Oumar Ballo was the best player in the transfer portal, but does he fit with Indiana basketball?: ‘I like him talent-wise…I am not sure if I like him next to Malik Reneau and Mackenzie Mgbako.’

Indiana basketball has started off the early offseason on a very hot note. They have gotten major returns from last year’s team in the form of Malik Reneau, Mackenzie Mgbako, Trey Galloway, and others…replaced Liam McNeeley with 2024 five-star wing Bryson Tucker…and found their starting lead guard in Washington State transfer Myles Rice.

Mike Woodson and the Hoosiers have not stopped there with them getting arguably the biggest prize (literally) in transfer portal in Arizona senior center Oumar Ballo. He is the No. 1 overall prospect in the 247Sports Transfer Portal Rankings.

When it came to areas in the transfer portal that Indiana needed to fill, finding a replacement in the production that Kel’el Ware brought to the team on both ends of the floor was one of the few key needs. When you look at the guys that went into the transfer portal that could fill the void that was left by Ware, Oumar Ballo was probably the best guy you could have gotten due to the experience, role he plays, and overall size in the post.

However, there are still some questions marks when it comes to the addition to Ballo. The questions do not come from the talent that Ballo has or how productive he will be for Indiana basketball, more so to do with the fit for this Indiana team. Last year, Indiana ran with a two big lineup of Kel’el Ware and Malik Reneau and while that was a major on-court advantage in the frontcourt, it also limited what all the Hoosiers could do on the floor at times.

Mike Woodson was heavily supportive for the inside-out game that he showed last season.

“I still think the college game is played inside-out,” said Mike Woodson a few months ago.

“Well, when we won, we won with both of our bigs on the floor. You know, that’s what I look at,” Woodson continued. “You look at analytics based on we haven’t played a lot (of minutes) where we played four around one this year. So you’re looking at short stats basically.

“We basically have played with two bigs on the floor most of the season. The games that we have won and played well, they’ve been in and out of the game. So I don’t look at — I look what the we’ve done as whole.”

Going into this season, there were hopes by many people, especially Hoosiers Nation, that Woodson would elect to go with a more modern day frontcourt lineup of Mackenzie Mgbako and Malik Reneau. With the addition of Oumar Ballo, it is almost certain that Mike Woodson is going to run his inside-out system once again.

If that is the case once again this upcoming season, is there any reason to think it will work this time around? If you think about it, the spacing of the floor shrinks with a lineup of Ballo, Reneau, and Mgbako because you take away Ware’s ability to stretch the floor because Ballo is strictly a true post.

Again, talent is not the question, it is the roster contraction.

“I like him talent-wise. I like him because he’s older. I like him because he averaged a double-double,” said Jeff Goodman on The Field of 68. “I am not sure if I like him next to Malik Reneau and Mackenzie Mgbako.”

“Again, my biggest question mark with Mike Woodson a year ago was roster construction and it remains my biggest question just because again, you just can’t accumulate talent. That doesn’t always work.”

Even though it is kind of wild to say in this era of college basketball, the inside-out game can work with the right pieces, Purdue being a perfect example. If you have a dominant frontcourt presence that you want to run through, you have to have playmaking at the guard spots and shooting on the wing. You have to be able to expand your space as much as you can.

The addition of Ballo can work, but now it brings a ton of pressure on the perimeter play for Indiana. While the Hoosiers have not yet gotten the shooting they need as of yet at this point in the offseason, it puts a lot of pressure on guys like a Mackenzie Mgabko, Trey Galloway, and even newly added guard Myles Rice to make sure they are taking advantage of the possibly limited opportunities they have behind the arc.

You also look at the pressure Malik Reneau now has in expanding his game beyond the paint at a more consistent level.

“….so he can’t make threes,” Goodman continued. “Malik Reneau is not a great three-point shooter, let’s face it, he can make one here and there but that’s not his game. Mackenzie Mgbako, I was told he was a great three-point shooter going into last year…not great, not great. Trey Galloway, not a great three-point shooter.”

“All I’m saying is if you can’t shoot, it’s 2024, if you can’t shoot, you are probably not going to win in the NCAA Tournament, you’re just not.”

Yes the numbers weren’t exactly “great” for guys like Mgbako, Galloway, or Reneau when it came to hitting outside shots, but each one of those guys are more than capable of making the improvements in that area. If they do, the fit for Ballo makes a lot more sense.

Obviously, the NIL that Indiana basketball had fork over to land Ballo, a guy that was arguably the best overall prospect in the portal, was very high. In this day and age of college basketball, you will not be able to get a guy like Ballo if you are not willing to pay for it.

If the fit with Ballo does not work and the team once again sees major struggles again this season, most of the Indiana basketball fanbase will once again be questioning why Mike Woodson did not “spend the money” and get a more modern day type of player that helps teams at this level win.

“I think with Oumar Ballo, he is a very, very good five-man, he is going to be one of the better five-men in college basketball next year but the fit on this roster does not make sense,” Rob Dauster added on The Field of 68. “With the amount of money in NIL spending it takes to land a guy like Oumar Ballo out of the transfer portal, I just wonder why you wouldn’t go after someone that was maybe a big athletic wing maybe another combo guard.”

Indiana fans have every right to feel any way that they feel with the additions of Oumar Ballo in the frontcourt next season. They have a right to be excited because he is a top-tier big in the country, but also a little hesitant to be fully bought into another season of a big frontcourt lineup.

Without a doubt, Ballo is going to be productive for Indiana next season. The question, however, is will it be the right type of production that the Hoosiers need next season in order to get back to the NCAA Tournament.

You can watch the full clip of The Field of 68 episode below.

SEE ALSO: Talkin’ Bout The Hoosiers Podcast reacts to Indiana basketball landing Oumar Ballo in the transfer portal

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