Ball State men's basketball might stick with a 12-man roster entering the 2022-23 season

MUNCIE, Ind. — In early May, nearly two months into his tenure as the Ball State men's basketball coach, Michael Lewis' office was barren.

"You like what I did with the place?" Lewis said with a smile, pointing to the mostly empty shelves and desk behind him.

Lewis and his coaching staff were busy on the recruiting trail — Lewis was at the IHSAA boys basketball state finals the day after UCLA was eliminated from the NCAA Tournament — too busy to worry about the aesthetic of an office, especially since most of Lewis' things remained in California at the time.

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Over the next two weeks, Ball State signed four players in incoming freshman Micah Bell (guard, Link Year Prep) along with transfers Kaiyem Cleary (guard, Florida Southwestern State), Thomas Allen (guard, NC State) and Jarron Coleman (guard, Missouri).

The additions helped offset the loss of outgoing transfers Miryne Thomas (Kent State), Tyler Cochran (Toledo), Luke Brown (Stetson) and Josh Bryan (Marian) along with graduate Blake Huggins. It also spoke to Lewis' intention of getting Ball State to a place where it could compete right away. By adding several players with multiple years of collegiate experience — including one who's competed at a high-level at Ball State and in the Mid-American Conference — Lewis feels Ball State is positioned to do just that.

"If you've listened to anything I said, it's about competitiveness and toughness and guys who love basketball and want to win," Lewis said. "I think with the guys who we've brought into the program, we've only enhanced those aspects with the guys that we inherited."

Even with the four additions this offseason, Ball State has 12 players on its roster. The NCAA allows Division I men's basketball teams to allocate 13 scholarships, which Ball State has used in each of the past three seasons at least.

The spot is there if Ball State wants to use it on a player next season, but it might not.

"I'm not sure," Lewis said. "I like what we have from a roster standpoint, I like our position depth and our versatility and so I'm not sure if I'm going to use that position scholarship for next year.

"... It's out there. If we come across somebody that we think can help our program, then we'll explore that, but I really like what we have right now and the chemistry we have in the locker room."

Ball State is set to return three starters from last season in reigning MAC Freshman of the Year Payton Sparks (13.5 points, 8.5 rebounds), junior Luke Bumbalough (10.9 points, 2.8 assists) and senior Demarius Jacobs (8.2 points, 2.7 assists). Sophomore Jaylin Sellers, who carved out a role as the team's sixth man, redshirt sophomore Mickey Pearson Jr., junior Jalen Windham, sophomores Basheer Jihad and Ben Hendriks return as well.

The Cardinals will bring in Coleman, who spent his first two seasons at Ball State and averaged 8.6 points, 3.4 rebounds and 2.8 assists in his lone season at Missouri.

Allen's entering his sixth season of collegiate basketball, playing two years at Nebraska (2017-19) and the last three at NC State (2019-22). Allen has played in over 100 games in his collegiate career, starting 46 of them while averaging 5.6 points, 1.8 rebounds and 1.3 assists.

Cleary, a Manchester, England, native, spent his past two seasons at Florida Southwestern State, a junior college, after beginning his career at Florida Southern (Division II). Last season, he averaged 11.6 points, 4.9 rebounds and 1.2 assists.

Bell begins his college career after playing at both Chapel Hill High School and Link Year Prep. In 2019, Bell, a Georgia first team all-state selection, averaged 19.2 points, 5.6 rebounds and 2.4 steals. At Link Year Prep, he shot 46.3% form the field, 41.3% from 3 and 83.5% from the free throw line, averaging 19.3 points and 5.1 rebounds.

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"One thing that I stressed is we're all new," Lewis said. "I don't look at new guys, guys that were here, I don't look at it from that standpoint. I look at it as this is our basketball team and how can we make us the best version of ourselves heading into the season and, ultimately, throughout the year to get to where we want to go?"

With such a large amount of roster turnover, it'll be interesting to see who carves out a starting role by the time the season begins. But Lewis said the team has been gelling in the offseason and he's pleased by the effort they're putting in. "if we're working like this, there's no other options but to get better," he said.

Robby General covers Ball State and East Central Indiana high school sports for The Star Press. Contact him via email at rgeneral@gannett.com or on Twitter @rgeneraljr.

This article originally appeared on Muncie Star Press: Ball State men's basketball: Cardinals may stay with 12-man roster