As Florida looks to rebuild their frontcourt it looks like they’re going big game hunting with the pursuit of Arizona big man Oumar Ballo, considered by many to be the best player currently in the transfer portal.
The native of Mali is currently ranked as the best player in the portal according to popular analytics tool EvanMiya, as well as first in the 247 Sports rankings. On3 currently has him ranked second. However you want to look at it, Oumar Ballo is a massive name and someone who will be able to go just about anywhere he wants in the country but that hasn’t scared off the Gators who are right in the hunt for his services.
Ballo started his career at Gonzaga where he took a true redshirt year before playing as a depth piece as a redshirt freshman. Then, when Gonzaga assistant Tommy Lloyd took the Arizona job, Ballo chose to follow and transferred over. Lloyd was the assistant who handled Ballo’s recruitment out of high school and believed that there was more for Ballo to give than he showed at Gonzaga. Ballo ended up playing just under 16 minutes per game as a redshirt sophomore before taking off in the 2022-23 season averaging 14.2 points and 8.6 assists becoming one of the top centers in the country. Then last year in his fifth season of college basketball Ballo followed it up with 12.9 points, 10.1 rebounds, and 1.3 blocks, proving his consistency as a top big man.
Standing at 7’0” and 260 pounds, Ballo is an absolute load on the inside. Ranking 15th in the country in offensive rebounding rate and 20th in the country in defensive rate and doing that in a power conference there is a strong argument for Ballo as the best rebounder in the country, and that’s something the Gators would love as they try to improve their defensive rebounding and interior size. Last year the Gators had length which helped them when it came to offensive rebounding but they lacked strength and were often bullied in the frontcourt, and Ballo has the bulk to make sure that doesn’t happen any more. He wasn’t a tremendous shot blocker but a solid rim protector, and he won’t allow stronger guards to knock him off his spot as they drive to the rim.
Offensively Ballo is a solid post player who can use his size to get deep position and put his defender into an impossible position which leads him to draw a ton of fouls, ranking 79th in the country in terms of fouls drawn. He also draws a lot of non-shooting fouls as teams wrap him up and grab him while he’s pursuing rebounds, another way he brings his team value.
Ballo can also set massive screens, opening up space for guards who can then get downhill. These physical screens also make Ballo a threat rolling to the rim where he gets a lot of thunderous alley-oop lobs, but often he doesn’t even get credit in the box score for an opponent scoring from the space generated from his huge screens.
When it comes to X-factors, Ballo is one of the winningest players in the country in his five years in college basketball. Look at where his teams finished in KenPom through his five seasons:
2024 Arizona: 6th
2023 Arizona: 11th
2022 Arizona: 5th
2021 Gonzaga: 1st
2020 Gonzaga: 2nd
Remarkably, Ballo has only been a part of winning teams. Sure, he didn’t play a massive role in a couple of these seasons–but being around winning cultures is valuable experience, and something the Gators could use given that many of the players they have brought in recently haven’t had taste of winning, and perhaps that has been a part of why the team hasn’t reached the heights they have been expected to.
Given that Ballo is so accomplished, the competition in his recruitment will be intense. Reportedly, he already has visits scheduled to Indiana, Louisville, Kansas State, North Carolina, and Florida (in that order–though dates haven’t been completely announced).
With Ballo’s age and experience on winning teams at the high-major level it seems like you can pencil him in for All-League level play no matter where he goes, so this is a name to be aware of.