Matinee Hoops Wednesday At Ball State

Ball State (7-11, 5-8) vs. Kent State (13-4, 11-3)
Date	Wednesday, Feb. 24
Time	2 pm ET
Location	Worthen Arena - Muncie
Television	ESPN3 (Joel Godett, David Eha) (Watch)
Radio	96.7 and 104.9 FM (Joel Godett, David Eha) (Listen)
Tickets	NONE AVAILABLE
Game Notes	Ball State \| Kent State
Live Stats	Live Stats
Social Media	Twitter \| Instagram

After a sixth postponed game of the season, the Ball State men's basketball team will host Kent State at 2 p.m. Wednesday afternoon. The Cardinals have three home games on the schedule in the next week as they continue to fight for position for the upcoming conference tournament. Kent State comes to Muncie having won four straight and seven of eight.

In a way, it's a rematch of the game that never happened. Ball State and Kent State were scheduled to meet in the league tourney quarterfinal last March when the world stopped. BSU was the #3 seed and Kent was the #6, scheduled to play the late game that night. After a shootaround, BSU returned to its hotel to receive word of the cancellation. The team had a meeting at the hotel and the 2019-20 season was over.

Wednesday's game was originally set for Jan. 26 but was postponed. The matinee contest is part of a month-long stretch at home for the Cardinals, who have played just five times in 26 days leading up to this Kent State game. BSU is scheduled to host Central Michigan Saturday, Feb. 27 at. 1 p.m.

The Starting 5 - Wednesday's Top Storylines

1. OFFICIAL STATEMENT ABOUT OFFICIAL STATEMENTS
State had five games postponed this season, five due to COVID and one due to a power outage in Ohio. The silver lining to this is that BSU now has a stretch of home games on the schedule during which to improve down the stretch of the regular season. At one point, there were seven straight home games scheduled over 22-day span. Ball State can potentially go 35 days between road games (Jan. 30-March 5), giving the team five weeks at home to prepare and peak for the league tournament.

2. TOP 4 AND BOTTOM 4 OF MAC
The ebb and flow of scheduling this year as turned out advantageous for some teams. For example, Wednesday's opponent, Kent State, has played a league-high six games against the bottom four team in the MAC standings (6-0) while Ball State has played just three (3-0). Miami, one spot ahead of BSU in the league, is 4-0 against the conference's bottom four teams.

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	17
Jarron Coleman	10
Jalen Windham	8
Thomas/Walton/Gunn	3
Hazen	2
Huggins	1
El-Amin	2nd half at Buffalo

4. CARDS AND KENT - THE SERIES
The Ball State-Kent State series dates back to a BSU win in December 1921. Kent leads the series 46-40 but Ball State is 27-13 against KSU in Muncie. The two teams have split the last four meetings, as BSU won at Kent 62-54 last season.

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. Wednesday'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. Earlier this year, K.J. Walton became the 33rd Cardinal to reach 1,000 career points.