Arizona is losing two pieces of its backcourt on the same day.

Shortly after news broke that starting point guard Kerr Kriisa was entering the transfer portal and leaving the program, second-year guard Adama Bal announced that he has also entered the transfer portal. Bal was viewed as a potential breakout player for Arizona this past season, but found himself mostly out of the regular rotation by the time Pac-12 play got rolling.

The 6-foot-7 guard from France will depart Tucson after 49 appearances in two seasons with the Wildcats. He averaged 4.5 minutes a game during his freshman season, then played 8.2 minutes a night this past season. Bal holds career averages of 2.0 points, 0.7 rebounds, and 0.5 assists per game while shooting 42% from the field and 39% (20-of-51) from 3-point range.

Bal cleared 13 minutes in each of the Wildcats’ first six games this season. He played 20 minutes against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on Dec. 13. From then on, he saw more than five minutes in a game only four times and double-digit minutes only twice.

Coach Tommy Lloyd cut the rotation to seven and Bal lost his spot.

“I built this team for Adama to be in the top eight,” Lloyd said in February. “And he had a lot of opportunities and he just didn’t play great, didn’t play well early. And I’ve told him that, and I told him about next time, your next chances, you need to be ready. That was my message to him, and so I was really happy for him and proud of him that he played last game and he played pretty well.”

The message to Bal was that the other parts of his game around his offense needed to get the same kind of attention as his scoring. His next stop will hope to unlock the kind of player Lloyd has long contended Bal can become.