Ball State University has dismissed men’s basketball head coach Michael Lewis following a disappointing campaign that saw the team miss the conference tournament, according to Saturday reports from The Field of 68.
The Cardinals concluded their regular season Friday evening with a convincing 85-69 win over Central Michigan, but the victory came too late to preserve Lewis’s position. His squad ended the year with a 12-19 overall record and went 7-11 in Mid-American Conference play.
The Cardinals’ ninth-place finish in the MAC left them on the outside looking in for the conference tournament, as only the conference’s top eight teams advance to compete for the championship in Cleveland next week.
Lewis took over the program in March 2022 and posted an overall record of 61-64 during his four-year tenure. The Cardinals achieved success only in his inaugural season, when they went 20-12 in the 2022-23 campaign – their lone winning record under his leadership.
The 48-year-old coach brought extensive experience as an assistant, having spent 18 years in that role before landing the Ball State position. His coaching journey included assistant positions at prominent programs such as UCLA, Nebraska, and Butler.
Lewis’s basketball roots trace back to his standout playing career in Indiana, where he earned recognition as the state’s Gatorade Player of the Year in high school. He went on to play collegiately at Indiana University under legendary coach Bob Knight from 1996 to 2000. When Knight moved to Texas Tech in 2001, Lewis followed as a graduate assistant for two seasons.
