Nov. 26 -- PARADISE ISLAND, Bahamas -- It's old home week for former Gonzaga big man Oumar Ballo at the Battle 4 Atlantis.
Ballo played one season at Gonzaga, blossomed into an All-Pac-12 player in three years at Arizona with former Zags assistant Tommy Lloyd and he's four games into his last collegiate season at Indiana.
As luck would have it, No. 14 Indiana lines up against Louisville on Wednesday with a date against No. 3 Gonzaga or West Virginia on Thursday. Arizona is a potential matchup for Gonzaga or Indiana on Friday.
"This business is a small world," Ballo said Tuesday, "but I'm really glad I got to see Gonzaga people, Arizona people (Monday) and those are my people."
In just more than 6 minutes, Ballo covered a lot of ground, including his reasons for transferring from Gonzaga to Arizona and then from Arizona to Indiana, NIL and having his car broken into in Tucson.
The NCAA required Ballo to sit out his first season at GU as an academic redshirt. The Mali native averaged 6.2 minutes in 24 appearances the following year but lost playing time to Ben Gregg later in the season. Ballo was recruited to Gonzaga by Lloyd, a factor in the 7-footer's decision to follow Lloyd when he was hired as Arizona's head coach after the 2021 season.
"Leaving Gonzaga, Gonzaga is a great program, really good people, too," Ballo said. "But I feel like Tommy made Gonzaga a really good place for me. And when he left to come to Arizona, I followed him. The best decision of my life, it led me where I am right now."
Ballo was first-team All-Pac-12 twice, averaging 14.2 points and 8.6 rebounds as a junior and 12.9 points and 10.1 boards last season.
He was one of the best bigs in the transfer portal when he transferred to Indiana. The move drew more attention when college basketball analyst Jeff Goodman posted on X that multiple coaches told him Ballo's asking price was $1.2 million in NIL. In another post, Goodman said he didn't believe that's what Ballo received from Indiana.
Ballo called foul on the $1.2 million figure and what happened two days later when someone broke into his car, taking his wallet, cash, three credit cards, a laptop and other items.
"That's the thing, people think it's all about NIL," Ballo said. "I know Jeff Goodman sent out a tweet (with) something crazy. Literally two days later, my car got broken into. People in my neighborhood thought I had a million dollars in my house and they broke into my car.
"It's not about the money. You have to find the right place for you. If you take a look at Indiana the past two years, they put a center (Trayce Jackson-Davis and Kel'el Ware) into the league (NBA). They do great with their bigs. I felt like that would be a great spot for me to go where they play inside out. This is only one year, I have to think about my career, so it's not about, 'Oh, I'm going to get money,' but what happens in the next five, 10 years. People are getting it twisted, but guess what? It's outside noises, don't really care."
Ballo cared enough to discuss the post with Goodman.
"That's not how it works, but I guess he has to do what he has to do," Ballo said. "But I feel like you have to see the player's perspective. For us, something like that goes out, if it was true then I'd be like, 'Oh, OK.' But if something like that goes out, the fans are going to be on you every single time you have a bad game, 'You got this money, you got this money.' I don't think it's fair for kids and I didn't appreciate the way he did it, but it is what it is."
Ballo appreciated Lloyd's support throughout his decision to transfer. Lloyd said the two will always have a special relationship and that one of Ballo's reasons for leaving was related to the development of Wildcats 7-2 sophomore Motiejus Krivas.
At one point, Ballo told Lloyd, 'It's not fair that a guy like me gets six years (with redshirt year and extra COVID season) in college and a guy like Mo gets four.'
"Let's talk reality here," Lloyd said. "If Oumar came back, Mo Krivas might not be at Arizona now, and Oumar didn't want to put (Krivas) in position where he had to transfer. For a dude to do that for a younger guy, that tells you what kind of guy you're dealing with. He's a ... stud."
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