{"id":156459,"date":"2025-07-08T19:02:12","date_gmt":"2025-07-08T19:02:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/156459\/"},"modified":"2025-07-08T19:02:12","modified_gmt":"2025-07-08T19:02:12","slug":"scott-drew-addresses-comparison-between-baylors-tounde-yessoufou-anthony-edwards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/156459\/","title":{"rendered":"Scott Drew addresses comparison between Baylor’s Tounde Yessoufou, Anthony Edwards"},"content":{"rendered":"

Baylor\u2019s<\/a> Tounde Yessoufou<\/a> is the top incoming addition of the offseason in Waco. Now, with him having been on campus for a bit, Scott Drew<\/a> has made a comparison for him to one of the top young players in the world.<\/p>\n

Drew spoke highly of his five-star freshman this afternoon in an appearance on \u2018The Gary Parrish Show\u2019<\/a>. That included a comp for Yessoufou to Anthony Edwards<\/a> of the Minnesota Timberwolves, starting with his level of athleticism.<\/p>\n

\u201cTounde is somebody that has gotten a lot of comparisons to Anthony Edwards from the standpoint physically, very strong, very athletic. Won the McDonald\u2019s Slam Dunk Contest<\/a>,\u201d said Drew.<\/p>\n

Edwards, a former top prospect himself, is a lot to live up to, being the No. 1 overall pick in the 2020 NBA Draft<\/a> out of Georgia<\/a> and now being a two-time selection as an All-Star and Second Team All-NBA for the \u2018Wolves. Still, Drew sees some of that game in his signee with Yessoufou.<\/p>\n

Being effective on both sides of the ball is also part of that for Yessoufou. He\u2019s already, with his high motor, expected to be one of the better freshmen defenders but, based on his high-school resum\u00e9, is also an underrated scorer as compared to the rest of his class.<\/p>\n

\u201cSomebody that really values the defensive end. He can be an all-conference defender year one and that\u2019s really rare for freshmen, because, one, to know the importance of it, two, to have the physical ability because, as you know, 18-year-olds aren\u2019t as strong as 22 or 23-year-olds. That really, with the athleticism, separates him,\u201d Drew said in analyzing Yessoufou<\/a>. \u201cOffensively, he\u2019s the state of California\u2019s all-time leading high-school scorer<\/a> so you know he can get buckets.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yessoufou, of Santa Maria, California, played in high school at St. Joseph<\/a>. He finished rated as the No. 14 overall recruit and a five-star in\u00a0the 2025 recruiting cycle<\/a>. That\u2019s according to\u00a0Rivals\u2019 Industry Ranking<\/a>, a weighted average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies.<\/p>\n

After having the highest-selection in program history a few weeks ago with the No. 3 pick<\/a> in the 2025 NBA Draft<\/a>, Baylor could have another first-round, if not lottery-level, pick come the 2026 NBA Draft<\/a>. If he shows everything in his game in college with the Bears and eventually going<\/a> into the NBA<\/a>, though, Yessoufou could possibly measure up to one of the best right now in the association in someone like Edwards.<\/p>\n

\u201cReally, the ability to be a two-way player and want to be a two-way player gives him a chance to be<\/a> another one-and-done,\u201d said Drew.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Baylor\u2019s Tounde Yessoufou is the top incoming addition of the offseason in Waco. Now, with him having been…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":156460,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3782],"tags":[29601,7,307,152,3954,6,29602,308,5426],"class_list":{"0":"post-156459","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-minnesota-timberwolves","8":"tag-anthony-edwards-19-holy-spirit-preparatory-school","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-minnesota","11":"tag-minnesota-timberwolves","12":"tag-minnesotatimberwolves","13":"tag-nba","14":"tag-scott-drew-89-valparaiso","15":"tag-timberwolves","16":"tag-tounde-yessoufou-25-st-joseph"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114819166704522264","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=156459"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156459\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/156460"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=156459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=156459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=156459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}