Joshua Kenneth Mballa (born 29 July 1999) is a French
basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...
player. He played college basketball for the
Ole Miss Rebels
The Ole Miss Rebels are the 18 men's and women's intercollegiate athletic teams that are funded by and represent the University of Mississippi, located in Oxford. The first was the football team, which began play in 1893.
Originally known as th ...
, the
Texas Tech Red Raiders
The Texas Tech Red Raiders and Lady Raiders are the athletic teams that represent Texas Tech University, located in Lubbock, Texas. The women's basketball team uses the name Lady Raiders, while the school's other women's teams use the "Red Raide ...
and
Buffalo Bulls
The Buffalo Bulls are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University at Buffalo (UB) in Buffalo, New York. The Bulls compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division I level as a member of Mid-Am ...
.
Early life and career
Mballa was born in
Detroit, Michigan
Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at ...
but raised in
Bordeaux
Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefectur ...
, France. He started playing competitive basketball at age eight, learning from Vincent Mbassi, a trainer at Kameet Academy who knew his uncle.
He played for Bouscat and then
JSA Bordeaux before joining
Orléans Loiret. Mballa returned to the United States for high school, attending Putnam Science Academy in
Putnam, Connecticut
Putnam is a town in Windham County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 9,224 at the 2020 census.
History
Putnam, originally known as Aspinock, then part of Killingly, is a New England mill town incorporated in 1855. Created from se ...
. Playing alongside
Kyle Lofton
Kyle K. Lofton (born May 31, 1999) is an American basketball player for Kouvot in the Finnish Korisliiga. He played college basketball for the Florida Gators and St. Bonaventure Bonnies.
High school career
Raised in Hillside, New Jersey, Loft ...
and
Osun Osunniyi, he helped his team win the National Prep Championship. A three-star recruit, he committed to playing college basketball for
Texas Tech
Texas Tech University (Texas Tech, Tech, or TTU) is a public research university in Lubbock, Texas. Established on , and called Texas Technological College until 1969, it is the main institution of the five-institution Texas Tech University Sys ...
over offers from
Seton Hall
Seton Hall University (SHU) is a private Catholic research university in South Orange, New Jersey. Founded in 1856 by then-Bishop James Roosevelt Bayley and named after his aunt, Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton, Seton Hall is the oldest diocesa ...
and
South Florida
South Florida is the southernmost region of the U.S. state of Florida. It is one of Florida's three most commonly referred to directional regions; the other two are Central Florida and North Florida. South Florida is the southernmost part of th ...
.
College career
As a freshman at Texas Tech, Mballa played sparingly, scoring 13 total points, and his team reached the
national championship game.
[ For his sophomore season, he transferred to Buffalo and received a waiver for immediate eligibility. As a sophomore, Mballa averaged 10.8 points and 9.6 rebounds per game. He grabbed 308 rebounds, the most by a Buffalo player in a single season since Sam Pellom in the 1975–76 season. He missed three games early in his junior season due to plantar fasciitis.] On 19 December 2020, Mballa posted a career-high 27 points and seven rebounds in a 107–96 overtime loss to Syracuse
Syracuse may refer to:
Places Italy
*Syracuse, Sicily, or spelled as ''Siracusa''
*Province of Syracuse
United States
*Syracuse, New York
**East Syracuse, New York
**North Syracuse, New York
*Syracuse, Indiana
* Syracuse, Kansas
*Syracuse, Miss ...
. As a junior, he averaged 15.3 points and 10.8 rebounds per game, receiving Second Team All-Mid-American Conference
The Mid-American Conference (MAC) is a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I collegiate athletic conference with a membership base in the Great Lakes region that stretches from Western New York to Illinois. Nine of the twel ...
(MAC) and Defensive Player of the Year honors. He declared for the 2021 NBA draft
The 2021 NBA draft, the 75th edition of the National Basketball Association's annual draft, was held on July 29, 2021, at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. With the first overall pick, the Detroit Pistons selected Cade Cunningham. The NBA us ...
before withdrawing and returning to Buffalo. Mballa was named to the Second Team All-MAC as a senior. Following the season, Mballa declared for the 2022 NBA draft
The 2022 NBA draft (branded as the 2022 NBA Draft presented by State Farm for sponsorship reasons), the 76th edition of the National Basketball Association's annual draft, was held on June 23, 2022, at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. The ...
while maintaining his college eligibility. He also later entered the transfer portal
The NCAA transfer portal is a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) application, database, and compliance tool launched on October 15, 2018, to manage and facilitate the process for student athletes seeking to transfer between member ...
. On May 15, 2022, Mballa announced he was transferring to Ole Miss. He subsequently withdrew from the NBA Draft.
National team career
Mballa represented France at the 2016 FIBA Under-17 World Championship
The 2016 FIBA Under-17 World Championship (Spanish: 2016 FIBA Campeonato Mundial Sub-17) was the 4th edition of the FIBA Under-17 World Championship, the biennial international men's youth basketball championship contested by the U17 national team ...
in Spain, where he averaged 4.2 points and four rebounds per game. At the 2017 FIBA U18 European Championship
The 2017 FIBA U18 European Championship was the 34th edition of the FIBA U18 European Championship. The competition took place in Bratislava and Piešťany, Slovakia, from 29 July to 6 August 2017.
Venues
Participating teams
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
* ...
in Slovakia, he averaged 7.4 points and 4.9 rebounds per game.
Career statistics
College
, -
, style="text-align:left;", 2018–19
, style="text-align:left;", Texas Tech
Texas Tech University (Texas Tech, Tech, or TTU) is a public research university in Lubbock, Texas. Established on , and called Texas Technological College until 1969, it is the main institution of the five-institution Texas Tech University Sys ...
, 17 , , 0 , , 3.4 , , .444 , , .000 , , .357 , , .3 , , .1 , , .1 , , .1 , , .8
, -
, style="text-align:left;", 2019–20
, style="text-align:left;", Buffalo
, 32 , , 20 , , 25.8 , , .562 , , .000 , , .590 , , 9.6 , , 1.0 , , 1.3 , , 1.1 , , 10.8
, -
, style="text-align:left;", 2020–21
The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...
, style="text-align:left;", Buffalo
, 22 , , 19 , , 29.5 , , .486 , , .250 , , .679 , , 10.8 , , 1.9 , , 1.5 , , .5 , , 15.3
, - class="sortbottom"
, style="text-align:center;" colspan="2", Career
, 71 , , 39 , , 21.6 , , .521 , , .227 , , .618 , , 7.7 , , 1.0 , , 1.1 , , .7 , , 9.8
References
External links
Buffalo Bulls bio
Texas Tech Red Raiders bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mballa, Josh
1999 births
Living people
French men's basketball players
Buffalo Bulls men's basketball players
Ole Miss Rebels men's basketball players
Power forwards
Small forwards
Sportspeople from Bordeaux
Texas Tech Red Raiders basketball players