MUNCIE, Ind. — With the emotional weight of nine consecutive losses hanging over a small meeting room, Ball State players wondered what coach Rich Maloney had up his sleeve. He'd called them together for a reveal he was particularly hyped up for. It was just before a pivotal Western Michigan series on April 8, and Maloney had the group staring at a four-foot-tall cardboard box.
"Everybody started freaking out," said senior Sean Kennedy. "Coach told everybody, 'I talked to the great Cardinal in the sky today.'
"We all think, 'Oh my gosh.'"
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Maloney knew what he was doing in that room, surely.