CARTER: Keys to winning the 2023 Men’s Mid-American Conference Tournament
By Zach Carter / March 7, 2023With the rankings set, the Cardinals have finished as the No. 4 seed. They will face No. 5 Ohio (18-13, 10-8 MAC) Thursday.
With the rankings set, the Cardinals have finished as the No. 4 seed. They will face No. 5 Ohio (18-13, 10-8 MAC) Thursday.
Getting into the MACtion mood, the Mid-American Conference (MAC) Women’s Basketball Tournament starts in about 24 hours. As we close in, here are some keys to winning the whole darn thing.
Over the weekend, the Cardinals played five games in the Bulldog Classic. They ended their stay in Athens, Georgia, with a 3-2 tournament record.
“Nothing really feels more home than Scheumann to me,” Jones said. “Even on the cold, Tuesday night MACtion games when there’s probably 1,000 people there, to me that’s still the greatest feeling ever knowing that’s where home is.”
March 3-5, Ball State Baseball (7-5) won 3-of-4 games in a series in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The Cardinals defeated Cornell (0-5) and Purdue Fort Wayne (2-10) twice, and fell to No. 3 Wake Forest (12-0). Ball State returns to action March 7 at Florida A&M (5-8) at 5 p.m.
Benbow loves her position and editors at the IndyStar. She said while they do a great job of putting male reporters on women’s sports, she still thinks they have a bit of a tendency to give her stories about women. For example, she was assigned a story on how the uniforms for women's beach volleyball are “nothing” compared to the men’s.
The Eagles (17-9) had a hard challenge to face in the championship. They were playing New Castle (14-12) on their home turf. But right out of the gates, that did not matter to them.
Ball State Women's Basketball (24-7, 14-4 MAC) defeated Miami (Ohio) (12-19, 7-11 MAC) 77-68 in the final regular season contest for either side. The No. 3 seed Cardinals are set to play in the fourth game of March 8's slate of games against the No. 6 seed Akron (17-12 8-10 MAC) in the MAC Tournament in Cleveland, Ohio.
One player that has stood out during this stretch is junior Jackson Wors. He led the Eagles with a career-high 27 points in their first-round win over the Bulldogs. But one thing that some might not know is that he has to wear a brace around his right shoulder during games and practices. Over the summer, Wors dislocated his shoulder.
“This is something I’ve dreamed about,” Fisher, a senior, said. “I’ve been at [Muncie] Burris my whole life, since kindergarten, and I’ve been coming to these basketball games. I know this group [of seniors] has always wanted to get to this moment.”
“We didn't come up with the same fire that we had at Akron, which is disappointing,” Ball State Men’s Basketball head coach Michael Lewis said. “We got to figure that out between now and Thursday.”
Friday was the last home non-conference match of the 2023 season for Ball State women’s tennis team, who continued its winning ways. The Cardinals defeated the Butler Bulldogs (2-9) in a 6-1 win
It’s Thursday, February 23. The last practice before Wes-Del’s final regular season game against Elwood. Warriors head coach John McGlothin blows his whistle after each minute and tells his team to switch shooters. The Warriors are partner shooting. “We do it at least three times a week,” McGlothin said. “Lots of shots, working on our individual game…I felt like when I was a younger coach, my teams didn’t take enough time just getting shots up.” For the winningest coach in Wes-Del history, this is what the winter weeknights have looked like for the last 30 years. But following the 2022-23 season, that routine will end with his retirement.
“We’ve been working really hard this season, and the previous semester as well to get to this point,” Kelly said. “The credit all goes to the players. They’re all really passionate and they put in their work.”
At a preseason get-together in Indianapolis, Michael Lewis was talking with a group of alumni and donors about the upcoming Ball State Men’s Basketball season, which would be his first as head coach of the program. A question was posed to Lewis, one that would kick off a revolution in the 2022-23 season: How can the Cardinals get butts in seats at Worthen Arena and build ‘The Nest,’ Worthen Arena’s student section? His idea, one he admitted may have made University President Geoffrey Mearns and Ball State Legal Services a little nervous, was pretty simple: free beer.
This season, the Cardinals won their 20th game Feb. 21 in a highly anticipated matchup with Kent State, who was first in the conference at the time. It is the first 20-win season in the last six. With victories over Toledo and Akron, who currently sit first and third in MAC standings respectively, Lewis’ squad is looking to make waves in the conference tournament.
For Ball State Women’s Basketball, a MAC Championship means everything. For Estel Puiggros, it means even more.
Wapahani blew by Monroe Central 76-33 in the first round of sectionals. In the victory, the Raiders hit 17 three-pointers.
“It was good to get it in three,” head coach Donan Cruz said after No. 12 Ball State Men’s Volleyball swept Central State in straight sets (25-16, 25-9, 25-19) Wednesday.
In the second to last road game of the season, Ball State Women's Basketball (23-7, 13-4 MAC) was defeated by Bowling Green (25-4, 14-3 MAC) 81-76 in overtime. The Cardinals return to action in the final game of the regular season against Miami (OH) (12-18, 7-10 MAC) Mar. 4 at 1 p.m.
