Growing up in the small West African country of Benin, Tounde Yessoufou would routinely get home from the basketball court after 1:00 a.m. His mother implored him to give up the sport and focus solely on academics, even calling a family meeting to address the matter. But there was no way Yessoufou was going to quit. He had been all-in on basketball since the age of 10, when he discovered that a player from his neighborhood had earned a scholarship to a school in America. From then on, Yessoufou began working out three to four times a day and poring through highlights on YouTube like they were homework assignments. “When I put my mind to something and I believe in something, I want the results,” Yessoufou tells Hoops HQ.
Eight years later, Yessoufou is not only playing basketball in the United States, he is one of the nation’s top prospects. A 6-foot-6 small forward who has starred for St. Joseph High School in Santa Maria, California, Yessoufou committed to Baylor in October, choosing the Bears over Kansas, Kentucky, UConn, Arizona and other powerhouse programs. “I just felt more connected to Coach (Scott) Drew than anybody,” Yessoufou says. “And also what Baylor has done for freshmen, players like Keyonte George, obviously VJ (Edgecombe). They have five consecutive top 20 draft picks.”
“He fits our culture,” Drew tells Hoops HQ about Yessoufou. “And what I mean by that is high character, great attitude, great teammate. Everybody loves him. Everybody loves his humility, his work ethic. Basketball wise, obviously he’s got a lot of talent, but what you love is his motor is always running and he’s always competing. He’s always playing at 100 percent.”
Yessoufou is expected to spend just one season at Baylor before entering the 2026 NBA draft, where he is projected to be a first-round pick. “I think if things go well at Baylor, and they do an incredible job of developing guys, he’s solidly in the first round next year,” one NBA scout says. “And if it goes really well, then he’s pushing lottery, if he’s not already in there.”
At first, Yessoufou’s parents were dubious of their son’s fascination with basketball. They did not believe that his newfound dream was worth chasing. Yessoufou vividly recalls one particular conversation with his father. “He said that in the whole family, the only person he was worried about not having a good future was me,” Yessoufou says.
It all served as more motivation for Yessoufou, who became increasingly obsessed with the game. He only had access to an outdoor court, but he would be there most of the time he wasn’t in school, even training in the pouring rain when it was nearly impossible to see the basket. If he could shoot in that environment, Yessoufou figured, then he would have no problem shooting with a defender guarding him.
Through coaches and former players from Benin, word about Yessoufou’s talent eventually spread to high schools in the U.S. and he was offered a spot at St. Joseph ahead of his freshman year. Yessoufou jumped at the opportunity, making the 7,500-mile journey to California and moving in with a host family. He remembers being so excited on his first full day in America that he woke up at 5:00 a.m. and started cranking out push-ups.
During his debut at St. Joseph, Yessoufou threw down a dunk so powerful that it snapped the backboard off its metal frame. The game had to be called in the third quarter. Yessoufou would go on to average 26.4 points, 12.3 rebounds, 2.1 steals and 2.9 blocks that season, leading St. Joseph to a 27-4 record. An explosive athlete with a chiseled frame, he did most of his damage close to the basket, outmuscling and rising over defenders.
Yessoufou has continued to polish and expand his skill set every year, responding to the criticisms of his game. “At first I remember it went from ‘he can’t play basketball’ to ‘he can’t shoot,’” Yessoufou says. “Then I started shooting and it went from ‘he can’t shoot’ to ‘he can’t dribble.’ And now people talk about how my game is not sexy or whatever the case may be. It’s motivation to keep proving them wrong, but most importantly, to develop my game fully. I honestly feel like I haven’t even scratched the surface of what I can do.”
That’s music to the ears of Baylor fans considering that Yessoufou averaged 28.8 points (on 57 percent shooting), 10.3 rebounds and 3.0 steals over his four-year career at St. Joseph and broke the California state boys basketball scoring record, finishing with 3,659 total points. He is ranked as the No. 14 recruit in the nation, according to the 247Sports Composite.
