Cardinals' record at home: 9-0
Cardinals' record away: 5-4
The Ball State women's basketball team undefeated at home this season, sitting at perfect 9-0.
Ball State's women's basketball is 14-4, its best start after 18 games since the 2006-07 season, when it started 16-2.
While head coach Brady Sallee is happy with his teams strong start, he never expected to start the season this well.
“Our goal was never to be 9-0,” Sallee said. “We talked about being at our best in March, that's our goal.”
The Mid-American Conference Tournament begins on Mar. 07, and the team will play six of its remaining 11 games on the road.
That's where the team's four losses have come from. After the teams Jan. 23 win over Western Michigan, Ball State sits at 5-4 away from Worthen Arena.
Playing in a hostile environment provides its own challenge, and Sallee believes his team has to play even better than usual to pull out a win against the hosting team.
“The same way we've done it all year, we just prepare and go out there,” Sallee said. “The thing on the road is that you got to be way better than them.”
Away from Worthen, the Cardinals have continued to play well, only one of the teams losses have been by more than 10 points.
Excluding the not-so-close loss at Ohio, the Cardinals have lost close games on the road to highly ranked teams.
“If you look up the four losses we have on the road, and you look up their RPI's, OK they're really good,” Sallee said. “OK, so we're good, too.”
Charlotte was the season opener on the road for the Cardinals, and their first road loss of the season. Charlotte is currently ranked 80, according to NCAA Women's Basketball RPI.
The team's next loss came against Florida in the Omni Hotels Classic, where the Gators were able to knock off the Cardinals 85-79. As of now, Florida is eight spots outside of the top 25, at No. 33 in the nation.
Sitting right behind Florida is Purdue at 35, the Cardinals' third loss of the season.
The Cardinals' most recent loss was its biggest of the season. It came against Mid-American Conference rival Ohio, 73-48. Since the win, Ohio moved up to be ranked 38 in the nation.
With how his team has played so far, Sallee enjoys how committed his players are.
“It's fun to be a coach that has a team that's chomping at the bit to get to game day,” Sallee said.
With all the tough losses the team has faced this season, the Cardinals currently sit at 53 in the polls, the second-highest rated MAC team.
Ball State sits alone at the top of the MAC West Division and sits only one game behind Ohio for the best team overall in the MAC.
Ball State will have a chance to play Ohio once again on Jan. 30, but this time they will play host to the Bobcats at Worthen Arena.
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