Arizona's Oumar Ballo named Pac-12 Most Improved Player of the Year

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Published Mar 7, 2023

Arizona's Oumar Ballo named Pac-12 Most Improved Player of the Year

Ari Koslow • GOAZCATS

GOAZCATS.com reporter

@koslow_ari

Arizona redshirt junior center Oumar Ballo was named the Pac-12 Most Improved Player of the Year on Tuesday. Ballo became the second straight Wildcats player to earn the award after fellow big man Christian Koloko earned the honor last season.

Ballo saw his role increase significantly this season after taking over the starting center position for Koloko. The transfer from Gonzaga averaged a career-best 27 minutes per game on the court compared to just 15 minutes last year.

He led the Pac-12 in field goal percentage (65%) and finished third in rebounding with 8.6 boards per game. Ballo recorded 10 double-doubles and scored in single digits just six times all season.

The redshirt junior from Mali scored a career-high 30 points against Creighton in the Maui Jim Maui Invitational en route to being named the MVP of that event after leading the Wildcats to the championship.

Arizona has multiple players on the Pac-12's all-conference first team for the second consecutive season as both Ballo and power forward Azuolas Tubelis were the two UA selections for the 10-man team. The Wildcats, USC and UCLA each were represented with two players on the list.

Meanwhile, guard Courtney Ramey was named as an honorable mention for the All-Pac-12 team The same goes for freshman guard Kylan Boswell, who earned an honorable mention nod for the Pac-12 All-Freshman team.

Tubelis, who has averaged 19.9 points and 9.2 rebounds this season, lost the Pac-12 Player of the Year award to UCLA's Jaime Jaquez Jr., even though he led the conference in points and rebounds.

The Bruins dominated most of the top awards with Mick Cronin winning Pac-12 Coach of the Year in addition to guard Jaylen Clark being named the defensive player of the year and big man Adem Bona earning the Pac-12 Freshman of the Year award.

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