PALO ALTO, Calif. — Giving life to a fan-less Maples Pavilion throughout Arizona’s 85-57 destruction of Stanford on Thursday, the Wildcats’ rowdy bench lit up the most not for one of Bennedict Mathurin’s dunks, Kerr Kriisa’s between-the-legs assist or any one play at all.
Instead, the Wildcats erupted in cheers, slaps and smiles most notably when Oumar Ballo walked off the court for good Thursday with a career-high 21 points, six rebounds and a pair of blocks.
“If you guys see how (Ballo) is working out extra, then you all understand when everyone’s so happy for him!” Kriisa tweeted Friday morning.
Asked about the moment afterward, Ballo grinned.
“They were happy for me, because every time someone has a great night, everyone is happy for them,” Ballo said. “That’s the best thing about our team, just being happy for each other.”
But it wasn’t just a feel-good thing. The Wildcats also needed Ballo’s career night badly in a game when power forward Azuolas Tubelis went out early because of an ankle sprain and center Christian Koloko struggled with fouls and turnovers against one of the nation’s best rebounding teams.
Ballo’s production helped the Wildcats walk easily out of Maples with a 15-1 record and, after Friday’s update, the No. 1 NET ranking.
“I’m really proud of him,” Lloyd said of Ballo, as he has so many times before this season again after Thursday’s game.
But on Thursday, the UA coach was finally able to add this:
“He was great tonight,” Lloyd said after the game. “He was a physical force at both ends of the floor and I thought he was a game changer. He’s done a great job hanging with it when the development hasn’t come easy, showing up every day with a good attitude. And if you keep showing up every day with a good attitude, that’s how you get rewarded.”
Oumar Ballo and his Wildcats were all smiles after logging another Pac-12 win. They'll take on Cal on Sunday.
Every single day … for nearly three years now.
Ballo arrived in 2019 at Gonzaga from Mali via Spain and Mexico with plenty of FIBA cred but as something of a long-term project for the college game. He sat out the 2019-20 season, then averaged just 6.3 minutes per game for the Zags last season; he didn’t play at all in eight games.
“Time goes fast,” Ballo said. “It’s been three years. This year, I feel like I started a new opportunity.”
Earlier this season, most of Ballo’s minutes came in blowout wins, though the disappearance of reserve forward Kim Aiken in early December also created more opportunity. Ballo logged 14 minutes at Tennessee on Dec. 22 and made key impacts in spurts during UA’s home wins over Colorado and Utah last weekend.
Then, this.
Tubelis was gone less than seven minutes into Thursday’s game, having tried to play a few possessions after his legs were cut out from under him by a diving Harrison Ingram of Stanford. Tubelis then limped off the court, returned to the UA bench late in the first half with an ice pack on his left ankle but did not appear in the second half, suggesting he might have been undergoing additional exams.
Koloko, meanwhile, played just two and a half minutes in the first half after picking up two quick fouls and finished with just eight total minutes.
The Wildcats needed help. They had gone small more often in games and practices in recent weeks, in part because of their lack of depth up front but also because it works in many cases. So Lloyd pulled out the lineup as soon as Tubelis went out.
“We kind of just settled in and talked about how we want to move the ball, move our bodies with great pace and, attack close outs and make some plays,” Lloyd said. “The guys did that efficiently and our bigs delivered when they got opportunities.”
It worked Thursday because reserve guard Pelle Larsson glued the lineup all together with 13 points and six assists, while guard Dalen Terry had 10 points, nine rebounds and four assists — and Ballo anchored the middle, somehow without bogging the whole thing down.
That’s where all those practices and workouts over nearly three years helped, too.
At 7 feet and 260 pounds, Ballo keeps getting faster at getting up and down the court.
“Honestly when I’m out there with four guards, I’m supposed to go and get out there again (after possessions) and go really fast,” Ballo said. “It’s challenging but it’s helped me get in even better shape.”
There’s no time to slow down, either. Lloyd said he didn’t know if Tubelis would be able to play Sunday at Cal, Koloko has struggled increasingly with fouls in recent weeks, and there’s still no indication if Aiken will ever return.
But especially after Thursday, Lloyd knows he has another reliable option inside.
“His development probably hasn’t gone as easy as he would like, or even I would have liked the times,” Lloyd said. “Just for him to hang with it, and show up every day with a positive attitude really says something about him. He deserves performance like that.
“Now, he’s setting a high standard, and I’m going to really push him to meet that standard.”
