Despite all the changes Adama Bal has experienced since leaving Le Mans, France as a 17-year-old last summer, at least the locker room sounds like home.
Three of Bal’s new Arizona teammates also speak French, giving the globalized Wildcats as many francophone scholarship players as native English speakers.
Except Bal still can’t always understand Bennedict Mathurin.
The sophomore wing from Montreal speaks a much different Quebecois version of the language. Arizona other French speakers, Oumar Ballo (Mali) and Christian Koloko (Cameroon), speak a closer version of what Bal is familiar with on top of their indigenous African languages.
“When I’m talking with Oumar, I can talk like I’m talking with my friends, like the slang of friends,” Bal said. “But when I’m talking with Benn, I can’t. … Benn is talking like a Canadian person. It’s different — the accent, the voice intonation. They are speaking French, but sometimes you can see they are speaking English.”
They’re all friends anyway. In fact, Bal said Mathurin, Ballo and Koloko all reached out to help when he arrived in mid-August.
“They helped me with this transition,” Bal said. “My first day here was complicated. Brand new here in a new country. They helped me a lot. They showed me how things work here and they gave me some advice.”
Bal said there wasn’t one single adjustment that was the toughest as much as all of it: The school, the basketball, the country, even the desert terrain.
“Everything is different,” Bal said.
But seven weeks later, there are already signs Bal is making a quick adjustment on the court, at least. Initially viewed as a long-term project who might even redshirt this season, Bal showed during last Saturday’s Red-Blue Game the length, athleticism and instincts that give the 6-foot-6 freshman guard considerable upside.
In the first half, Bal had two points and an assist, while swatting away a shot from Mathurin. In the second half, when the projected starters consolidated on the Blue team, Bal scored a quick bucket early for the Red team and later hit all three free-throws he received after being fouled beyond the arc.
It was a performance consistent with what Lloyd said of Bal shortly after his August arrival, that Bal just needed to get stronger and become more comfortable in the college game.
“Adama’s really talented,” Lloyd said. “I have kind of a long-term development plan for him … He’s skilled, he’s got a high IQ, he’s high character, he’s a hard worker and I think those traits will allow him to have a great career here. The fans are gonna love him.”
UA paid opponents less during pandemic
While not having fans last season cost Arizona more than $7 million in potential ticket sales, the Wildcats offset some of that loss by shaving about $100,000 off the guarantees they pay nonconference opponents in lieu of a share of gate receipts.
According to records obtained by the Star through a public records request, after COVID-19 began disrupting college basketball last season, all of UA’s single-game contracts were newly written or given an addendum to reduce the guarantee fee UA pays opponents. The UA also added clauses forgiving either side of obligation in the event of coronavirus-related cancellations.
UA’s game guarantees typically range between $80,000-95,000. Last season’s opponents were paid $70,000 or less.
Arizona paid Montana and Cal State Bakersfield $70,000, down from $95,000. NAU netted $80,000, down from $90,000. Arizona’s last-minute game with Eastern Washington cost the Wildcats just $50,000.
Arizona’s Southwest Classic multi-team event contract remained unchanged, however: The school paid $130,000 total to a promoter to host two games. The Wildcats’ opponents ended up being Grambling and UTEP.
In addition, UA also negotiated a drop in Cal Baptist’s payment of $92,000 to $70,000, and signed a $50,000 deal to play the University of San Diego before both opponents canceled because of COVID-19 cornerns and no money was exchanged. USD actually received a positive test result while loading its plane to Tucson and canceled the game — even though the test was later found to be a false positive.
Saint Mary’s scrimmage next
The Wildcats will return to their tradition of facing Saint Mary’s in private preseason scrimmages this season, facing the Gaels in Phoenix on Oct. 23 before hosting its Nov. 1 exhibition game with Eastern New Mexico.
College basketball teams are allowed to host two exhibition games or one exhibition and a closed scrimmage each preseason. But in years when UA’s season-ticket minimum of 18 games could be reached without two exhibitions, former coach Sean Miller opted to play a closed scrimmage.
Having a close relationship with Saint Mary’s coach Randy Bennett, Miller arranged for the two schools to begin scrimmaging each other in 2013-14.
The UA-SMC “series” reached a point of intrigue in 2016-17, when Saint Mary’s informally won both halves of a loosely scored scrimmage before that season — and then, more than five months later, lost to the Wildcats in an NCAA Tournament second-round game
Keeping Saint Mary’s made sense for the Wildcats this preseason because the Gaels are relatively close, are not on UA’s regular-season schedule next season, and UA coach Tommy Lloyd is familiar with the West Coast Conference program from his Gonzaga days.
Terry given Main Event NIL deal
Sophomore wing Dalen Terry scored another name, image and likeness deal when he was named one of five “ambassadors” for the Main Event mini-tournament that UA will play in Las Vegas next month, joining Wichita State’s Dexter Dennis, UNLV’s Bryce Hamilton and Michigan’s Hunter Dickinson and Adrien Nunez.
The Main Event said the five players were “enlisted to promote the tournament on social media,” making them the first players given the chance to do so for a college basketball event. Each player can announce his own discount promo code for tickets, which start at $29 per day.
Arizona is scheduled to face Wichita State in the first Main Event game on Nov. 19, then will play either Michigan or UNLV on Nov. 21.
Earlier this week, an NIL deal was announced in which all of UNLV’s 13 scholarship players will receive a $500 car allowance from a Las Vegas dealership.
Players from outside the U.S., such as UA’s Mathurin and Lithuanian forward Azuolas Tubelis, are not eligible to participate in NIL deals because of student visa regulations.
