Sunday Night Basketball: Cardinals Night In America

Ball State (7-11, 5-8) vs. Western Michigan (4-13, 3-9)
Date	Sunday, Feb. 21
Time	7 pm ET
Location	Worthen Arena - Muncie
Television	ESPN3 (Joel Godett, David Eha) (WATCH)
Radio	96.7 / 104.9 FM (Jeff Weller, Scot Bunnell) (LISTEN)
Tickets	NONE AVAILABLE
Game Notes	Ball State (PDF) \| Western Michigan (PDF)
Live Stats	Live Stats
Social Media	Twitter \| Instagram

Ball State Basketball Night In America

The Cardinals are playing on Sunday night. A change in the schedule sets up the Ball State men's basketball team for a Sunday night tip at home vs. Western Michigan. This game was set for January 5 but was postponed. The Cardinals won 76-68 at WMU three days before Christmas.

This game was added to the schedule last week, rescheduled from an original January 6 date. BSU comes in after an 88-79 loss to Akron on Friday night. Ball State got 20 points from Ishmael El-Amin and a career-high 18 from Brachen Hazen, but Akron shot 73% in the second half to pull away. Western Michigan which has lost or postponed five games this year, is coming off a home loss to Kent State.

The Starting 5 - Sunday Night's Top Storylines

1. BONUS BASKETBALL
Ball State had five games postponed this season, four due to COVID and one due to a power outage in Ohio. It's late February and the Cardinals are getting the opportunity to play some of those missed games. Working with MAC officials, BSU was able to find Sunday's game vs. Western Michigan and reschedule Kent State at home for Wednesday, Feb. 24. In all, BSU will have seven straight games at home over 22 days. The current stretch has four games in nine days (Akron-WMU-Kent-CMU).

2. SIMULATING THE TOURNAMENT EXPERIENCE
James Whitford on Friday likened this Friday-Sunday-Wednesday stretch to playing in a tournament setting. The goal in Cleveland in March will be to win three games in three days. Playing this Sunday night gives the Cardinals a chance to play on a short turnaround and simulate a tournament cadence and recovery.

3. CLOSE TO A FULL DECK DOWN THE STRETCH
Everyone on BSU's eligible roster is now available, aside from transfer Reggie Jones. In total, Cardinal players have missed 48 games in addition to Ishmael El-Amin missing the second half of the first Buffalo game. As Ball State heads into the stretch run of the season, time is needed for newly-available players to find chemistry and rhythm. Here's a breakdown of games missed by player:

Player	Games Missed
Reggie Jones	18
Jarron Coleman	10
Jalen Windham	8
Thomas/Walton/Gunn	3
Hazen	2
Huggins	1
El-Amin	2nd half at Buffalo

4. CARDS AND WMU - THE SERIES
Ball State and Western Michigan have played each other in basketball since 1932, when Branch McCracken coached the Cardinals to a 35-31 win over Western Michigan. BSU now leads the all-time series 68-67 and has won four of the last five and seven of the last 11 against WMU.

5. MILESTONE COMING FOR ISH
Ishmael El-Amin, who averages 15.3 points per game, needs 14 more points for 1,000 in his career. Sunday's game is his 100th career game at BSU, and a 14-poinut effort would give him a clean 1,000 points in 100 games. K.J. Walton crossed 1,000 career points earlier this year in the game at Western Michigan.