UCLA Target Tounde Yessoufou Withdraws from NBA Draft, Commits to St. John's

Baylor wing transfer Tounde Yessoufou, whom UCLA has been recruiting for over a month, withdrew his name from the NBA Draft Wednesday night and then promptly committed to St. John’s.

It was shocking news for UCLA. It was believed, if the 6-5 freshman withdrew from the Draft, UCLA was the likely destination.

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Yessoufou submitted his name to the Draft and entered the transfer portal April 20th. He instantly became one of the top transfers in the portal. He averaged 17.8 points, 5.9 rebounds and 2 steals per game as a freshman at Baylor, and is a very high-level athlete with a rare combination of physical and mental toughness. On3 ranks him the No. 6 overall transfer in the portal.

It was known UCLA was recruiting him aggressively, and it was thought the Bruins had some advantages in attracting Yessoufou. Having spent his high school years in California, at Santa Maria St. Joseph’s, the general feeling was that, if he returned to college, UCLA’s location would be a factor. He had an already-established relationship with Mick Cronin and the UCLA staff, since the Bruins recruited him aggressively out of high school. Plus, his agent is based in Los Angeles.

We did previously report, however, it shouldn’t be considered a slam dunk that Yessoufou, if he did indeed withdraw from the Draft, would opt for UCLA. Other programs with substantial NIL available had been recruiting him.

It appears that was the case with St. John’s.

When Yessoufou entered the portal and the Draft, it was thought this would be a fairly long process in deciding whether to stay in the Draft or return to college. He competed in the NBA Draft Combine, and did passably okay (good in the athletic testing, not great in the shooting drills), and he worked out individually for some teams, including the New York Knicks and Memphis Grizzlies.

He didn’t really improved his Draft stock, if you go by the public mock NBA Drafts. He was projected late first-round/early second round, which most NBA analysts, agents and scouts would suggest should prudently persuade a player to return to college in an effort to improve that draft stock.

It was always believed by sources close to the situation that Yessoufou, like many early entrants of the NBA Draft, wanted desperately to stay in the Draft. From what we’ve heard, he only decided to return to college reluctantly.

This entire process, a mindblowing 37 days, was a long and arduous one for UCLA. To put that much time and effort into recruiting Yessoufou, for the process to go right up to the withdraw deadline, and probably to feel it had a very good chance to land him only to come up empty-handed is gut-wrenching.

UCLA did sign four transfers from the portal (GO HERE) and, as we’ve reported, it’s still recruiting another player to possibly add to the 2026-2027 roster.