Men's Basketball Playing Three Games at Gulf Coast Showcase Starting Monday

The Ball State men's basketball team is set to play Eastern Kentucky, Florida Tech and Richmond at the Gulf Coast Showcase in Estero, Fla., starting on Monday at Hertz Arena.

The Cardinals are scheduled to play the Colonels at Noon on Monday, the Panthers at 6 p.m. on Tuesday and the Spiders at 6 p.m. on Wednesday before Thanksgiving.

The games will be streamed on FloSports with Jack DeLongchamps and John Vittas on the call, while Mick Tidrow and David Eha handle the radio broadcast on WMUN 1340AM – 92.5FM. Eastern Kentucky leads the all-time series 7-1 over the Cardinals, but Ball State won the most recent meeting 91-86 on Dec. 10, 2016 in Muncie.

Ball State (1-4) got a 12-point, 11-rebound double-double from Mickey Pearson Jr., but fell 70-59 to Detroit Mercy on Wednesday night at Worthen Arena. The Titans got revenge from a Dec. 2023 Ball State win in Detroit.

Eastern Kentucky (3-1) most recently won 86-66 at Chicago State on Tuesday. The Colonels' only loss of the season so far was by a 75-62 margin at Clemson on Nov. 12. Eastern Kentucky leads the Atlantic Sun Conference in assists per game (16.8), rebounds per game (42.25) and turnovers forced per game (17.25) so far this season while ranking fourth nationally in offensive rebounds per game (17.75).

Florida Tech (0-2) fell in its first two games of the season to Edward Waters University and Spring Hill College. The Panthers were picked to finish eighth in the 11-team Sunshine State Conference in the SSC preseason poll.

Richmond (2-3) beat Maine 70-66 at home on Wednesday night and took down Mount Olive 101-68 in the season opener on Nov. 6. The Spiders tied Loyola Chicago for the 2023-24 Atlantic 10 regular season title with a 15-3 conference record. This year's team is 14^th in the 15-team A-10 in scoring offense (73.4 points per game) and 12^th in scoring defense (71.6 points per game) so far.

The Cardinals get a 10-day break between games before playing at SIUE on Sunday, Dec. 8.

CARDINAL DIRECTIONS

Ball State features a revamped roster bolstered by five incoming transfers and three true freshmen while returning a majority of the frontcourt from last season's team including Mickey Pearson Jr., Ben Hendriks and Mason Jones.
The Cardinals were picked to finish sixth in the Mid-American Conference by the Blue Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook and seventh by the league's head coaches in the preseason poll released in late October.
The Cardinals' roster is deep in experience with four sixth-year seniors in Ethan Brittain-Watts, Ben Hendriks, Jeremiah Hernandez and Mickey Pearson Jr. Ball State has the most student-athletes in their sixth year of college of any men's basketball team in NCAA Division I (Southern Miss has three sixth-year and two seventh-year seniors).
Ball State's student-athletes have played in 603 games and made 254 starts at the Division I level entering the season, while Hernandez and Payton Sparks have been All-Conference performers.
Sparks was recently picked First Team All-MAC in the preseason poll after being a two-time Second Team selection in his first two seasons in Muncie. Hernandez averaged 17.2 points and 3.3 rebounds per game last season at USI to be named First Team All-Ohio Valley Conference.

GETTING TO THE LINE: The Cardinals paced the Mid-American Conference in both free throw attempts per game (32.2) and free throws made per game (22.6) through the season's first five games.

Ball State ranks fourth and eighth in those categories in NCAA Division I, respectively. The tallies outpace the next-closest MAC team (Western Michigan) by 31 attempts and 24 makes.

FIRST TIME FOES: Ball State is scheduled to face Florida Tech and Richmond in men's basketball for the first time in program history.

The Panthers are an NCAA Division II member from the Sunshine State Conference, while the Spiders are in the Atlantic 10. Richmond will be Ball State's second opponent from the A-10 after playing at Dayton on Nov. 13.

