Despite playing just eight players in Friday’s season opener against Evansville, Ball State women’s basketball coach Brady Sallee is not worried about getting practice time in for today’s game against Butler.
The team practiced over the weekend and on Monday in preparation for the matchup against the Bulldogs.
“We’ll go three days in there,” Sallee said. “Not very hard, but we’ll do a lot of prep work getting ready for them.”c
Ball State played against Butler last season in Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. The Cardinals lost 55-43.
What looks to be the major difference between this year’s game and the 2011 game is Ball State played 12 different players against Butler in 2011. Ball State looks to have eight available once again for its second straight game.
The first-year coach said he isn’t just focused about preparing physically for the game.
“We’ll have to be ready mentally,” Sallee said. “We’ll have to prepare for them a little bit between our ears because physically we’ll have to be smart about what we do. They present a challenge because of just knowing Butler from the past.”
In 2011, the Cardinals scored 43 points, but nobody on the team scored more than nine points individually. Suzanne Grossnickle led the team with four rebounds in the 2011 matchup. Grossnickle graduated from the squad after the season.
However, in Ball State’s first game against Evansville, three different Cardinals players grabbed more than four rebounds individually: Nathalie Fontaine, Brandy Woody and Katie Murphy.
Bulter will challenge Ball State by size on the opposing side of the court. The Bulldogs has six players who are at least 6-foot-1.
A positive for the Cardinals could be that the Bulldogs’ leading scorer from the 2011 matchup, Devin Brierly, is no longer on the team.
Sallee also said Butler’s play calling will be challenging, saying, “They run a million plays.”
Ball State’s game against Butler will tip-off at 7 p.m.
