Western Michigan basketball coach Steve Hawkins barely recognized this Ball State team as he reviewed film of its most recent games. These Cardinals in no way resemble the team he scouted just a month earlier.
?They?ve kind of turned it loose,? Hawkins said. ?I think they went from a fairly conservative basketball style where they were careful about shot selection, and didn?t get the ball up the floor at the high rate, and defensively just kind of protected the paint into now they?re a team that really gets up and down the floor.?
Hawkins pointed out that all of the Cardinals are flourishing now, but none more so than senior guard Jauwan Scaife, who is averaging a gaudy 25.7 points per game in his last six contests.
?I?m sure there has been, but off the top of my head I don?t remember somebody going on this sort of scoring streak in the middle of conference play,? said the 10th-year Western Michigan coach. ?? I?ve seen people put together two and three and four games, but I don?t know if I?ve seen people put together six.?
Scaife started his six-game tear against the Broncos on Feb. 9 in Worthen Arena. He poured in 30 points that game as the Cardinals won 65-62. Scaife and the red-hot Cardinals, winners of five of their last six, visit the unfriendly confines of University Arena for a 7 p.m. tip-off tonight for the rematch in a game with significant Mid-American Conference Tournament seeding implications.
Western Michigan (18-10, 9-5 MAC) leads Toledo by a game in the West and is trying to secure the outright division title and third overall seed in the conference tournament. The Broncos wrap up their regular season with two home games ?Ball State tonight and then Central Michigan on Saturday afternoon.
Ball State (13-14, 6-8 MAC) is guaranteed to be seeded somewhere in the five to eight range, depending on what happens tonight against Western Michigan and then Saturday afternoon when it plays host to last-place Northern Illinois.
The best-case scenario is the Cardinals luck into the five and receive an opening-round bye into the quarterfinals. For that to happen, the Cardinals have to win out and have three of the four teams within striking distance ahead of them ? Kent State, Buffalo, Eastern Michigan and Bowling Green ? stumble this week. Bowling Green finishes up against Kent State and Buffalo, both of whom lead Ball State by a game and hold tiebreakers, so a fourth seed is out of the question for the Cardinals.
The worst-case scenario is Ball State loses out and plays host to the nine seed in the opening round next week.
?With so many different scenarios still out there and really given the opponents you?re playing, we certainly would like to try to plan and get ourselves ready for potential matchups,? Ball State coach Billy Taylor said, ?but there?s still so many options at this point that you can?t really think about it or worry about it.?
What the Cardinals are more concerned about is finally breaking through in University Arena. Ball State last won at Western Michigan in the 2004-05 season, and its losing streak there stands at eight games.
?They play well at home, they defend their home court and they play with a lot of energy there,? Taylor said of Western Michigan. ?The crowd is into the game, and they give a great effort there.?
Ball State owns a winning record (4-3) on the road in MAC play. The Cardinals have won their last two conference road games, highlighted by an impressive 86-72 victory at Toledo on Saturday, but to beat the Broncos in University Arena would mean much more to them.
As he stood outside the Savage Arena locker room in Toledo on Saturday, Ball State junior guard Jesse Berry shrugged off the significance of beating the Rockets and instead focused on the next opponent.
?Western would be a great win on the road,? Berry said.
?They?ve kind of turned it loose,? Hawkins said. ?I think they went from a fairly conservative basketball style where they were careful about shot selection, and didn?t get the ball up the floor at the high rate, and defensively just kind of protected the paint into now they?re a team that really gets up and down the floor.?
Hawkins pointed out that all of the Cardinals are flourishing now, but none more so than senior guard Jauwan Scaife, who is averaging a gaudy 25.7 points per game in his last six contests.
?I?m sure there has been, but off the top of my head I don?t remember somebody going on this sort of scoring streak in the middle of conference play,? said the 10th-year Western Michigan coach. ?? I?ve seen people put together two and three and four games, but I don?t know if I?ve seen people put together six.?
Scaife started his six-game tear against the Broncos on Feb. 9 in Worthen Arena. He poured in 30 points that game as the Cardinals won 65-62. Scaife and the red-hot Cardinals, winners of five of their last six, visit the unfriendly confines of University Arena for a 7 p.m. tip-off tonight for the rematch in a game with significant Mid-American Conference Tournament seeding implications.
Western Michigan (18-10, 9-5 MAC) leads Toledo by a game in the West and is trying to secure the outright division title and third overall seed in the conference tournament. The Broncos wrap up their regular season with two home games ?Ball State tonight and then Central Michigan on Saturday afternoon.
Ball State (13-14, 6-8 MAC) is guaranteed to be seeded somewhere in the five to eight range, depending on what happens tonight against Western Michigan and then Saturday afternoon when it plays host to last-place Northern Illinois.
The best-case scenario is the Cardinals luck into the five and receive an opening-round bye into the quarterfinals. For that to happen, the Cardinals have to win out and have three of the four teams within striking distance ahead of them ? Kent State, Buffalo, Eastern Michigan and Bowling Green ? stumble this week. Bowling Green finishes up against Kent State and Buffalo, both of whom lead Ball State by a game and hold tiebreakers, so a fourth seed is out of the question for the Cardinals.
The worst-case scenario is Ball State loses out and plays host to the nine seed in the opening round next week.
?With so many different scenarios still out there and really given the opponents you?re playing, we certainly would like to try to plan and get ourselves ready for potential matchups,? Ball State coach Billy Taylor said, ?but there?s still so many options at this point that you can?t really think about it or worry about it.?
What the Cardinals are more concerned about is finally breaking through in University Arena. Ball State last won at Western Michigan in the 2004-05 season, and its losing streak there stands at eight games.
?They play well at home, they defend their home court and they play with a lot of energy there,? Taylor said of Western Michigan. ?The crowd is into the game, and they give a great effort there.?
Ball State owns a winning record (4-3) on the road in MAC play. The Cardinals have won their last two conference road games, highlighted by an impressive 86-72 victory at Toledo on Saturday, but to beat the Broncos in University Arena would mean much more to them.
As he stood outside the Savage Arena locker room in Toledo on Saturday, Ball State junior guard Jesse Berry shrugged off the significance of beating the Rockets and instead focused on the next opponent.
?Western would be a great win on the road,? Berry said.
