MUNCIE, Ind. -- The Ball State men's basketball team knew Mid-American Conference play was going to be challenging.
After all, outside the traditional power conferences, the NCAA's NET rankings have the MAC second only to the American Athletic Conference. That's No. 8 overall out of 32 Division I leagues.
Still, the Cardinals hoped to be in a better position a third of the way through the conference schedule and to have found more success at Worthen Arena.
Ball State (11-8 overall) dropped to 2-4 in MAC play Thursday with its third straight home loss, this one a 71-65 setback to Miami.