Ball State rebounds in wake of tragedy
Since forward’s suicide over summer, team has regrouped, notched a top-10 win after slow start
MUNCIE, Ind. — The banners inside Worthen Arena rekindle fond memories of Ball State basketball.
They are reminders of seven regular season Mid-American Conference championships, seven league tourney crowns and seven NCAA Tournament bids earned during a 19-year stretch starting in 1981. They spur debate about whether the greatest moment in program history was the Sweet Sixteen run in 1990 or the improbable journey to the 2001 Maui Invitational championship game after upsetting No. 4 Kansas and No. 3 UCLA on backto-back nights before falling short against top-ranked Duke.
Since then, the once budding mid-major program has been mired mostly in mediocrity. Or worse. The rafters prove it.
This season was supposed to be different. Players talked openly about a third straight 20-win season, pursuing their first league title in 18 seasons.
They had hoped to pursue those goals with 6-foot-9 forward Zach Hollywood of Bourbonnais, Ill., along for the ride. Instead, they are playing for his memory. Well-liked by his coaches and teammates, the 19-year-old Hollywood was found dead in his apartment on Aug. 22 after committing suicide.
Everything changed for the Cardinals that day — and now, a terrible start to the season has given way to an inspired winning streak that carries so much more with it.
James Whitford has dealt with his share of adversity in two decades as a coach. It’s part of the job. Coping with a player’s suicide was a first, though, and Whitford needed answers.
He wanted to know why Hollywood, the kid whose obituary said he loved Superman ice cream, would take his own life and whether he could have done something, anything to prevent the tragedy — questions that were dominating the locker room. Whitford and his team both needed help.
“Objectively, what I would say to myself is that, ‘I know we have a very competent staff. I know we have a staff that works very hard. And I know every single one of us would have walked barefoot to Alaska to save him,’ ” Whitford said, his voice breaking ever so slightly. “Our souls, our hearts and our intent, I know, were all in the right place. But that doesn’t stop you from asking what you could have noticed or what could you have missed or what could you have done differently.”
One of his first calls went to first-year Indiana coach Archie Miller, who worked with Whitford when the two were on the staff at Arizona.
Miller had dealt with his own tragedy in the summer of 2016 when Dayton center Steve McElvene died from a heart condition known as hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Now, Miller was on the other side — offering condolences and advice.
Basketball was the least of Whitford’s concerns.
Workouts stopped, and Whitford also needed to help support Trey Moses, a 6-foot-9 forward from Louisville who found his best friend’s body. Moses hasn’t answered questions about it since that awful August day.
Whitford expected his team to be behind when the season started in November and it was. The Cardinals opened 1-4. Instead of questioning themselves, complaining or making excuses, the Cardinals dug in and turned things around.
Injured players started getting healthy, the Cardinals got in sync and, after crisscrossing the country in November, Ball State hasn’t traveled outside Indiana since Nov. 22. It made a difference. Playing with a patch bearing Hollywood’s initials just above their hearts, the Cardinals beat Indiana State, Oakland and IUPUI before a visit to Notre Dame. There, with Hollywood’s family in the crowd, Tayler Persons made a 3-pointer from the corner with 1.7 seconds left to give Ball State an 80-77 victory and its first top10 win since that UCLA game in Maui all those years ago. The upset created excitement in Muncie that hadn’t existed in years.
Four nights later, Taylor Persons delivered, making a 3 in the closing seconds to beat Valparaiso, 71-70. And now things are really humming. Ball State (7-4) has won six straight, including Tuesday’s win over North Florida, a game in which Moses had 15 points and 13 rebounds in his new jersey number, 24, Hollywood’s old number.
“He’s hanging in there, he’s doing well when you consider what he’s been through,” Whitford said, referring to Moses.
It looks like the Cardinals will be taking momentum into the conference slate, which begins Jan. 2 at home against Eastern Michigan.
“I didn’t know it was going to be Notre Dame, but I knew something good was going to happen,” senior forward Sean Sellers said.
Even with the promise of the season restored for the Cardinals, they continue to cope with questions and emotions college players rarely do.
Counseling services continue to be offered. Athletic department officials, following counselors’ advice, do not make players available to discuss Hollywood’s death.
But they haven’t forgotten, and they never will.
“It’s a new normal. It’s part of our lives. That’s the way I choose to deal with it,” Whitford said. “I don’t think it’s productive to pretend it didn’t happen. We lost someone that we cared about deeply. I don’t want to run from those things. I don’t think you grieve healthily by ignoring it.”