Oumar Ballo was a huge reason Arizona won two of the final three Pac-12 titles and make the Sweet 16 times in the past three years. Now he’s hoping to get one of college basketball’s original blue bloods back into the postseason.
The former Wildcat big man has committed to Indiana for his sixth and final college season, becoming the second player from the 2023-24 team to find a new school with both ending up in the Big Ten Conference.
The 7-foot, 260-pound Oumar spent the past three seasons at Arizona, where he finished as the school’s career leader in field goal percentage (.646) and also ranked in the top 10 in double-doubles, rebounds and blocked shots.
A two-time Pac-12 all-conference First Team player, Ballo was the league’s Most Improved Player in 2022-23 when he averaged a career-best 14.2 points per game. This past season he averaged 12.9 points and 10.1 rebounds, his 65.8 percent field goal rate second-best in school history and his 20 double-doubles tied fourth-most in a season.
Ballo finished his UA career with 1,213 points, which ranks 34th in school history. He had 60 points in two seasons at Gonzaga, including a redshirt year, before following Tommy Lloyd from Spokane to Tucson.
Indiana, which missed out on the NCAA Tournament this past season, has also picked up Pac-12 Freshman of the Year Myles Rice from Washington State. The Hoosiers have not made it to the Sweet 16 since 2016, last reached the Elite Eight in 1993, the Final Four in 1992 and the last of its five national titles came in 1987.
Ballo, who had 15 points and 12 rebounds in a win over Indiana in Las Vegas in December 2022, is the second UA player to commit to a Big Ten school in the past three days. Former Wildcat point guard Kylan Boswell, a native of Champaign, Ill., committed to hometown school Illinois on Sunday.
There could be a Ballo/Arizona reunion in November in the Bahamas, as Indiana and the Wildcats are both in the 8-team Battle 4 Atlantis field.