SUNSHINE STATE SWING: Ball State will play in Florida for the first time since Nov. of 2021 when the Cardinals played Florida International, Weber State and UMass in St. Petersburg.

The only other neutral site game the men's basketball program has played in the Sunshine State was Dec. 21, 1988 vs Nortwestern in Miami for the Golden Panthers Classic.

INSTANT OFFENSE: True freshman guard TJ Burch tallied 14 points, two rebounds and an assist on Saturday against Indiana State to provide a spark off the bench.

The Dallas, Texas native is third on the team in average scoring (9.3 points per game) in just 14.0 minutes per contest.

FAMILIAR FOES: Ball State's matchup with Detroit Mercy represented its second of five games this season against nonconference opponents that the Cardinals also faced last year.

Including Indiana State last Saturday, Ball State will also play SIUE, Bellarmine and Evansville.

SLAM JAM: Jermahri Hill's one-hand slam dunk for an and-one at the end of the first half on Nov. 13 at Dayton was the No. 1 play on SportsCenter's Top 10 list.

Hill led the Cardinals with 25 points, seven rebounds and three assists for the game and leads the team averaging 15.4 points per game.

WE'LL PLAY ANYWHERE: The Cardinals will play in a third different state away from home when they head to the Gulf Coast Showcase in Florida. In total, they have five different states on the nonconference schedule.

Ball State is scheduled to play at SIUE in Illinois (Dec. 8) and at Bellarmine in Kentucky (Dec. 14) after playing at Georgia State in the season opener and at Dayton in the third game of the year.

IN-STATE BATTLES: Ball State is set to host Franklin (Nov. 8), Indiana State (Nov. 16), Evansville (Dec. 21) and Anderson (Dec. 31) for a quartet of in-state rivalries this season.

The men's basketball program hasn't hosted at least four teams from the state of Indiana since 2013-14 when that team played Taylor, Butler, Valparaiso and Oakland City at Worthen Arena.

PEARSON POUNDING THE GLASS: Mickey Pearson Jr. tied his career-best with 13 rebounds in the season opener at Georgia State before grabbing 11 against Detroit Mercy on Wednesday.

The forward also notched 13 boards on Nov. 7, 2022 against Earlham at Worthen Arena. Pearson Jr. averages 8.0 rebounds per game which ranks second in the MAC.

HOME STATE HEROES: Brittain-Watts (2019), Zane Doughty, Joey Hart and Jones (2023) were each named Indiana High School All-Stars, while three more Cardinals also had ties to the state before
arriving in Muncie.

Ball State has the second-most players from Indiana high schools among Indiana-based Division I teams behind Purdue.

WORLD FLYERS: The 2024-25 Ball State roster consists of student-athletes from three different countries in addition to the United States of America.

Juanse Gorosito (Argentina), Hendriks (Canada) and Jurica Zagorsak (Croatia) are international Cardinals this season. Interestingly, Juanse, Ben and Jurica were born on different continents, so Ball State has student-athletes from North America, South America and Europe on the team.

TRANSFERS FROM ALL OVER: Each of Ball State's seven student-athletes who have transferred into the program have come from different college basketball conferences.

The list includes Brittain-Watts (Patriot League, Boston), Juanse Gorosito (West Coast Conference, Portland), Hart (SEC, Kentucky), Hernandez (Ohio Valley Conference, USI), Pearson Jr. (Big 12, TCU), Sparks (Big Ten, Indiana) and Jermahri Hill who played junior college ball at South Plains in Levelland, Texas.

Men's Basketball Playing Three Games at Gulf Coast Showcase Starting Monday

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Ethan Brittain-Watts

TJ Burch

Zane Doughty

Juanse Gorosito

Joey Hart

Ben Hendriks

Jeremiah Hernandez

Jermahri Hill

Mason Jones

Mickey Pearson Jr.

Payton Sparks

Jurica Zagorsak