What landing nation's No. 1 transfer Oumar Ballo means for IU basketball, Mike Woodson

BLOOMINGTON – Indiana triggered perhaps the sturdiest ripple of the spring transfer window thus far Tuesday, when Arizona center Oumar Ballo — ESPN’s No. 1-ranked transfer in this class — committed following a campus visit.

Ballo, a dominant rebounder/finisher who spent the past three seasons anchoring Tommy Lloyd’s conference-winning Arizona teams, now brings a winning pedigree to Bloomington. He was a two-time All-Pac-12 selection under Lloyd, averaging 12.9 points and 10.1 rebounds last season.

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Ballo gives Mike Woodson the out-and-out center Woodson clearly desires. Twice now, first when Trayce Jackson-Davis left for the NBA and then when Kel’el Ware did the same, Woodson confronted an opportunity to migrate away from dedicated two-big basketball and toward a smaller, more fluid lineup. Twice, he elected instead to double down, adding one of the best transfers in the country at the five.

Across the next six months, it will be incumbent upon Woodson to adapt this group to make sure it works. But as Indiana walks that path, it’s important to recognize something else: Ballo is unlike any center Woodson has ever had.

Some of that is down to Woodson, first and foremost. He fashioned Jackson-Davis into a post playmaker, one of the most prolific passers from the block his program has ever seen (in addition to all the other numbers of course). Indiana ran its entire offense through its All-American from Center Grove not just because he could score, but because he could direct the whole orchestra standing with his back six feet from the basket.

Ware was a different center, and Woodson happily built him a different role. Just 49.7% of Ware’s field-goal attempts last season came at the rim, compared to a whopping 75.3% for Jackson-Davis the year previous. That was, of course, because Ware had license to roam the floor for his offense, his midrange scoring improving as the winter wore on and his 3-point shot an ever-present threat. That the season did not turn out the way the Hoosiers wanted might have been at least part down to playing style involving Ware and Malik Reneau running two-big lineups, but it wasn’t for lack of impact from a player whose dominant late-season form made the decision to enter this summer’s draft a no-brainer.

Ballo runs the position in a way distinct to either player. It will be fascinating to see how IU grows up around him.

The 7-footer, listed last season at 260 pounds, is about as true as a true center gets. Across four college seasons (one at Gonzaga, three at Arizona), he hasn’t attempted a single 3-pointer. He has for the past two years been one of the nation’s truly dominant two-way rebounders, finishing top-10 in the Pac-12 in league games in both offensive and defensive rebound rate in that time.

Ballo’s career 64.6% mark from the field dwarfs even Jackson-Davis’ college numbers. And using free-throw rate as the guiding metric, no player has reached the stripe more often in the Pac-12 across the past two seasons.

That’s not to say there aren’t areas of Ballo’s game that could stand improvement.

His free-throw shooting fell more than 20 points across the past two seasons, from 70.1% in 2022 to just 49.5% last year (though he still outscored every Hoosier save Reneau at the stripe last season).

And his involvement in his team’s offense is largely defined by scoring and rebounding — Ballo has never posted a single-season assist rate higher than 10.9%, and last year’s 5.5% was his lowest in an Arizona uniform.

His credentials as a finisher are unquestionable. And his dominance rebounding the ball will be heaven-sent for IU, which struggled so often on the boards last season.

It’s also worth pointing out, two-big lineups can work. Purdue just won consecutive Big Ten titles and reached the national championship game running Zach Edey and Trey Kaufman-Renn out together.

The keys for the Boilermakers were flexibility, point guard play and shooting.

Braden Smith pulled the strings outstandingly well. Supporting cast members stretched the floor. And when it was time to go small, Matt Painter didn’t hesitate to flip Kaufman-Renn (or Edey, for rest) for Mason Gillis. In Purdue’s last five games last season, Gillis appears at the four in six of Painter’s 10 most-used lineups, Kaufman-Renn the other four.

IU strengthened its hand at point guard, landing Pac-12 freshman of the year Myles Rice from Washington State. And Ballo has experience playing in two-big rotations, having worked alongside Azuolas Tubelis in Tucson. Adding Bryson Tucker to its wing complement alongside Mackenzie Mgbako puts Indiana in position, at least in theory, to be able to flip to two-wing small ball when the situation requires it next season.

Woodson’s work isn’t done in the portal. IU still needs impact guards, and plenty of shooting. All the best post offense in the world doesn’t work if you can’t space the floor enough to give your bigs room to work, a lesson learned painfully last winter.

But after landing Rice to begin renovating his backcourt rotation, Woodson now changes the complexion of his frontcourt with an impact transfer once again. Ballo has considerable shoes to fill, following in the steps of two impressive centers that came before him. His resume says he’ll do so ably and, if past performance is reliable, in ways that make the position all his own.

Follow IndyStar reporter Zach Osterman on Twitter: @ZachOsterman.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Oumar Ballo gives IU basketball, Mike Woodson nation's top transfer