Valparaiso at Ball State, 2:00 PM Eastern, espn3
Next Saturday, Butler, Purdue, Indiana and Notre Dame will be matching up in the Crossroads Classic doubleheader featuring the four power conference teams in the State of Indiana. Those games may be good ones, but we have an even better all-Indiana battle this afternoon as the Valparaiso Crusaders hit the road to take on the Ball State Cardinals, a team playing for a lost teammate this season.
Valpo enters today’s agme at 8-1 on the season, though all 8 wins came against teams that will almost certainly need an automatic bid to make it to the Big Dance. The Crusaders first real test of the season came just a couple nights ago, and it did not go well as they fell at Purdue by 30 points. Tevonn Walker has had a strong season so far for the Crusaders, including a 25 point effort in a home win over Utah State.
Ball State is 5-4 on the season, though the Cardinals have certainly not shied away from top opponents. Their four losses all came on the road — at Bucknell, Dayton, Oregon and Oklahoma. The Dayton loss was by only a single pint while the Bucknell game was by 4. Even more notable is what Ball State did last time out — heading to Notre Dame and pulling off the thrilling upset over the Fighting Irish by a final score of 80-77 thank to a 3 pointer by Tayler Persons with under 2 seconds left on the clock. The excitement of such a win meant even more to this team as Zach Hollywood, a redshirt freshman, had tragically passed away in late August. Ball State is playing for Hollywood this season, with #RIPwood becoming a rallying cry. Zach was certainly proud of what his teammates did this past week, and will assuredly be smiling down on them again as they host Valpo today.
For the rest of today’s action, scroll down.