Brady Sallee's Ball State legacy, historic season, built through strong relationships

MUNCIE, Ind. — Brady Sallee vividly remembers the genesis of his Ball State journey.

He was mowing his lawn when his youngest daughter, Taryn, "comes sprinting across the yard, blond hair flowing, like movie stuff, holding my cell phone."

Surprisingly, the caller was Karin Lee, former BSU deputy athletics director and senior woman administrator, inquiring if Sallee had interest in the Cardinals' vacant women's basketball head coach position. He'd spent the previous eight seasons successfully leading Eastern Illinois' squad and recently interviewed with Bowling Green, but Sallee didn't previously consider Ball State because it was still searching for a new AD.

"I thought, 'Holy cow, where did this come from?'" Sallee said.

After speaking with his wife, Mandy, and Lee again, it became clear to Sallee that the Cardinals represented a prime opportunity to advance his career in a place his family could call home. He appreciated BSU's professionalism, keeping the interview process quiet out of respect for his current employer, and soon accepted Lee's offer without even needing a campus visit.

"The vision they had for women's basketball and what I thought we could do with the resources that they were ready to put in place, it was a no-brainer," Sallee said. "You look at the facilities, you look at the campus, you look at the area of the country that we get to call home and, I mean, if you can't build a successful basketball team here, you just can't do it.

"There was no negotiation. It was, 'Hey, let's go.'"

More:Ball State 'having fun' making history, winning differently and developing new leaders

Now 11 years in, Sallee is a Cardinals basketball legend. He entered the 2022-23 campaign as the university's winningest basketball coach, men's and women's, and this winter reached multiple milestones by notching his 200th career victory, sixth 20-win season and the program's first 11-1 start to conference play.

Such momentous feats caught Sallee off guard. He's not one to track achievements, let alone when and where his team's playing next week, but said these accomplishments inspired some reflection.

"I've been doing this for a while, and the one thing that I think I've gotten better at is enjoying a little bit of the journey instead of always looking ahead," Sallee said. "(200 wins), to me, the cool part about it, it's a good time to really think about all the people that have impacted me at such an incredible level."

More:Why Ball State women's basketball is off to its best start in MAC play in 6 years

Road to Muncie

Sallee, unlike many Div. I college basketball coaches, didn't play the sport at an advanced level. He excelled, instead, as a pitcher, helping his high school win a Kentucky state championship before competing at Thomas More University from 1990-93.

Yet basketball is his "first love," so when Sallee still needed three classes to graduate after concluding his baseball career, he accepted the AD's offer to assist with TMU women's basketball in exchange for a stipend to help pay his tuition.

It was an easy sell. Not only had Sallee already worked with the team as one of its male practice players, he’d always been interested in coaching from growing up with University of Kentucky men's basketball season tickets during the head-coaching eras of Joe B. Hall and Rick Pitino.

Finally with a chance to explore this curiosity, Sallee became involved in every aspect of the program and made a connection that landed him a job working the UK women’s basketball summer camp. Two weeks in, he was recommended for an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator position with Idaho State women’s basketball.

"It was really right place, right time, right people, a leap of faith. Who knew what kind of a career women's basketball was going to be?" Sallee said. "I jumped in with two feet and tried to do it the best I could.

"30 years later, here we are."

Sallee spent the next several years in assistant roles — two at Idaho State, six at Kent State and two at East Carolina — before landing the Eastern Illinois head coaching job in 2004, inheriting a program coming off eight straight losing seasons for a combined 77-167 record.

"A lot of people told me, 'Don't do it. It's a graveyard job. Nobody can win there. Nobody has won there,' and they were all right," Sallee said. "We were lucky and we got a couple of good recruiting classes back-to-back that got the thing rocking and rolling."

He built a winner there by his fourth season, and from 2007-12, EIU enjoyed its best five-year stretch in program history with a 106-55 record, highlighted in 2010 by the Panthers' first Ohio Valley Conference title.

When Bowling Green passed on Sallee in 2012, he was content to run it back with a strong Eastern Illinois group returning from 22-9 campaign. But the unexpected Ball State offer was a chance to compete at the "next level," and Sallee got his family's blessing to make the move.

'What Brady Sallee is all about'

Sallee is not particularly interested in coaching the other side of the sport. He relates to the hard-working, humble nature of most female athletes, particularly in college basketball where their priorities are commonly centered around the team than trying to play professionally.

"I've always appreciated the coachability and the want-to in our game ... That's kind of my bread and butter. I can coach that human well," Sallee said. "The big egos the all that, 'I'm going to the NBA and I'm the man,' I've never been good (with those types). Even growing up ... I was the grinder. I was never the star ... I had to be coachable. I had to be tough. I had to be a lot of things that more talented players were not, so maybe that's the connection."

Plenty of hard coaching was needed at Ball State, which was 32-59 over the three seasons preceding Sallee's arrival.

Audrey Spencer, then-director of women's basketball operations, aided Sallee in his transition. As a player, she helped lead BSU to its first and only NCAA Tournament appearance (2009) and offered Sallee a unique bridge between the most recent two eras of the program.

She and the Cardinals quickly learned of Sallee's caring nature, enthusiasm and attention to detail. He admitted that "I can be a lot," which Spencer jokingly deemed "the understatement of the year," but part of Sallee's emphasis on bonding stems from his intensity.

Sallee is expressive. When it's game time, he's not afraid to yell, even while winning, but tries to maintain a fun attitude otherwise. Making sure those around him can separate the human from the competitor is pivotal to maintaining a stable and positive program environment.

