 (Michigan State), 7-1 (Iowa) and 6-1 (Northwestern). Then there's 3-1 Ball State, a 75% winning percentage.

To break it down a little further, Ball State is one of only two non-Big Ten teams in that fold of success (Duke in the 2015 Pinstripe Bowl) and one of three (Duke and Minnesota) that was not ranked in any of the listed meetings.

And a good bellwether stat I stumbled across this week … when Indiana has topped Ball State going back to 2007, the Hoosiers make a bowl game. When Ball State wins the Hoosiers have been left home.

PETER, PAULUS AND MARY

Indiana running back Stevie Scott hails from Syracuse, NY and Christian Brothers Academy. I've actually called a fair number of CBA games in my life, including one that I used the highlight track to music to help get my first job in the Cape Cod Baseball League.

Fun fact, that's also the same high school as former Duke point guard Greg Paulus. The current GW assistant played quarterback for the Brothers back in the day, actually falling in the state title as a senior in a game against Ray Rice's New Rochelle. But onto the pertinent information.

Scott checks in at 6-2, 236 lbs. For reference, the current No. 1 ranked professional wrestler in the world and IWGP World Heavyweight Champion, Kenny Omega, stands 6-foot, 229 lbs and he won the title from Kazuchika Okada. 'The Rainmaker' is 6-3, 236 lbs. So, at 18, Scott's a big boy – but not the biggest boy. The freshman is the thickest back Ball State has seen so far, but, it only gets more stout next week with De'Andre Ferby (6-1, 230) for Western Kentucky. Kent State then has a trio of bowling balls in 5-9, 227 lb Craig Elmore, 5-9, 228 lb Myles Washington and 6-1, 230 lb Jo-El Shaw. NIU will follow that game with 5-11, 227 lb Tre Harbison and CMU has Kumehnnu Gwilly at 6-2 and a whopping 246 lbs.

M*A*S*H* UNIT 2.0

Not to make light of the Ball State injury situation a season ago, but Indiana was in its own world of woe as well. The Hoosiers lost defensive stud Marcelino Ball, receiver Nick Westbrook and running back Mike Majette to injury last season. Ball's injury came after a 10-tackle day vs. Ohio State and Majette, unfortunately, has just never been able to stay healthy with his last two seasons cut short. IU has found some similar luck this year with an ACL tear to back Cole Gest, who David Elson spoke really highly of this week at practice.

TALK STATSY TO ME

A couple statistical nuggets relating to Ball State from last week's effort against Notre Dame.

Ball State had 23 third downs and now ranks sixth nationally in most third downs this season. Both Joey Lynch and Mike Neu said 23 was the most they could ever remember so, we checked. I went back through 2006 and 23 is the most third downs by Ball State in that span, with the next closest being 22 against Ohio in 2011.
Don't panic, by the way, Ball State is also 27^th nationally in converting third downs. But, it's still an uneasy place to live.
The third down notes bleed over to defense where the Cards limited Notre Dame to 28.5% on the money down. That's the worst percentage for the Irish since they converted 17% vs. No. 2 Georgia last season and the fifth worst for the Irish over the last four seasons.
The three interceptions by the Ball State defense marked the most for the team since it had four against Akron in 2014. Stretching it back further, it's the most non-conference picks by Ball State since 2010 when the Cards had three vs. Liberty. It's been since at least 2000 that BSU had that many interceptions vs. and FBS non-conference foe.

BILL MALLORY

Legendary coach Bill Mallory passed away this past May at 82 years of age. The Indiana Hall-of-Famer spent 13 years in Bloomington while also coaching at NIU, Miami and Colorado. He actually employed Rich Spisak as a graduate assistant in Boulder back in the 1970's and also Bill Lynch as his offensive coordinator at IU in the 1990's.

We'll talk about the late Mallory on the air Saturday, but I also spoke to Joey Lynch about him this week. Joey was in fourth or fifth grade when he used to run around the field during his dad's time with Mallory, even sitting in on sessions watching recruiting film. Mallory would often turn to young Joey and ask "which one should we take?" with his mind clearly already made up. Then, when Joey would guess correctly, Mallory would pronounce that they were offering Joey's choice. Lynch said he looked up to him like a father or grandfather figure.

SIX DEGREES OF SEPERATION

We could have used the Mallory tie here, but I figured that deserved a separate note. So, we'll talk about Mike DeBord. The Indiana OC is a former head coach in the MAC, having spent four seasons at Central Michigan from 2000 to 2003. The real tie, however, is that he hails from Muncie and graduated from Wes-Del High School … and has probably watched a movie with Kevin Bacon.

Kickoff is set for noon on Saturday. Join Rich, Mick and myself live from Bloomington with the Mutual Bank Countdown to Kickoff at 11AM on 104.1 WLBC.

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