Men’s Basketball at Georgia State to Start Season – Ball State University Athletics

The Ball State men’s basketball team opens the 2024-25 season with a game at Georgia State at 7 p.m. on Monday night. The game is 1 of 12 in the MAC-SBC Challenge pitting Mid-American Conference teams against Sun Belt Conference opponents.

The game will be streamed on ESPN+ with Dave Cohen and Rodney Turner on the call, while Mick Tidrow and David Eha handle the radio broadcast on WMUN 1340AM – 92.5FM. This will be the second
meeting in the series between the Cardinals and Panthers.

Ball State went 15-16 (7-11 MAC) last season but added five transfers and three true freshmen to the mix while returning starters Mason Jones and Mickey Pearson Jr.

Georgia State finished 14-17 (8-10 SBC) for a tie for seventh place in the 14-team Sun Belt. The Panthers returned only one player who participated in at least 10 games last year (senior guard Toneari Lane). Ball State fans will recognize former Northern Illinois forward Zarique Nutter now playing at Georgia State.

The Cardinals will host Franklin College at 5 p.m. on Friday in Worthen Arena for the home opener.

CARDINAL DIRECTIONS

  • Ball State features a revamped roster bolstered by five incoming transfers and three true freshmen while returning a majority of the frontcourt from last season’s team including Mickey Pearson Jr., Ben Hendriks and Mason Jones.
  • The Cardinals were picked to finish sixth in the Mid-American Conference by the Blue Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook and seventh by the league’s head coaches in the preseason poll released in late October.
  • The Cardinals’ roster is deep in experience with four sixth-year seniors in Ethan Brittain-Watts, Ben Hendriks, Jeremiah Hernandez and Mickey Pearson Jr. Ball State has the most student-athletes in their sixth year of college of any men’s basketball team in NCAA Division I (Southern Miss has three sixth-year and two seventh-year seniors).
  • Ball State’s student-athletes have played in 603 games and made 254 starts at the Division I level, while Hernandez and Payton Sparks have been All-Conference performers.
  • Sparks was recently picked First Team All-MAC in the preseason poll after being a two-time Second Team selection in his first two seasons in Muncie. Hernandez averaged 17.2 points and 3.3 rebounds per game last season at USI to be named First Team All-Ohio Valley Conference.

CARDINALS SOAR AT THE LINE: Ball State led the MAC and ranked 27th nationally in free throw percentage (76.7) last season, which was the best mark in program history, while getting to the line at a 21.5 free throw attempts per game clip which was second in the MAC.

Those numbers should be bolstered by the addition of Hernandez, who was prolific at both getting to the line and making free throws last season. The graduate student made the 13th-most free throws (200) in the country while attempting the 14th-most (247) for an 81.0 average.

BROUGHT THE SPARKS BACK: Cardinals’ fans are happy to welcome back senior center Payton Sparks, who was the 2022 MAC Freshman of the Year and Second Team All-MAC in 2022 and 2023 before transferring to Indiana.

Sparks enters the season with 880 career points and 576 career rebounds and ranks No. 25 in Ball State history with 532 rebounds as a Cardinal.

HOME STATE HEROES: Ethan Brittain-Watts (2019), Zane Doughty, Joey Hart and Jones (2023) were each named Indiana High School All-Stars, while three more Cardinals also had ties to the state before arriving in Muncie.

Ball State has the second-most players from Indiana high school among Indiana-based Division I teams behind Purdue.

WORLD FLYERS: The 2024-25 Ball State roster consists of student-athletes from three different countries in addition to the United States of America.

Juanse Gorosito (Argentina), Hendriks (Canada) and Jurica Zagorsak (Croatia) are international Cardinals this season. Interestingly, Juanse, Ben and Jurica were born on different continents,
so Ball State has student-athletes from North America, South America and Europe on the team.

THE CARDINALS WENT DOWN TO GEORGIA: Ball State is scheduled to play a game in the state of Georgia for the first time since 2021 when that team played at Georgia Southern on Nov. 9.

The program’s most recent win playing in the state was also its last time playing in Atlanta, as the Cardinals beat Georgia Tech 65-47 on Dec. 18, 2019. Overall, Ball State holds a 6-3 record against teams from the Peach State including a 3-2 record on the road. The only other meeting between Ball State and Georgia State took place in 1984 with the Cardinals winning 115-58 in Muncie.

BIG MEN CAUSE BIG PROBLEMS: Sparks (6-foot-10), Hendriks (6-foot-10) and Doughty (6-foot-9) are each north of 240 pounds to provide a physical interior presence for Ball State this season.
Joining the trio in the frontcourt at 6-foot-7 or taller are Jones, Zagorsak and Pearson Jr.

TRANSFERS FROM ALL OVER: Each of Ball State’s seven student-athletes who have transferred into the program have come from different college basketball conferences.

The list includes Brittain-Watts (Patriot League, Boston), Juanse Gorosito (West Coast Conference, Portland), Hart (SEC, Kentucky), Hernandez (Ohio Valley Conference, USI), Pearson Jr. (Big 12, TCU), Sparks (Big Ten, Indiana) and Jermahri Hill who played junior college ball at South Plains in Levelland, Texas.
 

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