It's not always perfect, and Sallee tries not repeat his mistakes. He strives to "adapt, but never compromise" his values while continuing to grow as a coach and person, regardless of his status within Ball State's coaching lore.

"I've had some failures with some athletes here that — they're good players, and it didn't work out here. I could sit at my head coach's desk and go, 'Oh, it's the kids fault,' ... That's never the case. It always takes two to tango," Sallee said. "I've always wanted to be able to lay my head down at night and know that my effort was real and genuine ... I think that's the key to longevity."

Redshirt senior Anna Clephane, even as a high school sophomore, recognized these traits in Sallee during her recruitment process and said the program's family atmosphere made committing an easy choice.

Her decision was bolstered in January 2022 after Clephane suffered her second ACL tear. She contemplated quitting basketball before a few heart-to-heart talks with Sallee empowered her to view the situation differently.

Clephane chose to return, became just the 10th player under Sallee to reach 1,000 career points and is now playing some of her best basketball for the top BSU team she's been a part of.

"There were plenty of times when I just went into his office and I would just cry and he would cry with me and he helped me work through it. And he would never tell me what to, what decisions I needed to make," Clephane said. "He would always leave it open for me to decide, which was, I think, really what I needed ... He was always just one of the biggest supporters, and that was really helpful in my process."

From the equipment staff to new BSU Athletics Director Jeff Mitchell, Sallee, by all accounts, has put people first.

"I think when you ask anybody about what Brady Sallee is all about, I think it's relationships, and what you see is what you get," Spencer said. "He doesn't pull any punches ... but because of that, you respect him and you're willing to run through a wall for him.

"He'll say that it's not his 200 wins — Yes, it is. It 100% is. He deserves all the glory in this ... He works his absolute tail off for this program and for this university."

More to prove

In the coaching profession, 11 years is a long time to be in the same place.

The Sallee family has grown roots in Muncie, so much so that Taryn is now a freshman at Ball State.

There have been new and exciting opportunities, but Sallee is no longer searching for the next step up. He feels "lucky" to be at BSU, a "special place" in a town with the type of Midwest values that align with his family's way of life.

He likes the kids he recruits, the people he works with and the many wins his teams complile. Sallee, of course, will never say never, but there's no plan to depart in the near future.

"I've had a few phone calls through the years. But as I got older in my career, as my family got older ... I think my priorities shifted," Sallee said. "As a young head coach, I thought I was going to be the next Rick Pitino. I was going to be that next (guy) jumping all over the place and up the ladder ... But there came a time where I looked at how well my family was doing and I looked at their happiness, and that became the priority for me."

Spencer has called Muncie her home for even longer, dating back to her freshman season in 2006. She's qualified to try and land her own head coaching position, yet Spencer said Sallee's willingness to help his assistants carve out their own roles in the program, develop as leaders and contribute in meaningful ways keeps her coming back.

"In terms of basketball minds, I don't know that I'll find much better. And he allows me to have a ton of say," Spencer said. "He trusts what I do and what I bring to the program, so a lot of why I am here is because of him."

There's also an "elephant in the room" missing from Sallee's resume: winning the Mid-American Conference tournament.

For as great as most of his teams have been, the Cardinals haven't gotten over the hump and made an NCAA Tournament. They were close last season, losing 79-75 to Buffalo in the MAC championship, so there's still a goal for Sallee and Spencer to work toward.

"That's a motivator. That's the reason that I don't sleep a lot ... That's the one that I'm wanting desperately, and these kids deserve it," Sallee said. "I'm a big believer in all of this has already been written, and I think that, whether it's in basketball, whether it's in life, I think our job is to do it to the best of our ability. And I think you've got to trust and have faith that the rest of it is going to happen when it happens.

"But it certainly is something that I want in a bad, bad, bad, bad, bad way."

This season is shaping up to be Sallee's best chance yet at reaching that mountain top. The Cardinals (21-4, 11-1 MAC) currently hold their best conference record ever and are the winners of nine straight, dominating teams with a relatively new offensive system.

Following BSU's 2020-21 season, which featured a ball-screen oriented offense around post player Oshlynn Brown, Brady switched to a "five-out motion." Sitting around his pool, Sallee devised a unique team structure, shedding traditional positions in favor of three distinct roles.

There are "backs," whose job it is to get back on defense after BSU shoots, and "crashers," who go after offensive rebounds, and then "keys," big players who inbound the ball after a made shot.

Although a little goofy upon first glance, Sallee's program is devoted to this approach. The Cardinals don't even announce their starting-five players anymore, instead listing every player assigned to each of the three categories. When opponents announce Ball State's starters before away games, every player comes out and they don't acknowledge any hierarchy.

"If you know me, I at times maybe go overboard with this kind of stuff, but I'm a firm believer in if you're gonna do something, you go all in. Like, if you're on high dive, man, it's cannonball city," Sallee said. "So if we were going to do this, we had to talk different, we had to think different ... I had to convince them they were positionless."

Sallee feels this change has also impacted the team's chemistry for the better. He said this squad is "as connected of a team as I've ever had" and has "genuine care for one another," which makes the bus rides and downtime even more enjoyable.

Ball State women's basketball may be starving for a MAC title, and it'll have another chance come March 3-8 in Cleveland, but its off-court chemistry is already special.

Fostering those relationships and memories is what keeps Sallee going, even after 200 wins and counting.

"I feel like I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing, which is pretty powerful," Sallee said. "When you can find your passion, when you can find the joy in that and call that your job, it's a true blessing."

Gus Martin is a sports reporter at The Star Press. Follow him on Twitter @GusMartin_SP, and contact him at gmartin@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Muncie Star Press: Ball State women's basketball: Brady Sallee legacy relationships