Indiana Basketball: Why Oumar Ballo is the most important team transfer for 2024-25

It’s easy to be underwhelmed by Indiana basketball in recent years. A program with great historical relevance went six years between trips to the NCAA Tournament before Mike Woodson led them back in each of his first two seasons back as head coach. However, last year was far less successful in year three, with the Hoosiers just .500 in the Big Ten, though we could be looking at a bounce back effort this season.

Indiana did lose a bit of talent in the offseason, but returns overwhelmingly more pieces than many other Big Ten programs. Kel’el Ware and Xavier Johnson are off to bigger things, though top scorer Malik Reneau, rising sophomore Mackenzie Mgbako, and talented veteran guard Trey Galloway are all back in Bloomington. What makes matters even sweeter is that Woodson and his staff were very effective using the Transfer Portal as well.

The Hoosiers scooped up several faces, including a familiar one in former Illinois shooting guard Luke Goode. Indiana also grabbed a pair of very talented freshmen from the former Pac-12, landing point guard Myles Rice from Washington State and former Stanford guard Kanaan Carlyle. Not only did they build this major boost to the backcourt, but the Hoosiers also landed one of the top prospects in the nation.

Oumar Ballo is a 7-foot center from Mali who was actually considered a Top 100 prospect way back in 2019. He redshirted and played sparingly at Gonzaga before following Tommy Lloyd to Arizona, becoming a star in the Wildcats’ frontcourt over the last three seasons. Ballo averaged 12.9 points and 10.1 rebounds per game, earning First Team All-Pac-12 honors for a second straight season.

Ballo’s final season of eligibility becomes Indiana’s gain and they’ll get quite a monster for this upcoming season. Ballo was one of the nation’s most efficient offensive players, leading the Pac-12 in offensive rebounds and field goal percentage. He’s a sizeable athlete who gets the job done at the rim, though his free throw shooting could certainly use some work.

Throwing Ballo into this lineup is a major victory for Woodson this offseason. The Hoosiers don’t need him to score double figures every day in order to win; his intensity on both ends as something of a stop gap could be huge for this upcoming season. He greatly strengthens a frontcourt leaning heavily on Mgbako and Reneau and might give the Hoosiers the best unit in the Big Ten.

We don’t know what this roster will look like playing together quite yet, but it’s fair to say that Indiana has talent to get back to the Big Dance. Anything short of that will be a certain disappointment for Woodson, and the fans in Bloomington are anything but patient. Does the addition of Ballo put the Hoosiers in position to make serious noise this season?