Scouting Report: A look at what the Hoosiers are getting in Oumar Ballo
After landing a commitment from Washington State transfer guard Myles Rice on Saturday, Indiana's hot week continued on Tuesday with the commitment of Arizona transfer big man Oumar Ballo.
Ballo spent three seasons in Tuscon at Arizona after spending two years to begin his career at Gonzaga.
Ballo joins the Hoosiers with one year of eligibility remaining.
A proven commodity around college basketball, let's analyze what Indiana fans should expect out of the newest Hoosier.
***All of the stats used in this story are courtesy of Sports Reference and/or Synergy Sports***
In conjunction with the addition of Rice earlier in the week, the commitment of Ballo now provides Indiana with a deadly duo in the pick-and-roll game.
The high school product of the NBA's Academy Latin America in gives the Hoosiers an intimidating physical presence on the interior on both sides of the floor.
A 7-foot, 260 pound big man, Ballo spent the first two years of his collegiate career at Gonzaga, although he only saw playing time in the second season. He then transferred to Arizona, where he spent three years as a Wildcat under head coach Tommy Lloyd.
This past season, Ballo started all 36 games for Arizona. He averaged a double-double, collecting 12.9 points and a career-high 10.1 rebounds a night. The native of Koulikoro, Mali added 1.3 blocks per game and shot 65.8% from the field -- ranking fifth in the country in field goal percentage -- this past season.
Offensively, the former five-star recruit is a force to be reckoned with in the painted area. Ballo was one of the most efficient players in the country this past season when he got the ball around the basket.
He ranked in the 91st percentile in points per possession this past season, in large part because of the quality of most of his looks.
Over three quarters (78.9%) of Ballo's shot attempts last year at Arizona came at the rim. He shot 72.4% on those high quality looks at the basket, ranking in the 94th percentile in college basketball in points per shot at the rim. Simply put, if he got the ball in deep, he was almost automatic a year ago.
Ballo's ability to consistently get those high quality looks at the basket is what makes him so good. He has a handful of different ways he likes to get himself into those advantageous positions in the lane.
The primary way in which Ballo generates easy looks at the rim, is by posting up. In his final season at Arizona, 41.6% of Ballo's offensive touches came in the form of a post-up. He got the ball in the post 178 times a season ago.
That's more than both Malik Reneau and Kel'el Ware did at Indiana last year.
While he got the ball more often in the low post, Ballo wasn't as efficient as the Hoosiers' duo of bigs was last year. Ballo ranked in the 74th percentile in post-up scoring a season ago, while Ware and Reneau ranked in the 87th percentile and 82nd percentile respectively.
The second most common method for Ballo to get high quality shot attempts at the rim last year was off of offensive rebounds.
His 15.1% offensive rebound rate led the Wildcats a season ago and would've led the Hoosiers too. Of the 463 points the 7-footer scored last season, 19.2% of them came via offensive rebounds/putbacks.
Ballo's dominance on the glass extends well beyond just the offensive side of the floor. His 21.1% overall rebound rate ranked seventh in the entire country this past season, he's one of the nation's premier rebounders.
The other main avenue of attack Ballo utilized a season ago to get easy looks at the rim was in the pick-and-roll. In 13.3% of his offensive possessions last year, Ballo operated as the screener in the pick-and-roll.
In those sets, the big man scored 1.368 points per possession which ranked in the 90th percentile in the nation.
On the defensive end of the floor, Ballo was a bit of a mixed bag last year. Throughout his career, he hasn't been dominant on the defensive side of the ball, but he's no slouch either.
The Arizona big man surrendered 0.984 points per possession to his opposition when he was the primary defender a season ago. That ranked in the 18th percentile in the country.
Compare that to Kel'el Ware, who ranked in the 81st percentile and gave up 0.773 points per possession as the primary defender, it's clear that Ballo is a slight downgrade from the potential first round pick the Hoosiers had anchoring the defense a year ago.
Diving a little deeper, Ballo ranked in the 44th percentile defending in the post this past season. Comparatively, Ware finished the year in the 71st percentile defending post-ups.
In relation to Ware, Ballo wasn't an elite rim protector a season ago either. Opponents shot 62.1% at the rim when guarded by the Arizona big man last year, while Ware held opponents to 42.9% shooting on field goal attempts at the rim.
Additionally, while he led the Wildcats with 1.3 blocks per game, Ballo's 5.0% block rate would've ranked third on the Hoosiers a season ago behind both Ware and Payton Sparks.
One defensive quality Indiana will love about Ballo is that he's traditionally been able to play defense without fouling for most of his career. He averaged 3.2 fouls per 40 minutes last year and committed shooting fouls on just 5.9% of opposition shot attempts a season ago.
To put that into perspective, both Ware and Reneau fouled shot takers more than 8.3% of the time last season.
Ballo is also a one-time selection to the Pac-12 All-Defense team.
Hoosier fans shouldn't expect the defensive impact that Ware had for Indiana a year ago, but Ballo is more than serviceable on that end of the floor with his big, strong frame.
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