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;",

, 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 bioTexas 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