By Jackson Posey | Sports Editor
Baylor star Tounde Yessoufou is entering the transfer portal, per multiple reports Tuesday evening. The former five-star recruit started all 34 games for the Bears in 2025-26 and has three years of eligibility remaining.
Yessoufou, a Benin native who set the California high school career scoring record at Santa Maria (CA) St. Joseph, made an immediate impact in Waco. The 6-foot-5, 215-pound wing averaged 17.8 points, 5.9 rebounds and a team-high 2.0 steals per game.
Yessoufou entered the NBA Draft on April 10, a normal step for potential first-round picks who want to test the waters. He has until the NCAA’s early entry withdrawal deadline on May 27 to decide whether or not to return to college.
If he returns, he would retain three years of eligibility at Baylor or another program.
Yessoufou’s draft stock has fluctuated over the season. Once considered a potential top-10 pick who drew Anthony Edwards comparisons, his poor 3-point shooting (29.3%), negative assist-to-turnover ratio (1.6 to 1.9) and questions about his half-court offense have dropped him out of the first round in several mock drafts.
The Athletic’s Sam Vecenie projected Yessoufou to go with the final pick in the first round, noting that teams are “concerned about his style of play and how it will translate.”
“Yessoufou is largely a power-based player and has gotten a lot of recent points through mismatches against smaller players, posting them or attacking out of the midpost,” Vecenie wrote last month. “That’s not a style that works in the NBA. Additionally, while Yessoufou sports a remarkably high steal rate, his overall defensive quickness and awareness are not that strong. He regularly gets beat off the bounce by quicker players.”
Should Yessoufou return to college, he would likely receive significant interest from programs across the country. He would be the second five-star Baylor starter to leave for greener pastures in as many offseasons, joining Robert O. Wright III, who took his talents to BYU.
