Big night: 'Quick-twitch' Henri Veesaar, new boxer Oumar Ballo lead Wildcats at Red-Blue Game

Christian Koloko took advantage of a breakout junior season to jump into the NBA Draft last June, and Henri Veesaar can’t blame him.

“It’s a great opportunity for him to go to the league for sure,” Veesaar said.

It’s also a great opportunity for Veesaar to make a significant impact for the Wildcats as a freshman this season.

The 7-foot Estonian, demonstrating unusual mobility and ballhandling skills for his size, and junior center Oumar Ballo, picking up where he left off after a strong finish last season, scored 16 points apiece to lead the Blue team to a 49-45 win over the Red in Friday’s Red-Blue Game scrimmage at McKale Center.

Combined with 10 points and seven rebounds from in-state 7-foot freshman Dylan Anderson — plus seven points and a perfect dunk contest perfect score from all-leaguer Azuolas Tubelis — the Wildcats demonstrated a notable strength and versatility up front.

Even without Koloko.

“Me, ’Zu, Oumar and Dylan, everybody has their own way, so there’s a lot of versatility in our big guys,” Veesaar said. “We can stretch the floor and we can play quick. We just got to pick it up and be better with the ball, make less turnovers.”

The teams combined for 29 turnovers over two 10-minute halves, with Ballo committing three, Veesaar two and Anderson four. But there’s a reason for all that. It was only September, after all, when the Red-Blue Game was played, essentially just the Wildcats’ fourth full practice of the preseason.

UA coach Tommy Lloyd said the turnovers were also a function of letting his bigs handle the ball a lot early in the preseason. Veesaar took the ball downcourt on multiple occasions.

“That’s what allows us to move the ball the way we do, and we’ve just got to work out the kinks there,” Lloyd said. “But I think these four are going to be a formidable force and I was really happy to see Henri and Dylan have some success. They’ve had up-and-down moments in practice this fall like any freshmen would, and tonight, under the lights, I thought they both had some of their better performances that I’ve seen, so to me that was really encouraging.”

Lloyd said he hoped to have some versatility and mix-and-match lineups, potentially going big with Ballo and either Veesaar and Anderson, or having Veesaar a mobile center with four perimeter players.

He has a lot of toys to play with.

“Well, you guys know I love bigs,” Lloyd said after the scrimmage. “I’m probably a dinosaur now where I love playing two bigs together. I think there’s a lot of advantages to doing that. Certainly there are some disadvantages, but I’m pretty comfortable playing bigs together and developing bigs.”

It helped that Anderson and Tubelis spent virtually the entire summer working out in Tucson, while Ballo returned shortly after the Mali national team purposely sat out World Cup qualifying games in July in protest of its basketball federation.

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Ballo said he worked often with UA advance scouting director Ken Nakagawa on ballhandling and, at the suggestion of assistant coach Ricky Fois, he joined Tubelis and some other players in boxing workouts (when told of that, Lloyd asked, “Pay per view?”).

“It was tiring, but it was definitely worth it,” Ballo said.

Meanwhile, Veesaar spent most of the summer at home in Estonia, since he was playing in Spain all of last season, then arrived in Tucson shortly before school started last month.

It didn’t take long for Veesaar to make an impact.

“Henri is obviously talented and he’s a great kid,” Lloyd said. “Henri is going to have a real impact on this team. You’re looking at a kid that I think he’s going to be able to throw in some 3s here and there. He’s quick-twitch. He’s got a great second jump. He can catch lobs, he’s got a high IQ.

“He’s just gonna have to learn how to tighten some things up and just physically develop a little bit and get some experience. But I think he’s gonna be a guy that, in this system, is going to put up some pretty significant numbers some night and I’m excited about him.”

That helped offset some rough outcomes from the Wildcats’ expected backcourt gang: Kerr Kriisa shot just 1 for 6 (all from 3-point range) while Pelle Larsson had eight points on 2-for-5 shooting and Texas grad transfer Courtney Ramey went scoreless while playing the first half for the Red team and the second half for the Blue.

Ramey was a combined 0 for 6 from the field (0 for 4 from 3-point range) but had an assist for each team he played for.

While Kriisa’s shot was off, he had three assists to only one turnover, with Veesaar saying he owed him a “big hug” for the feeds from his fellow Estonian.

While it didn’t happen Friday, the guards have collectively shown enough in offseason workouts and practices this week that Lloyd expressed no concern.

“Kerr has really worked,” Lloyd said. “Obviously, his statline didn’t look great today but he really worked in the offseason and I think you guys are going to see some growth in his game … along the same lines as Courtney — he’s really worked. I really challenged him on finishing. He didn’t have great numbers tonight, but I’m not sweating it.

“If my concern with this team is Kerr Kriisa and Courtney Ramey, I’m sleeping pretty good at night.”

Photos: 2022 Arizona Wildcats Red-Blue basketball game