After shooting 55.2% from the free-throw line as a lightly-used redshirt freshman at Gonzaga last season, Oumar Ballo transferred to Arizona and went to work.
βWhen I first got here, my form was a little bit like that,β Ballo said, cupping both hands off to the right of his head, then pointing to center Christian Koloko as both of the UA centers smiled. βAnd he used to make fun of it.β
Truth is, Koloko had been there. He shot 35.0% as a freshman in 2019-20, missing two free throws at the end of overtime that allowed Oregon to hang on to a one-point win, and then shot 62.5% last season as a sophomore.
But this season, Koloko is hitting 75.7% from the line and Ballo is at 70.5%, both of them a big part of why UA has become the Pac-12βs third-best free-throw shooting team in conference games β and a reason why the Wildcats still have hope even when making less than a third of their shots from the field as they have in their past two games.
Overall, the Wildcatsβ free-throw percentage in conference games of 74.4% is behind only Utah (82.4) and Colorado (75.7) and UA is fourth-best in free throw rate, the ratio of free throws taken to field goals taken that measures a teamβs ability to get to the line.
Individually, Koloko and Ballo are frequent visitors to the line relative to their time on the court. Ballo picks up 6.5 fouls per 40 minutes while Koloko draws an average of 4.7.
Once there, Ballo relies on lessons he says he learned over the summer from UA assistant coach Riccardo Fois, a former Gonzaga staffer who worked in player development for the Phoenix Suns last season.
Ballo said Fois told him to shoot higher and and in front of his head βso it just goes up and itβs smooth,β but the big man from Mali was skeptical at first.
Arizonaβs Oumar Ballo, left, is shooting 15% better from the foul line than he did at Gonzaga last season.
βIt was frustrating because in the beginning it was not going in,β Ballo said. βI was like `I donβt know if this is gonna work.β But I stuck with it and it finally worked out.β
Ballo (6 of 9) and Koloko (6 of 7) combined for 12 points from the line on Saturday in UAβs 67-56 win over ASU, part of what became a critical foul advantage for the Wildcats. UA shot 26 of 32 free throws against the Sun Devils, while ASU took just 15 and hit eight of them.
The difference of scoring 18 more points at the line helped allow the Wildcats to easily overcome their 32.2% field-goal shooting against the Sun Devils.
UAβs free-throw edge was especially notable in the first half: The Wildcats shot just 24.4% from the field, missed all 13 3-pointers they took β¦ and yet were tied 32-32 at halftime in large part because they hit 18 of 21 free throws.
βIt was a choppy game,β Lloyd said. βWe were being physical inside and guys were posting up hard or driving to the basket. (Free throws) just kept us in the game. We were ice cold and to be able to go in at half tied when you shoot in the 20s is a positive thing.β
While Lloyd says there are still times that Ballo will shoot a free throw that could use a βlittle more arc on it,β he praised Ballo for recent efforts that the Wildcats sorely needed.
In four games since forward Azuolas Tubelis sprained his ankle on Jan. 20 at Stanford, Ballo has averaged 17.8 minutes while scoring 14.0 points a game β and hitting 74.2% from the line (20 of 27).
βOumarβs worked really hard and obviously, heβs kind of become an anchor of what weβre doing right now,β Lloyd said. βHe deserves a ton of credit. Heβs put together four games in a row of playing at a high level and we need that out of him right now. Weβre not quite at 100% physically, so his growth has been really important for us.β
Mathurin on updated Wooden list
Sophomore wing Bennedict Mathurin was one of 20 players named to the Wooden Awardβs βlate-seasonβ watch list Monday, four weeks after he jumped onto the βmidseasonβ watch list for one of college basketballβs major player of the year awards.
Others on the updated list included former UA guard James Akinjo of Baylor and two other Pac-12 players, UCLA guard Johnny Juzang and USC forward Isaiah Mobley.
Mathurin was not named to the Wooden Awardβs 50-player preseason watch list, which included three UCLA players (Tyger Campbell, Juzang and Jaime Jaquez) plus Mobley and Oregonβs Will Richardson. But Mathurinβs explosive play in the early season moved him ahead of many players on the preseason list who were dropped at midseason.
Between the Wildcatsβ first two Pac-12 games (against Oregon State and Washington) and big nonconference games at Illinois and Tennessee, Mathurin averaged 28.5 points while shooting 60.9% from the field.
While receiving increasing attention from defenses since then, Mathurin is still leading the Wildcats in scoring (17.2 points per game) and is tied with Tubelis as the teamβs second-leading rebounder at 6.1 per game.
Wildcats, Bruins flip-flop in rankings
Arizona dropped four spots to No. 7 in the Associated Press Top 25 poll, while UCLA moved up to No. 3 after beating the Wildcats 75-59 on Feb. 25 at Pauley Pavilion.
That flips the script exactly for the rematch on Thursday at McKale Center (6 p.m., ESPN): Last week UCLA was No. 7 and hosting Arizona, which was then rated third.
The Wildcats are ranked No. 3 in the NET, and No. 4 in both Kenpom and Sagarin.
Pac-12 reschedules two more
The Pac-12 announced two rescheduled games for the week of Feb. 14 β Washington State at Oregon on Feb. 14 and Colorado at Oregon State on Feb. 15 β suggesting the Wildcats wonβt have to play three games in a week for two straight weeks.
UA still has to make up its postponed Jan. 2 game at USC but doing so the week of Feb. 14 would have come after the Wildcats play ASU, Washington State and Washington next week.
It is possible UA and USC might play Feb. 22 before the Wildcatsβ Utah-Colorado trip. They could also meet on Feb. 28 or March 1 but that would force the Wildcats to play three games in the week before the Pac-12 Tournament.
Of the 17 Pac-12 games that have been postponed for COVID-19 protocols this season, seven have been rescheduled and played, five have been rescheduled for future dates, and the UA-USC game in Los Angeles is one of five still yet to be rescheduled.
Rim shots
Former Wildcat guard Terrell Brown picked up his second Pac-12 Player of the Week award after averaging 28 points on 50% shooting for Washington in the Huskiesβ home wins over Colorado and Utah. Arizona had nominated Koloko, who averaged 11.5 points, 10 rebounds and 3.0 blocks over games against UCLA and ASU.
Stanfordβs Harrison Ingram picked up his fifth Pac-12 Freshman of the Week award.
Akinjo was one of 10 players named to the Bob Cousy Award watch list for the nationβs top college point guard. Others named included former UA commit Jahvon Quinerly of Alabama, UCLAβs Campbell and Oregonβs Richardson.
