At the midnight deadline to withdraw from the 2026 NBA Draft, Baylor transfer Tounde Yessoufou decided to withdraw and commit to St. John’s, per multiple media reports.
Yessoufou was testing the draft waters while also putting his name in the transfer portal, though it came with a do-not-contact tag. On3’s Joe Tipton reported that UCLA was gaining early buzz for the California native if he opted for a return to school, but Rick Pitino swooped in to steal the top-10 transfer and potential 2027 lottery pick.
The 6-foot-5, 215-pound Yessoufou was originally a 5-star recruit in the class of 2025 and someone Kentucky was strongly in the mix for at one point. This past season, he averaged 17.8 points, 5.9 rebounds, and 1.6 assists per game while shooting 46.5% from the field and 29.3% from 3-point range.
While all eyes in the Big Blue Nation have been on Iowa State transfer Milan Momcilovic, Yessoufou was quietly one of the best players in the portal. However, he’d been viewed as a near-lock to remain in the draft, so there hadn’t been much attention paid to him in recent weeks. Most mock drafts have had Yessoufou going in the first round.
Now, Pitino has the Johhnies in position to have a top-10 team entering the 2026-27 season.
Meanwhile, Momcilovic did withdraw from the draft, but he has yet to make his decision. But this Yessoufou news does likely mean St. John’s is out for Momcilovic, so this is still very relevant to Kentucky Basketball.
