Arizona center Oumar Ballo took home Pac-12 Player of the Week for his performance at the Maui Invitational where he was also named MVP of the tournament.
Ballo averaged 21 points per game on 79.4% shooting from the field to go along with 10.7 rebounds. He joins Zion Williamson as the only D1 player in the last 25 years to play three games in three days and average 20 points and 10 rebounds on while shooting at least 75% from the field.
"I'm going to give credit to the guards because they really found me," Ballo said. "This is a team that I love playing [with] because no one is selfish, we share the ball and we turn down a good shot to take a great shot."
Ballo posted his best game of the stretch in the championship game against Creighton where he scored 30 points and grabbed 13 rebounds. He scored 16 points and nine rebounds in the first half alone against Creighton junior 7-foot-1 center Ryan Kalkbrenner.
With the departure of Christian Koloko to the NBA, the Wildcats needed Ballo to take a step forward as an overall player and that has been the case to this point in the season. His confidence around the rim has taken a significant step forward on the offensive side of the game and Arizona will need that to continue the rest of the season.
"Oumar has been putting a lot of work in during the summer trying to get his body better which he has done," Kerr Kriisa said. "We are proud of Oumar and he definitely deserves this."
The Wildcats moved up 10 spots on Monday in the latest AP Poll to the No. 4 overall spot. They start conference play this week with games against Utah and Cal before another big game against No. 10 Indiana on December 10 in Las Vegas.
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