Center Oumar Ballo has made some noise throughout his time in college basketball, but nowhere near how much he will in his expanded role as the starting center in year three under coach Tommy Lloyd.

Averaging 6.8 points and 4.4 in 15 minutes per contest, Ballo has already shown improvements, scoring 18 points and 9 rebounds in only 21 minutes of action in his first career start against Nicholls on Monday.

Ballo has also added a passing game to his arsenal, bringing ina career-high four assists after only averaging 0.4 AST in his first two seasons.

“It makes you efficient,” Lloyd said. “A lot of the times you give the ball to your big, they have a one man advantage or a half-man advantage, and if you have your big guys, can I connect the dots on some of those plays, you can do a lot of fun things on offense.”