For the first time this season, the men's basketball team's next opponent will be a team it has already played this season: Northern Illinois.
The last time the Cardinals and Huskies faced off in Worthen Arena Jan. 11, it was in the middle of a seven-game losing streak for Ball State. The Cardinals, however, lost by only two points, 66-64.
Now, after a convincing win against Marshall, 96-75 on Tuesday, Ball State will head to DeKalb, Ill. as, coach Tim Buckley said Thursday, a better team.
"There is no question we are (better) right now. I think our defense has improved," Buckley said.
"I think we have been consistent on the boards but we haven't gotten some of those big rebounds that we have needed to get in some of our games. This is one of those games that will test us in that area."
In the team's first meeting, it was Northern Illinois' P.J. Smith who ran the show.
Smith finished the contest with a game-high 29 points in the Northern win. Smith currently leads his team in scoring, averaging 13 points a game.
Also aiding the Huskies in Northern's win over Ball State was Marcus Smallwood, a player who has troubled many teams in the Mid-American Conference this season.
Smallwood leaves his mark in rebounding, averaging a team-high 10 boards a game, also adding almost 13 points a contest.
Ball State will try to combat Smith and Smallwood with some weapons of their own.
"I thought we did a pretty good job of matching up with them last time, but I didn't think we did a very good job of containing the dribble of P.J. Smith," Buckley said.
According to senior Chris Williams, Ball State will turn to Robert Owens to try to defend Smith.
Owens comes off of a strong defensive performance against Marshall after holding Ronald Blackshear to only 12 points, a player who averages over 20.
"We have to stop P.J. Smith," Williams said. "(Owens) had the lockdown on Blackshear so that's what we need to do this game. He's our defensive stopper, and he needs to have that attitude."
Offensively it will be Williams himself who will try to match Smith.
After Tuesday's game against Marshall, Williams retook sole possession of the MAC lead in scoring. On Tuesday Williams added 29 points to up his average to 22.6 for the season.
There will be another motivating factor for Williams aside from keeping up with his average.
The senior guard's hometown is Oak Park, Ill., not far from DeKalb. As was the case last season when Ball State traveled to Northern, Williams will have several fans on hand - about 15, he said. Williams explained it will be a mixture of friends and family.
"We want to give them more than a run, we want to win that game," Williams said. "It's the last time I get to play there, close to home, so I know I will be motivated. I need to have one of those career nights.
"It just motivates me to have a good game. I definitely don't want to disappoint anybody."
When it comes to matching up with Smallwood, Ball State will turn to freshman Kevin Cates and junior Cameron Echols.
Both Cardinals turned in solid rebounding efforts against Marshall on Tuesday as Cates pulled in 14 boards and Echols tugged down 15 in his double-double effort.
"It will be something that we will continue to emphasize," Buckley said. "We emphasized it for one game and we got good results for it.
"When you play Northern, it's a team you have to keep off of the boards. Marcus Smallwood is a guy who is playing as good as anybody in the conference right now."
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