Ball State's Brady Sallee takes the blame after lopsided loss to Purdue

MUNCIE, Ind. — Well, that was tough. But it only goes up from here, right?

Ball State’s season opener went about as you’d expect after starting three freshmen and a sophomore against visiting Purdue. The Cardinals struggled in an 80-38 loss, their worst defeat since 2005 and their worst scoring output since 2012.

Head coach Brady Sallee shouldered the blame afterwards, saying, "I don’t know what else to say other than it falls completely on me. I have to have the team ready to play, and I didn’t. We’ll keep working and getting there. I just think it starts and stops with me."

The Cardinals (0-1) look disorganized, which probably should fall on Sallee. They had 22 turnovers and shot 31.3 percent (15 of 48). Ball State was 7 of 18 on free throws.

"I don’t think it was for a lack of effort, which was their job," Sallee said. "I don’t know that you need to hit a reset button. You just have to learn from it and fall in love with the process a little bit. Like I said, this is going to start with me. These kids are going to play hard, and we have a good group that way. We just have to figure out some lineup stuff, some rotation stuff, and that’s my job."

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The bright side, as Sallee said, is that this team featuring six freshmen is two and a half hours older. True freshmen Abi Haynes, Anna Clephane and Thelma Dis Agustsdottir and sophomore Oshlynn Brown joined Jasmin Samz in the starting lineup. The inexperienced showed early on as Ball State made just 1 of its first 12 shots. After only trailing 19-13, it got ugly.

"It’s the little things," Samz said. "Can we rebound? Are we going to stay with the game plan? Are we going to stay in the game mentally? That’s something we’re going to have to work on with three freshmen and the other three coming off the bench. It’s doing all the little things we know we can do."

Ball State’s two most experienced players, Samz and Brown, both didn’t play up to the level that were at last season. Samz, who averaged 11.5 points last season, shot 1 of 9 and finished with three points. Brown had 11 points, with seven of those coming in the fourth quarter. Senior Nakeya Penny led the Cardinals with 13 points off the bench.

When Sallee was asked whether this game changes his expectations for this season, he flatly answered, "no."

Ball State has a lot of work ahead of them after scoring their fewest points since putting up 37 on Feb. 4, 2012 against Buffalo and suffering their most lopsided loss since 110-24 to Duke on Dec. 19, 2005.

"I like the group," Sallee said. "We had their full attention the entire game. They competed. It got away from us quick, and that can be frustrating. But you didn’t see any pouting or quitting. You saw a team that understands that every dribble is going to help us get better. Every situation will help us get better. … As long as we do that and keep coming to work every day, we’ll get it there. I have the right ones that will help us get it to get it there."

Ryan O’Gara covers Ball State and East Central Indiana high schools at the Star Press. Contact him at (765) 213-5829, rogara@muncie.gannett.com or @RyanOGara.