The Gonzaga Bulldogs will not have the services of the Oumar Ballo support center for the next few weeks, revealed Mark Few after tonight’s victory over Pepperdine.
Mark Few said the initial indication about Oumar Ballo (thumb injury) was that he would be gone for 3-4 weeks, but he should know more on Monday or Tuesday
– Jim Meehan (@SRJimm) January 31, 2021
Not much has been said about what the injury is or how it occurred. Ballo lost the last two games due to injury.
The redshirt freshman averages just 3.5 points at 8.3 minutes per game, but those minutes are very important for Gonzaga’s rotation. With Drew Timme taking most of those minutes in the center, Ballo is the only legitimate center (in terms of size) that the Zags have in the squad at the moment.
In your absence, we will likely see Mark Few employ a line of four guards, allocating Corey Kispert to the four and Anton Watson to the five when Timme needs a break. Although the Zags also have Pavel Zakharov in the squad, his lack of playing time this year suggests that the coaching staff does not think he is almost ready for significant minutes.
Fortunately, Timme is a smart player on both ends of the ground. He’s committing an average of 2.2 fouls per game this season, and it’s a rare occurrence for him to be in trouble.