Mitchell Ballock (born July 2, 1998) is an American

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 who last played for the

Cleveland Charge The Cleveland Charge are an American professional basketball team in the NBA G League based in Cleveland, Ohio, and are affiliated with the Cleveland Cavaliers. The team plays its home games at the Wolstein Center in downtown Cleveland. The fra ...

of the

NBA G League The NBA G League, or simply the G League, is the National Basketball Association's (NBA) official List of developmental and minor sports leagues, minor league basketball organization. The league was known as the National Basketball Development ...

. He played

college basketball In United States colleges, top-tier basketball is governed by collegiate athletic bodies including National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the United States Collegiate Athleti ...

for the

Creighton Bluejays The Creighton Bluejays, or Jays, are the athletic teams that represent Creighton University, a Jesuit/Catholic University in Omaha, Nebraska, United States. They compete in NCAA Division I in the Big East Conference. Sports sponsored Baseb ...

High school career

Ballock played basketball for Eudora High School in

Eudora, Kansas Eudora is a city in Douglas County, Kansas, Douglas County, Kansas, United States, along the Kansas River, Kansas and Wakarusa River, Wakarusa rivers. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population of the city was 6,408. Histo ...

. In his varsity debut, he scored 40 points. As a freshman, he played alongside his older brother, Andrew, and led his team to the Class 4A-II state title. Ballock missed most of his junior season with a torn labrum in his left shoulder. As a senior, he averaged 25.4 points, 8.6 rebounds, 4.1 assists, 2.1 steals and 1.8 blocks per game, helping his team reach the Class 4A sub-state title game. Ballock was named Kansas

Gatorade Player of the Year The Gatorade Player of the Year awards are given annually to up and coming high school student-athletes in the United States. They are given for boys' baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine playe ...

. A four-star

recruit __NOTOC__ Recruit can refer to: Military * Military recruitment * Recruit training, in the military * '' Rekrut'' (English: Recruit), a military recruit or low rank in German-speaking countries * Seaman recruit Books *''Le Réquisitionnaire'' (E ...

, he committed to play college basketball for Creighton over offers from

Kansas Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the ...

Kansas State Kansas State University (KSU, Kansas State, or K-State) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Manhattan, Kansas, United States. It was opened as the state's land-grant college in 1863 and was the first public instit ...

and

Oklahoma Oklahoma (; Choctaw language, Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the nor ...

, among others.

College career

On November 20, 2017, Ballock scored a freshman season-high 22 points in a 100–89 win over

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

. As a freshman, he averaged 7.3 points and 2.9 rebounds per game, earning

Big East The Big East Conference is a collegiate athletic conference that competes in NCAA Division I in ten men's sports and twelve women's sports. Headquartered in New York City, the eleven full-member schools are primarily located in Northeast and ...

All-Freshman Team honors. In the following season, Ballock moved into a starting role. On March 9, 2019, he scored a career-high 39 points, shooting 11-of-12 from three-point range, in a 91–78 victory over DePaul. He broke the program record and tied the Big East record for three-pointers in a game, while setting the

National Collegiate Athletic Association The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

(NCAA) single-game record for three-point percentage with at least 12 attempts. As a sophomore, Ballock averaged 11.1 points, 4.4 rebounds and 3.2 assists per game. On January 1, 2020, he scored a junior season-high 24 points in a 92–75 win over Marquette. As a junior, he averaged 11.9 points, 5.3 rebounds and 3.1 assists per game. Ballock led Creighton in three-pointers made with 95 and three-point percentage with 43.5 percent. He averaged 9.9 points per game as a senior, shooting 38.9 percent from behind the arc. Ballock opted to pursue professional opportunities after the season rather than take advantage of the extra year of eligibility.

Professional career

After going undrafted in 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 ...

, Ballock joined the

Philadelphia 76ers The Philadelphia 76ers, colloquially known as the Sixers, are an American professional basketball team based in the Philadelphia metropolitan area. The 76ers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eas ...

for the

2021 NBA Summer League The 2021 NBA Summer League was an off-season competition held by the National Basketball Association (NBA) at the Thomas and Mack Center and Cox Pavilion in Las Vegas, Nevada on the campus of University of Nevada, Las Vegas. The summer league cons ...

. On September 27, 2021, he signed with the

Cleveland Cavaliers The Cleveland Cavaliers (often referred to as the Cavs) are an American professional basketball team based in Cleveland. The Cavaliers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference (NBA), Ea ...

, but was waived on October 16. On October 23, he signed with the

as an affiliate player.

Career statistics

College

, - , style="text-align:left;", 2017–18 , style="text-align:left;", Creighton , 33 , , 5 , , 21.4 , , .421 , , .326 , , .808 , , 2.9 , , 1.9 , , .7 , , .2 , , 7.3 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2018–19 , style="text-align:left;", Creighton , 35 , , 35 , , 33.0 , , .455 , , .419 , , .762 , , 4.4 , , 3.2 , , .8 , , .2 , , 11.1 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2019–20 , style="text-align:left;", Creighton , 31 , , 31 , , 36.0 , , .439 , , .435 , , .744 , , 5.3 , , 3.1 , , .8 , , .3 , , 11.9 , - , 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;", Creighton , 31 , , 31 , , 33.6 , , .435 , , .386 , , .571 , , 3.2 , , 2.6 , , .9 , , .2 , , 9.9 , - class="sortbottom" , style="text-align:center;" colspan="2", Career , 130 , , 102 , , 30.9 , , .439 , , .398 , , .734 , , 3.9 , , 2.7 , , .8 , , .2 , , 10.0

Personal life

Ballock's older brother, Andrew, played college basketball for Missouri Southern,

Cloud County Community College Cloud County Community College is a public community college with campuses in Concordia and Junction City, Kansas. Concordia campus Cloud County Community College was founded in Concordia in 1965 and began classes in the Concordia Junior-Sen ...

and Drury. His sister, Emily, ran

track Track or Tracks may refer to: Routes or imprints * Ancient trackway, any track or trail whose origin is lost in antiquity * Animal track, imprints left on surfaces that an animal walks across * Desire path, a line worn by people taking the shorte ...

for

Wichita State Wichita State University (WSU) is a public research university in Wichita, Kansas, United States. It is governed by the Kansas Board of Regents. The university offers more than 60 undergraduate degree programs in more than 200 areas of study in ...

before transferring to Pittsburg State, where Ballock's other sister, Megan, and brother, Justin, also ran track.

References

External links

Creighton Bluejays bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ballock, Mitch 1998 births Living people American men's basketball players Basketball players from Kansas Cleveland Charge players Creighton Bluejays men's basketball players People from Eudora, Kansas Shooting guards