Victory after victory during December and early January overshadowed any mistakes that the Ball State men's basketball team was making.
Three straight losses at home last week have brought those mistakes back into the light for the team. Turnovers have proven to be the most obvious one.
"We've turned the ball over in some games and we've gotten away with it because we've been able to win," coach Billy Taylor said. "Sometimes winning will mask the problems that you're having. [Turnovers] become more of a heightened sensitivity when you lose."
Against Morehead State, 14 Ball State turnovers turned into 18 points for Morehead State. Against Kent State, 17 turnovers resulted in 22 points for Kent State. And this weekend, 17 turnovers created 18 points for Ohio.
To fix the problem of turnovers, Taylor immediately addressed it with his team. He said he believes his guys are focused on the adjustments they've made.
Taylor said it starts with guys staying within their designed roles.
"Our scorers in the post [must] stay as scorers in the post; don't try to be play makers," Taylor said. "Turnovers have hurt us. They led to easy opportunities for Kent State. Same thing for Ohio."
A couple bright spots through Ball State's (13-7, 5-2 MAC) rough stretch last week was the emergence of freshmen Chris Bond, Tyrae Robinson and Matt Kamieniecki. All three made their first career starts last week.
Robinson said Taylor wanted him to get ready for the future. For Robinson – it's just the first step for him to get comfortable out on the court.
"It's just the first step of college basketball," Robinson said. "Coach wanted to just switch lineups and make us get comfortable with us being freshmen just getting a feel for college basketball."
For a freshman, Robinson's confidence in himself, as well as his teammates, has not wavered.
"We're just playing ball," he said. "There's always going to be ups and downs in the game of basketball. That's just how it is. We're just trying to get our mind focused back to how it was at the beginning and continue to win."
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