MUNCIE, Ind. — Ishmael El-Amin seemed set to return with Ball State basketball for the 2020-21 season as the Cardinals’ leading talent.

The junior guard started all 31 games this past season for a BSU team that won a share of the Mid-American Conference West Division title and compiled an 18-13 record, with an 11-7 mark against the MAC. He finished second on the team in scoring with 429 points (13.8 per game), second in assists with 72, second in steals with 34 and as its most prolific 3-point shooter — not to mention one of the MAC’s best. If Ball State was going to win the MAC tournament and reach the NCAA tournament next season, as it wanted to this season before coronavirus concerns led to the cancelation of both, it appeared he’d be a significant reason why.

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El-Amin scored in double figures 24 times this past season and dropped at least 21 points four times. When redshirt senior guard K.J. Walton went down with an injury, El-Amin stepped up as the Cardinals’ best defender on the perimeter. Ball State likely doesn’t earn a bye in the conference tournament without him.

But it became clear Tuesday that El-Amin’s time with BSU is coming to an end. He announced on Twitter he intended to transfer and called his three years in Muncie some of the best years of his life.

“Nothing but memories and blessings with great coaches, teammates, fans, and of course the community,” El-Amin’s tweet read, in part. “Thank you for accepting the kid from Minnesota, and making Muncie feel like home as much as possible. With all that being said I will be opening my recruitment to find my future home.”

El-Amin took another step toward defining his own legacy in college basketball this season. As he seemed to constantly be followed by comparisons to his father, Khalid El-Amin, a national title winner with the University of Connecticut in 1999 who starred in high school in Minnesota and played close to 20 years professionally, El-Amin put up highlight after highlight. He earned an All-MAC third-team selection and asserted himself as a possible MAC player of the year next season.

The final chapter in El-Amin’s collegiate journey just won’t take place in Muncie.

He is the second player, joining freshman guard Lucas Kroft, to transfer from coach James Whitford’s squad since the season ended.

“I think the world of Ish,” Whitford, who now has four spots to fill in his 2020 recruiting class, said in a statement. “My job as his coach is to support him. He has decided he wants to find a new home, and we will support him. We wish him the very best. Ish is a good kid and a great player. I know he will be very successful in life going forward.”

Former teammate Trey Moses, whose junior and senior seasons at BSU were El-Amin’s freshman and sophomore years, did not see this coming.

Moses said he roomed with El-Amin on road trips those two seasons. He considers El-Amin more than just a teammate, as “a brother and one of my really good friends.” He thought El-Amin would return and, with redshirt freshman guard Jarron Coleman, form one of the best backcourts in the MAC.

“I was shocked,” Moses said. “I found out on Twitter and I hit him up like, ‘Dude, like, what? You didn’t tell me.’ And he was just like, ‘Man, I apologize. I knew I forgot one person.’ But it’s just one of those things where he feels like he’s doing what’s best for him, and although I know not a lot of people may agree, at the end of the day you’ve got to do what you feel is best for you and your career.”

Moses will support El-Amin regardless of what comes next. He’ll be a guiding voice if that’s what El-Amin wants from him. He just wishes El-Amin could have finished out at BSU, which Moses knows will miss El-Amin next season.

Moses’ favorite memory of El-Amin in action with the Cardinals came this past season in February, when El-Amin hit an acrobatic 3 late against Northern Illinois at Worthen Arena to help seal a win.

“We’ve had our different talks but, I felt going into this year that he was confident he was going to play well,” said Moses, asked if El-Amin had ever given any indication transferring was a possibility. “I knew, I figured that he — in my opinion he was going to stay given the role he had, being a vocal leader of the team, being a guy that people looked up to and one of the main focal points on offense. But it’s just one of those things where he feels that a better situation, or whatever it is, will be better for him. If he can get to a bigger program, whatever it is.”

El-Amin collected, in his time at BSU, a total of 711 points, 191 rebounds, 138 assists and 64 steals. Prior to his junior year, El-Amin appeared in 31 games off the bench as a freshman and started one of his 19 appearances as a sophomore, missing time last season due to injury.

“I have tremendous respect for Coach Whitford and the whole coaching staff,” El-Amin said in a statement. “They helped mold me into the player I’ve become, and I will always appreciate them. I’ve had great teammates and made some wonderful memories. It definitely hurts to leave, but I know the future is bright both for myself and for Ball State.”

Jordan Guskey covers Ball State and East Central Indiana high schools at the Star Press. Contact him at (765) 213-5813, jmguskey@muncie.gannett.com or on Twitter at @JordanGuskey.