Kansas State basketball to entertain top-rated portal big man on recruiting visit
MANHATTAN — Kansas State basketball coach Jerome Tang already got a prominent point guard from the transfer portal, and now he is thinking bigger.
Oumar Ballo, a 7-foot, 260-pound senior center, and two-time Pac-12 all-conference selection from Arizona, entered the portal Monday and has K-State on his short list of prospective landing spots for his final season.
Ballo, the top-ranked portal player by 247 Sports, has recruiting visits scheduled to K-State, Indiana and Louisville, with North Carolina and Florida also under consideration, according to Joe Tipton of On3.
Manhattan will be his third stop, beginning April 19.
Tang filled one need last week with Michigan point guard Dug McDaniel, but adding some size to the roster is the top priority now after the Wildcats lost starting center Jerrell Colbert to the portal and backup Will McNair to graduation.
Ballo, who began his career at Gonzaga before spending the past three years at Arizona, certainly would fit the bill. As a senior, he averaged 12.9 points, 10.1 rebounds and 1.3 blocks per game with a 65.8 field goal percentage.
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Ballo also received all-conference honors his junior year in 2022-23, after averaging 14.2 points, 8.6 rebounds and 1.4 blocks on 64.7% shooting. In 2021-22, he was Pac-12 sixth man of the year.
Ballo is not the only big man on K-State's radar. Florida State transfer Baba Miller reportedly will visit Manhattan this weekend, and while North Carolina-Greensboro forward Mikeal Brown-Jones has the Wildcats listed as one of his three finalists.
Miller, a 6-11 sophomore forward, averaged 7.6 points and 4.9 rebounds for the Seminoles while starting 32 of 33 games. Brown-Jones, a 6-8 senior who also is considering Mississippi and Pittsburgh, averaged 18.9 points and 7.5 rebounds.
K-State, which lost three players to graduation and another three — Colbert, Cam Carter and Dorian Finister — to the portal, still has four spots available. In addition to McDaniel, they signed high school guard David Castillo in November.
Arne Green is based in Salina and covers Kansas State University sports for the Gannett network. He can be reached at agreen@gannett.com or on Twitter at @arnegreen.
This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Kansas State basketball targets Arizona big man Oumar Ballo in portal
