Four-star forward Tounde Yessoufou trims Arizona Wildcats from list of finalists

A four-star forward in the class of 2025 from Benin who has been playing high school ball in Santa Maria, California, Yessoufou visited UA earlier this summer and included the Wildcats among his top 10 choices as of July 24. Yessoufou's list of six schools announced Thursday included ASU, Kansas, Kentucky, UConn, Baylor and USC, and he is scheduled to visit ASU this weekend.

The 6-5 Yessoufou drew early and strong interest from Arizona, which offered him a scholarship as a high school sophomore, in December 2022. But the Wildcats have lately targeted other players at his position, including four-star forward Nik Khamenia, who visited Arizona last week and played for UA coach Tommy Lloyd on USA Basketball's U18 team in June.

At the Section 7 event in June, where he excelled with moves around the basket, Yessoufou said UA considered him a wing even though he has been projected as an undersized power forward in college.

“A lot of social media named me a power forward or whatever it is, but the truth is, I’m not a power forward," Yessoufou said. "I’m a shooting guard, wing, whatever it is but I’m not a power forward. So the fact that (Lloyd) acknowledged that and told me that was the situation I would be in, I really liked that.”