BLOOMINGTON – IU basketball landed a commitment from one of the top players in the transfer portal Tuesday, when Arizona center Oumar Ballo announced his decision to transfer to IU via social media.

One of the best rebounders in the country across the past two seasons, Ballo averaged 12.9 points and 10.1 rebounds last season (and 14.2 ppg and 8.6 rpg the year before that) at Arizona. He’s never finished with a single-season field goal percentage lower than 62.2%, and he helped anchor offenses in Tucson that ranked among the most efficient in the country across the past three seasons.

IU transfer portal hot board 2.0:Priority positions, names to know

Ballo is On3.com’s top-ranked available player in the transfer portal. (Stanford’s Maxime Raynaud was rated No. 1 but is headed back to Palo Alto).

In efficiency terms, Ballo dominated the Pac-12 in the post last season. He finished first, second and fourth, respectively, in offensive rebound rate, defensive rebound rate and 2-point field goal percentage. Ballo only failed to scored in double figures five times in 36 games last winter.

He fills a need at the five spot for Indiana, with Kel’el Ware bound for the NBA draft. Woodson has always valued a strong finisher who could dominate opponents at both rims, and in Ballo, he might have his best defensive presence yet.

This offseason, IU has already added Pac-12 Freshman of the Year point guard Myles Rice (No. 17-ranked player in portal) and five-star forward McDonald’s All American Bryson Tucker this offseason.

Mike Woodson has four more open scholarships for the 2024-25 roster and this Little 500 weekend will be another important one with visitors lined up. Bloomington South grad and Bradley transfer Connor Hickman, who visited IU on Sunday, committed to Cincinnati on Monday

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