When coach Billy Taylor moved junior Jesse Berry to the point guard position this season, Ball State’s Preseason All-Mid-American Conference West Division selection inherited the responsibility of involving teammates, while still keeping his scorer’s mentality.
In making the change, Taylor probably expected the type of production Berry had in the first half of Saturday’s game against Butler.
While his numbers weren’t staggering — 12 points and 1 assist — Berry routinely beat his man into the lane and made tough, acrobatic finishes around or over the defense. He mixed that scoring punch with the vision to find spot-up shooters and big-men rolling to the basket.
“He’s got an interesting ability,” Butler coach Brad Stevens said. “When he shoots it, you’re obviously scared, but when he drives it, he’s got almost like an extra step because his steps are so long. He’s a hard guy to guard.”
As much influence as Berry had in the score being tied 33-33 at halftime, it seems the Cardinals go as he goes at this point.
Despite playing point guard some at Lafayette Jefferson High School, Berry still doesn’t seem entirely comfortable in his role yet.
Instead of pulling up before the second line of defenders like he did early in the game, Berry drove out of control and into traffic often in the second half. He committed six turnovers after the break, with no assists.
“They [The Bulldogs] came in and they closed all the gaps,” Berry said. “In the first half, we were getting in the paint, where we were exposing their defense, and being able to see what was open to find guys. In the second half, they really closed it up and took us out of rhythm.”
That lack of offensive rhythm was forced by the ball pressure and denial by Butler’s players to any sort of ball reversals.
The lack of ball movement caused Ball State’s guards to over-dribble, forcing people, often Berry, to create something late in the shot clock.
“We got a little too dribble-penetration happy [in the second half] instead of getting a good balance,” Taylor said.
The Cardinals became perimeter-oriented because it couldn’t get the ball to post players such as Majok Majok and Zach Fields enough. Stevens said his bigs were pushing up toward the ball to prevent any angles for a post entry.
It left guards such as Berry little choice but to play isolation basketball. Such has been the case all year for Ball State’s top scorer. Through six games, Berry has 12 assists to 26 turnovers.
The .46-to-1 assist to turnover ration is staggering for a point guard, but Taylor said both Berry’s and the rest of the team’s numbers are skewed because of the Cardinals inability to shoot better percentages.
“We had some nice drives in the first half where we dumped it off and maybe didn’t convert,” Taylor said. “Our assist numbers will struggle if we don’t make shots from the perimeter. We didn’t shoot well from three or convert those plays in the paint on those drive-and-drops. We just can’t get frustrated if we aren’t making them and stick with our game plan to make the right looks, right passes and take advantage of it.”
