After Ball State University's men's basketball team notched its first road win of the year at University at Buffalo, it was reasonable to wonder if the Cardinals had turned the corner and would start winning tough road games.
Those thoughts came to a halt last week as the Cardinals suffered two more road losses by a total of eight points. Suddenly Ball State was back to square one.
As Ball State prepares for its third road game in a row, a trip to Eastern Michigan University on Saturday afternoon, the team is concentrating on offensive improvements.
The Cardinals did not get their usual contribution from junior forward Anthony Newell in last week's two games. Newell, suffering through a shooting slump, was eight of 33 from the field for the two games.
Coach Billy Taylor said part of Newell's struggles may be self-inflicted pressure to score.
"There probably is some internal pressure to get points and score for us," Taylor said. "We don't want him to feel that pressure that he has to go out and get a certain number of points for us to win. Hopefully he can be a guy that can facilitate the offense for us."
Although Newell hasn't been hitting as many shots as he did earlier in the season, Taylor said, he is not worried that his star forward is losing confidence.
"I don't think he's lost confidence at all," Taylor said. "I think he's still got great belief in his ability to make shots for us."
While Newell has been struggling, Taylor said, the junior has been able to contribute to the Cardinals' offense in other ways.
"He's done a better job the last month with his assist numbers," Taylor said. "They've gone up significantly while his shooting percentage has gone down a little bit."
In addition to Newell's shooting woes, the Cardinals will be attempting to shake off the road bug in Saturday's game. Ball State is 1-6 on the road since the beginning of January, but none of the losses have been by more than five points.
Despite consistent competitiveness away from home, Taylor is not ready to say that his team has played well in hostile gyms.
"I'd say we've played competitive on the road; I don't think we've necessarily played well," Taylor said. "We've had a number of opportunities, but we haven't completed them."
Ball State has lost five games this season, three of them on the road, in which they have led with less than a minute to go.
"You have to learn how to win basketball games," Taylor said. "It's happened in a variety of ways. We've had guys make tough shots against us. We've hurt ourselves with turnovers or missed free throws or missed shots at the buzzer. We have to be able to step up in those instances and make the right plays."
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