Balado finds comfort zone in 2nd year

JONESBORO — Last fall was more difficult to navigate for Mike Balado.

Balado is entering his second year as the coach of the Arkansas

State University men’s basketball team, which finished 11-21 in his maiden season. One year in, the team is more familiar with

Balado.

“Everybody was new last year, so it was kind of hard, at first, to pick up the things that we wanted,” he said. “The thing with this team, I think we have the right guys — attitude-wise and character-wise — that we want in our program. We also have seven returners from last year that know me and know what I expect.”

Balado’s first recruiting class — including junior-college transfer guards Ty Cockfield and Grantham Gillard, and forward Tristan Walley — now understand Balado’s style and can translate his principles as seniors. The season begins Nov. 9 at Abilene Christian in Abilene, Texas.

Cockfield, Gillard and Walley were responsible

for 40 percent (946 points) of ASU’s scoring in 2017-18. The group contributed 131 of the Red Wolves’ 236 made three-pointers (55 percent).

“It was a little smoother because the returning guys really, really honed in onto what I expected of them and what I expected of our team,” Balado said. “[They understand] my expectations of where we can be in the future. They did a really good job of voicing that to the new guys.”

Cockfield and sophomore guard Marquis Eaton are expected to fill out the Red Wolves’ primary backcourt, the “nucleus” of an ASU team that is now able to dump the ball into the post because Balado’s second recruiting class

focused on bigs.

Redshirt sophomore J.J. Matthews (6-9) and junior Malik Brevard (6-8) were acquired as transfer forwards prior to this season. Redshirt junior Shaquillo Fritz (6-8) was medically redshirted last season after six games.

The bigs have little to no experience as Red Wolves.

“We recruited well in the frontcourt,” Balado said. “J.J. Matthews is going to be an excellent player for us. Shaquillo Fritz, who actually sat out for us last year, has come on strong over the summer and really, really developed his offensive game. And then you’ve got Malik Brevard, who has been solid. He’s still learning the system and makes minimal mistakes, but he gives great effort and has a great motor.”

Matthews, a 240-pounder, shed more than 35 pounds to prepare for this season and Balado’s uptempo offensive style.

Nearly 40 percent of ASU’s shot attempts last season were three-pointers. Incorporating bigs into the offense would free up shooters and make the offense run smoother, Balado said.

“Refreshing is a great word for it,” Balado said. “Last year, we struggled when we didn’t have any low-post presence or any low-post scoring — not only offensively but defensively. Now that we have that, we’re going to be able to play the way I really, really wanted to play from the get-go.”

Balado is laying his footprint in Jonesboro.

“I’m much more pleased,” Balado said. “We’ve still got a long way to go. This team is nowhere near where it can be. We’ve got a lot of things to work on. It’s still early in the season.

“But with that said, I feel like we leave practice every day feeling like we’ve accomplished something. There were times last year when we were fighting effort and fighting guys to buy in. This year, I feel like everybody is 100 percent bought in.”

Balado