Ball State has fired men’s basketball coach Michael Lewis after four seasons, the school announced Saturday.
The Cardinals ended their season with an 85-69 win over Central Michigan in the regular-season finale Friday to finish on a four-game winning streak but still missed the Mid-American Conference tournament after posting a 12-19 (7-11 MAC) record.
“We are grateful to Coach Lewis for the passion and commitment he brought to our program the past four years,” athletic director Jeff Mitchell said in a statement. “We appreciate the time and effort he invested in our student-athletes.”
Lewis went 61-64 in his four seasons at the helm of the Cardinals. He won 20 games in Year 1, finishing fourth in the MAC, but was unable to replicate his early success. Ball State has finished 7-11 in conference play in each of the past three seasons, going 41-52 during that time.
Lewis was a longtime power-conference assistant before being tapped to take over at Ball State in 2022. He spent time on staffs at UCLA, Nebraska and Butler, working under three different coaches during his time with the Bulldogs. He was an assistant coach at Eastern Illinois and Stephen F. Austin before Brad Stevens hired him at Butler.
His coaching career began as a graduate assistant at Texas Tech under Bob Knight, for whom he played in college at Indiana. Lewis was the Hoosiers’ team captain and an all-conference performer as a senior in 1999-2000.
