CINCINNATI – Former University of South Carolina Aiken men's basketball standout Cody Ballard recently signed a professional contract with the Cincinnati Slam of the Universal Basketball Association (UBA).

Ballard, who began his professional career in 2009 playing for the Columbus Crush of the American Basketball Association (ABA), played for the UBA's Cleveland Vipers franchise last season.

Ballard, a native of Westerville, Ohio, played at USC Aiken during his junior and senior seasons from 2007-2009 after transferring from Morehead State.

A 2000-10 USC Aiken men's basketball All-Decade team member, Ballard was a member of the 2008-09 Pacers squad that advanced to the "Sweet Sixteen" of the NCAA Division II Tournament.

The trip to the Sweet 16 capped off a tremendous two-year run for USC Aiken under head coach Vince Alexander, which saw the Pacers amass a school-record 52 wins from 2007-2009, coinciding with Ballard's two years as a captain for the Pacers.

The 2007-08 Pacers shattered numerous school records, including most wins (27), conference wins (19), home wins (14), consecutive home wins (15) and most wins to start a season (9) on their way to the program's second ever Peach Belt Conference Regular Season Championship.

Ballard was the only player on a star-studded Pacer squad to start all 33 games in the 2008-09 season, averaging nine points, 4.5 rebounds, 2.2 assists and 28.7 minutes per game.

The senior captain was routinely assigned the job of guarding the opposing teams' best offensive player and he responded by collecting a team-high 47 steals during the year.

Despite playing just two seasons at USC Aiken, Ballard is still seventh all-time in school history with 82 steals.

Ballard is one of several players from the 2007-09 Pacer era to presently be playing professional basketball, joining Chris Commons, Kingsley Oguchi, Brian Egwuatu, Jeremy Fears, and Josh Dollard.