Take a look around the MAC and you'll notice a distinctadvantage opposing teams will have over Ball State's men'sbasketball team--height. Akron's Matt Seibert isseven-foot-one-inch. So are Ben Stout of Central Florida and MarinBota of Ohio. Five men's teams —Buffalo, Akron, CentralFlorida, Bowling Green, and Eastern Michigan have five playerssix-foot-eight-inch or taller.
Heading into the season, this could be a concern for Ball Statebecause Cameron Echols, their tallest player available, is 6 feet 8inches. With six-foot-9-inch forward/center Kevin Cates and6-foot-11-inch center Tom Howland out of the lineup due to sicknessand injury, most of the team will be looking up at their opponents— literally — at the beginning of this season.
Until they return, which is still an uncertainty, the men's teamwill rely on Echols, 6-foot-7-inch Robert Owens and 6-foot-6-inchTerrance Chapman for an inside presence. Although they lack theheight compared to other big men around the MAC, Chapman does haveexperience playing inside, having done so at Lincoln CommunityCollege last season, and Echols led the Cardinals in reboundinglast season.
Howland and Cates' absence hurts, but coach Tim Buckley and theteam are moving on.
"You have to adjust. You don't control injuries and you don'tcontrol illness. You can sit around and fret about it all you want,but no one really cares," he said.
The women's basketball team also has to deal with their insidepresence this season. The loss of inside force Tamara Bowie tograduation greatly affects this year's team. Head coach TracyRoller said Bowie's scoring, rebounding, and athleticism can't bereplaced by an individual, so it will take a team effort.
"Jesse (Reiter) will probably pick up the rebounding. Johna(Goff) will pick up the scoring. Kate (Endress) will pick up thedefense. As a team we'll pick it up. But I don't think one personcan replace what she did for us," Roller said.
Bowie is one of only three Ball State basketball players —male or female — to reach the 2,000-point mark, something sheaccomplished last season. She was drafted 36th overall in the 2003WNBA draft by the Washington Mystics.
Although a huge piece of the offense's puzzle from last seasonis gone, Roller is feeling more confident about the post playersthat are at her disposal as her team approaches opening night.
"Since we started practicing, and now that I'm seeing our teamstarting to develop, we have good post players, probably more sothan I've ever been here," Roller said. "We're going to still be aguard-scoring team, but we're trying to develop more things withinour offense to get more post-scoring opportunities.
Although there aren't any really dominating 6-foot-4-inch or6-foot-5-inch players in the West Division this year, Toledo'sKaren Hoogendam is a "skinny, finesse player who's really hard toguard," Roller said. Marshall's Catie Knable is a top post playerin the MAC, but since Marshall is in the East Division, "We onlysee her once, thank gosh."
But Roller is not overly concerned.
"We're so versatile right now. If we need to put three postplayers in the lineup, we could. If we need to put four guards inthe lineup, we could. If we need to run a two point guard offensewe could," she said. We can go big, we can go small, which isreally nice cause that's really hard to scout."
Buckley is also not concerned about his team's height.
"We aren't looking at it in terms of it being a negative. We'relooking at it in terms of it being a positive and how other teamsare going to match up with us," Buckley said. "I think you can makeup for a lack of height with speed and quickness, and we havethat."
A shorter lineup will give Buckley's team more flexibility onthe offensive side because of their versatility, but he is moreconcerned about the defensive side.
"Where we have to really pay attention is on the defensive end,"he said. "We're going to have to do a good job with our postdefense. Not only with our guys defending the post, but the guyshelping out our post defenders."
Buckley also said rebounding has nothing to do with which teamhas the taller players.
"It's more of a mindset than it is you have to be a certainheight to get rebounds," he said. "The way we look at rebounding iswe do it as a team. We want everybody to be involved with that fromthe point guard to the center."
He was quick to point out there are no truly dominating big menin the league this year. Eight of the top 10 pre-season All-MACplayers are shorter than 6'5". The two other players--Kevin Netterof Bowling Green and Anthony Kann of Western Michigan are 6 feet 10inches and 6 feet 7 inches respectively.
"So there's not like there's a girth of big men in ourconference. That's probably why (Chris) Kaman separated himselffrom a lot of people last year," he said.
Both Buckley and Roller have full confidence their teams canadjust.
"Our team is determined to show that we weren't just a TamaraBowie team, that we were good with her, but we'll be a better teamwithout her," Roller said.
"No question," Buckley said in response to his team adjusting totheir lack of height. "They'll do a great job with that."
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