The dynamic wing has blossomed into an elite two-way player. As many have pointed out on social media, he bears a striking resemblance in the way he moves on the court to one of his favorite NBA stars: Anthony Edwards. That’s not a coincidence. Yessoufou has studied clips of Edwards going all the way back to when the Minnesota Timberwolves guard played at Georgia. “For sure I want to play like him, but I also want to adjust so I’m (also) doing me,” Yessoufou says. “I feel like that’s where people get caught up. They think that I just want to be like Ant. I want to have some tools like him, but I also want to play like Tounde.”
Yessoufou’s biggest basketball inspiration has always been the late Kobe Bryant. He strives to emulate both Bryant’s game and his unique mindset, commonly referred to as the “Mamba Mentality.”
“When I step on the court, I don’t smile, I don’t joke, I don’t do any of that,” Yessoufou says . “I’m focused. I just feel like I always want to have the killer mentality to be able to destroy anybody who stands in front of me. The way I approach the game is different. Every opponent I’m facing is taking food off my table and I have to eat. That’s my mindset.”
That mindset was on full display at the 2025 Nike Hoop Summit, an annual high school showcase that pits the best American prospects against the best prospects from around the globe. Yessoufou became the first player in the event’s history to represent Benin. Marshall Cho, who coached the World Team, was blown away by Yessoufou’s high motor and defensive intensity during the week of practice leading up to the game. “Tounde just doesn’t have an off switch, so he’s going hard in every single drill. He doesn’t know how to pace himself,” Cho tells Hoops HQ. “He has a work ethic that’s just out of this world.” It took many conversations for Cho to finally convince Yessoufou to slow down and conserve some energy for the game. Yessoufou would end up scoring a team-high 24 points in the contest, flashing his enhanced offensive repertoire.
The next stop on the 18-year-old’s journey will be Waco, Texas, where he will join a completely revamped Baylor roster. Yessoufou is expected to follow a similar path to Big 12 Rookie of the Year VJ Edgecombe, who thrived for the Bears this past season and is now moving on to the NBA. “I think he has some similarities to VJ in that he’s a stat sheet stuffer and somebody who can be a lockdown defender,” Drew says about Yessoufou. “So not necessarily, 30-point scorer with three rebounds and three assists. But more, can he be a double-double, triple-double guy every night and impact both ends of the court?”
Yessoufou will certainly get the chance to shine as Edgecombe did. Drew allows his freshmen to play through mistakes and aims to simplify things so they’re not overthinking on the floor. “The physicality, the toughness, the motor and the athleticism allow him to play day one,” Drew adds. “Now the question is, how do you move up the draft board? You win and you’re really efficient at what you do.” Much of Yessoufou’s development at Baylor will center on improving his efficiency, perimeter shooting and assist-to-turnover ratio.
“What I’ll be looking for from (Yessoufou) is, can he continue to grow in the game where he’s setting the table for others?” says Cho, who previously coached NBA players Victor Oladipo, Quinn Cook, Jerian Grant and Jerami Grant as an assistant at the renowned DeMatha Catholic High School. “Can he translate his offensive gravity into making plays for his teammates? Being around his peers, his age group, he can go get a bucket any time. Now he’s going to see more nuanced defensive schemes to slow him down.”
There is understandable skepticism about the 2025-26 Bears, given that the program lost all of its players from last season. While Drew’s staff has done a solid job of rebuilding through the portal — Hoops HQ’s Tristan Freeman ranks Baylor’s transfer class No. 7 in the country — Yessoufou still believes that people are sleeping on his new team. “We see it on social media,” he says. “But I know Coach Drew, obviously he’s all (about) winning. And I think he picked up some good players who will help all of us win. Like he says, ‘When you win, everybody eats.’ I don’t believe in talent as much as hard work. I believe that a good team that has chemistry always wins. And I think we’re going to surprise a lot of people with what we accomplish next year.”
