Ball State guard and Chicago-area native Chris Williams’ senior season wasn’t supposed to be this way.

He was the leader of a team that was predicted to win the MAC in the preseason, and he had a big man in Theron Smith who was going to help guide the Cardinals to the promised land.

However, things don’t always go as planned, and Williams found that out first hand.

After finishing last season 23-12 and atop the MAC West with a 12-6 mark, the Cardinals have suffered through a rough start, now 8-10 overall and 3-5 in the MAC.

They began last season in a convincing fashion with wins over No. 3 Kansas and No. 4 UCLA in back-to-back days to find themselves ranked No. 25 in the nation.

This season, though, after playing the first three games of the year, Smith was forced to sit out the remainder of the season. With continuing tendinitis in his right knee after he didn’t recover fully from surgery in June, Ball State has suffered.

So what were the Cardinals to do?

Well, Williams knew what he had to do. He had to put the team on his back.

“It’s been tough with Theron out, but we have adjusted to it,” Williams said. ” I just try to be a more vocal leader and a scorer.”

NIU senior guard Jay Bates, who guarded Williams some in the last meeting on Jan. 11, was impressed by the guard’s game.

“With any good team, when your best player goes out, someone has to step up,” Bates said. “Chris has been doing a good job of that, and right now Ball State is the hottest team in the league.”

In their first MAC game this season, the 6-foot-3 Williams scored a career-high 48 points against Akron. On Tuesday, he overtook Akron’s Derrick Tarver for the league lead in scoring at 22.6 points per game.

Williams’ performances against NIU have been good and bad. In NIU’s first game against the Cardinals this year — a 66-64 NIU win in Muncie — Williams scored 18 points but shot 6-of-22 from the field and 0-of-11 from behind the three-point line.

In his last appearance in DeKalb last season, he scored a then career-high 31 points and was a perfect 13-of-13 from the free-throw line in a BSU 86-81 win.

Saturday will mark Williams’ last game to be played in his home state. Attending Oak Park’s Fenwick High School, he teamed with NBA’s Corey Maggette and current UIC star Jabari Harris. A four-year starter, Williams ended his prep career with over 1,500 points.

He then moved his game to Loyola-Chicago where he played two years before sitting out a year with his transfer to Ball State.

“It’s always exciting to get to play close to home,” Williams said. “It’s a chance for family and friends to come watch me play who do not always get the chance to do so.”

Williams, however, is not the only Illinois tie Ball State has. Cameron Echols, fourth in the league in rebounding at 9.5 per game, is from Chicago Simeon. Matt McCollom, the team’s third leading scorer at 11.7 points per contest, played high school basketball at Mt. Zion. And Cardinal freshman Tom Howland comes from Normal West.

Even though he is from the Chicago area, Williams said he never thought about coming to play at NIU, but did say NIU has played the Cardinals tough, winning the past two meetings.

Coming back to Illinois, Williams hopes to leave with a smile on his face, but the Huskies will be defending their hardwood.