Former Drake, KU & Washington St. hoops guard Yesufu to transfer to Big 12 school
Former University of Kansas men’s basketball combo guard Joseph Yesufu is back in the Big 12 Conference.
Yesufu, who started his college career at Drake, then spent two seasons at KU and one at Washington State, has decided to continue his college career at West Virginia, On3.com’s Joe Tipton reported Sunday night.
Yesufu, a 6-foot-0, 23-year-old senior from Bolingbrook, Illinois, played in just six games for Washington State in 2023-24 because of a hip injury.
He averaged 6.2 points and 2.0 rebounds per contest with 11 total assists to six turnovers. He averaged 25.4 minutes per game in the six games he was available for Washington State.
Yesufu connected on 36.8% of his shots, including 8 of 23 from 3-point range (34.8%). He scored a season-high 15 points with five assists and two rebounds in 36 minutes versus Mississippi State.
Washington went 25-10, beating Yesufu’s former school, Drake, in the NCAA Tournament’s first round. Iowa State eliminated the Cougars in the Round of 32.
Yesufu’s new coach at West Virginia is his former coach at Drake, Darian DeVries, who accepted the WVU job this offseason.
At KU in 2022-23, Yesufu averaged 4.1 points in 12.6 minutes a game. He played on KU’s NCAA title team in 2022, averaging 2.1 points in 9.2 minutes per game in 34 appearances.
While at Drake, Yesufu averaged 12.8 points per game as a sophomore and 3.8 points per game during his freshman season. He has appeared in 119 Div. I games averaging 5.9 points, 1.3 rebounds and 1.1 assists per game. He has scored 698 points in his college career.
Before entering college, he was an Illinois all-state honorable mention at Bolingbrook High and was named the Herald News boys basketball player of the year, averaging 16.0 points.
Here’s what former Washington State coach Kyle Smith had to say about Yesufu before the start of the 2023-24 season: “He’s an explosive combo (guard). Right now, he’ll probably be at the point for us. But he can really guard the ball, he can really shoot it, and he can really get it going scoring-wise. But we’re going to need his premier shooting. Looks a little like those UW-kind-of guards back in the day, the Isaiah (Thomas), Nate Robinson type. He’s a smaller, strong, explosive guy who can get buckets.”
