Men's Basketball Opens Regular Season vs Goshen

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The Ball State men's basketball team opens the 2023-24 calendar with a 7 p.m. game on Tuesday, hosting Goshen College at Worthen Arena.

The Cardinals took down Rose-Hulman in an exhibition on Thursday 85-52 in a warmup to the regular season. Basheer Jihad (13 points, nine rebounds), Zane Doughty (12 points) and Jalin Anderson (11 points, six assists, five steals) led Ball State to a victory over the Fightin' Engineers.

The Goshen Maple Leafs of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics and Crossroads League have started their schedule 0-2 after losses to Madonna University and Kentucky Christian University Oct. 27 and 28 at the Lancer Tipoff Classic.

Ball State recorded a 20-12 record (11-7 Mid-American Conference) in 2022-23 to earn the No. 4 seed in the MAC Tournament. Head coach Michael Lewis enters his second season leading the Cardinals after recent stops as an assistant at UCLA, Nebraska and Butler.

Juniors Mickey Pearson Jr. and Jihad headline the returners, as they averaged 7.7 points and 5.5 rebounds and 7.1 points and 3.6 rebounds per game, respectively, in 2022-23. Three transfers and five
true freshmen bolster Ball State's 2023-24 team.

SCOUTING GOSHEN: The Maple Leafs went 3-25 (1-17 Crossroads) last season in head coach Kyle Capps' first leading the program. Goshen finished last in the 10-team Crossroads League preseason poll released on Oct. 11.

Sophomore guard Judah Simfukwe leads the Maple Leafs in scoring at 21.5 points per game, while fellow sophomore guard Karson Jenkins comes off the bench to average 18 points. Joining Simfukwe in the starting lineup through Goshen's first pair of games have been DJ Bryant, Isaac Miller, Marcus Northern and Jared Bonds, who all average 5.0-6.5 points per contest.

CARDINAL DIRECTIONS

Ball State's 20 wins last year were its most since 2016-17 when that team won 21. This season's Cardinals will look for back-to-back 20-win schedules for the first time since that 2016-17 season.
The Cardinals are a young group, as the roster includes only one senior or graduate student (Ethan Brittain-Watts). Ball State returns only 21.5 percent of minutes played and 19.6 percent of points scored from last year's team.
Brittain-Watts (Boston University), Jalin Anderson (Loyola Marymount) and Davion Bailey (Southeastern CC) form Ball State's trio of transfers.
Joey Brown (Indianapolis), Zane Doughty (Indianapolis), Mason Jones (Valparaiso, Ind.), Trent Middleton Jr. (Philadelphia) and Jurica Zagorsak (Zadar, Croatia) are the Cardinals' quintet of true freshmen.

Up Next
The Cardinals host Old Dominion at 2 p.m. on Saturday in Worthen Arena as part of the MAC-Sun Belt Conference Challenge.

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Players Mentioned

Jalin Anderson

Davion Bailey

Ethan Brittain-Watts

Joey Brown

Zane Doughty

Basheer Jihad

Mason Jones

Trent Middleton Jr.

Mickey Pearson Jr.

Jurica Zagorsak