Ballo was Indiana’s second leading scorer and the Hoosiers’ leading rebounder on the night.
Oumar Ballo has been… a hot topic lately.
Ballo didn’t play in Indiana’s last game, against Winthrop, despite donning the usual candystripe warmup pants and shooting shirt. Typically when a player is out with injury they’ll be wearing street clothes.
He was listed as questionable and a few social media rumors had claimed he was seen out on the town the previous night. Don Fischer said in his pregame radio show on Thursday that Ballo didn’t play due to an “injury situation.” It’s worth noting that Ballo also popped up as questionable on a previous injury report in December ahead of Indiana’s game against Minnesota. Mike Woodson declined to elaborate on Ballo following the Winthrop game.
He was available today against Rutgers, albeit off the bench. He became necessary almost immediately when Malik Reneau, starting at center in his stead, went down with an injury in the opening minutes of the game.
Ballo entered the game and immediately put together his best performance in the cream and crimson up to this point: 17 points, 12 rebounds, two assists and three blocks in 32 minutes.
Without Reneau, Ballo is arguably Indiana’s most important player.
He’s the Hoosiers’ biggest threat in the paint on both sides of the ball, a looming presence on defense and a near-guaranteed 10+ points on offense.
Ballo isn’t the game’s best rim protector, but his sheer size in the lane and overall length gives opponents something to think about before attacking the rack. That’s often good enough and Indiana just doesn’t have it when he isn’t in the game.
It became evident as soon as Langdon Hatton entered the game so Ballo could head to the bench for a spell. Hatton absolutely hustles and gives it his all out there, but Rutgers went right at him and he was just a tad too limited to counter. Not too long after, Ballo was right back on the floor.
Ballo’s sheer power in the paint was just too much for the Scarlet Knights to handle. If he wasn’t scoring he was getting Rutgers’ entire frontcourt in foul trouble.
Indiana needs Ballo’s post presence for its shooters to be as open as they were today. The Hoosiers shot 12/27 from long range today, good for 44%. They just do not have that kind of room to operate if Ballo isn’t threatening an overmatched Rutgers frontcourt down low.
He’s not gonna be the flashiest player all the time. He won’t produce a ton of highlight plays (outside of one second half block that elicited a Dikembe Mutombo-esque finger wag to get the crowd pumped up) but he’s able and willing to do the physical work that any successful basketball team needs.