Indiana Basketball Player Scouting Report: Oumar Ballo

Indiana basketball received their second transfer portal commitment of the offseason in Arizona transfer center Oumar Ballo, announced on Tuesday. This commitment comes off the heels of Ballo’s official visit to Bloomington as well as Washington State guard Myles Rice committing to Indiana as well over the weekend.

By many accounts, Ballo is the No. 1 rated player in the transfer portal. He has one year of eligibility left.

Ballo, who is a native of Koulikoro, Mali, started his college career at Gonzaga where he redshirted his first season and appeared in 24 games his second season. He would then transfer to Arizona and spend the next three seasons appearing in 108 games including 71 of those being starts.

He is coming off a senior season which saw him average 12.9 points, 10.1 rebounds and 1.3 blocks per game this season in 26 minutes a game while shooting an outstanding 65.8 from the field, almost entirely around the basket. His play led him to earn a spot on the All-Pac 12 First Team.

Ballo had 20 double-doubles this year and five games with at least 14 rebounds. He also scored in double-figures in 31 games.

Coming out of the NBA Academy Latin America high school program, Ballo was rated as a four-star center and the No. 78 overall player int he 2019 class. He originally chose Gonzaga over Baylor and coincidentally, Arizona.

Watch: Video Highlights of Indiana basketball transfer guard commit Myles Rice

When Ballo entreated the transfer portal, you almost knew that Indiana basketball was going to involved in his recruitment. Mike Woodson is arguably the best coach in the country at this current time when it comes to the development of big men with the proof coming from what he did with both Trayce Jackson-Davis and Kel’el Ware during his time as Indiana basketball head coach.

There was also a couple of key selling points that Indiana basketball has with Ballo: starting minutes at the five with Kel’el Ware opting to go to the NBA and developing Ballo’s game helping him potentially reach the NBA level.

While he will come in and replace the production of Kel’el Ware at the five spot on both ends of the floor, Ballo is a much different type of center than what Indiana basketball got used to seeing last season in Ware. For starters, you will NEVER see Ballo stretch the floor beyond 10 feet at the very max.

In his four total years as an active college player, Ballo has never taken a three point shot. His game is simple: he is going to use his body, power, and explosiveness around the rim to score. He scores at the rim 66% of the time with 88% of his attempts alone coming from around the rim. At 7-foot, 260-pounds, Ballo has been one of the best true centers in the country the past few seasons because he sticks to what he is comfortable with and does not try to to expand his game beyond his capabilities.

Although Indiana is getting arguably the best overall players in the transfer portal, there is a little bit of worrisome tendencies amongst the Indiana fanbase with the pickup of Ballo, which is understandable to a certain extent. The nervousness does not come towards Ballo exactly, but more so with the style that it almost forces Indiana to play…again.

There is no way around it, the Hoosiers will be a frontcourt dominant team yet again with the starting unit of Ballo and junior forward Malik Reneau. While the frontcourt was a major advantage last season with Reneau and Ware, it also limited to what Indiana could do on the floor. When you have two dominant players in your frontcourt in general, it is hard not to want to go inside most of the time.

The inside-out game that Mike Woodson wants to play is not going to go anywhere with Ballo coming in. While that may upset some fans who want a more modern style of heavy guard/perimeter play, there is another thing that you need to factor in with this.

You can play an inside-out game in today’s college basketball season and make it work — examples Purdue and UConn — but you need elite playmaking guards and perimeter shotmaking to make it work. Indiana did not have hardly any of that this past year and with the way things are trending for the Hoosiers this offseason, that is going change which in-turn, should make the pairing of Ballo and Reneau work.

Guards and perimeter playing aside, one of the bigger needs this offseason for Indiana basketball was finding a great replacement for the defensive production that Ware brought last season in the paint. Again, Ballo was probably the best possible options for the Hoosiers to bring in to replace the rim protecting and overall post defense that Ware brought for the Hoosiers.

While there is a slight decrease in the shot blocking per game (Ware 1.9 bpg, Ballo 1.3 bpg), Ballo is a much harder player for the opposing bigs to play in the post up position due to his massive size and strength. While he is not as lanky and skilled as Ware, he is much stronger. Ballo also has a 4.9 % block rate, which will again make it difficult for any player to score at the rim with Ballo on the floor.

Regardless of what the style of play is and if you agree with it or not, Ballo is going to come in and make an instant impact in the post for Indiana basketball. Yes the frontocurt will likely be a crowded area from game-to-game, but it still will be a difficult matchup for any team that goes up against Indiana next season. If Malik Reneau can continue to develop his outside game and stretch the floor, that could also really help things from an offensive standpoint.

Mike Woodson continues to bring in talented bigs to the Indiana basketball program. Ballo will come in, fill a need in the post, while also developing his game under Woodson.

With the additions of Myles Rice and Oumar Ballo, the Hoosiers now have 4 open scholarships to fill with more key visits still yet to come.

Below are full highlights of Arizona transfer center Oumar Ballo.

SEE ALSO: Indiana Basketball Player Scouting Report: Myles Rice

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