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Drake's Joseph Yesufu transfers to Kansas

Da Coach

Da Coach

Moderator
Staff member
I suspect someone has gotten to Drake sophomore point guard Joseph Yesufu and coaxed him to transfer. This would be a big blow to Drake if he does end up leaving.
https://verbalcommits.com/players/joseph-yesufu

Yesufu was a key reserve most of the season, but when starting point guard Roman Penn went down with a foot injury late in the season, Yesufu became a starter and was their leading scorer over the last few weeks of the season.
 
Going to go out on a rather strong limb, and say the Valley and all MM conferences will be down as a whole next year. The strength for the leagues has often been experience and cohesiveness.
 
Over his last 7 games Yesufu played 40 minutes 5 times and 39 minutes twice. Before that he was averaging 19 minutes a game. With how he played once he started playing 40 minutes a game, worst case scenario he falls back to playing 19 minutes a game. Depending on the roster at KU at the start of the season, Yesufu might start. Most likely he’ll end up in a 25 mpg role, scoring 12-15ppg, and have the possibility of winning a national title. At Drake he’d probably have played 35 mpg, scored 15-18ppg, and have the possibility of winning a Valley title. He made a move. Not a bad move or a good move, merely a move.

Look at it another way, Drake has had 12 players drafted into the NBA. The last one was in 1981. Kansas has 61, including 47 since 1981. Many, many of those Kansas players have been bad NBA players. But it’s undeniable that the national profile of Kansas is so much higher it gives him a better chance of making the league. Almost every single Kansas game is broadcast, many in prime time. If you want to watch >80% of Drake games you have to watch it online. There are many ways to see this as a spectacular move for Joseph.
 
Kansas' primary point guard this past season was Marcus Garrett, a senior who played 33 minutes per game and who has hinted this will be his last year at Kansas. Beyond Garrett, Kansas is pretty thin at point guard for next season. So this appears to be a smart move by Bill Self to land a capable point guard while he continues to recruit others, and while waiting to see if Garrett decides to return for another year.
 
ihatetea said:
Over his last 7 games Yesufu played 40 minutes 5 times and 39 minutes twice. Before that he was averaging 19 minutes a game. With how he played once he started playing 40 minutes a game, worst case scenario he falls back to playing 19 minutes a game. Depending on the roster at KU at the start of the season, Yesufu might start. Most likely he’ll end up in a 25 mpg role, scoring 12-15ppg, and have the possibility of winning a national title. At Drake he’d probably have played 35 mpg, scored 15-18ppg, and have the possibility of winning a Valley title. He made a move. Not a bad move or a good move, merely a move.

Look at it another way, Drake has had 12 players drafted into the NBA. The last one was in 1981. Kansas has 61, including 47 since 1981. Many, many of those Kansas players have been bad NBA players. But it’s undeniable that the national profile of Kansas is so much higher it gives him a better chance of making the league. Almost every single Kansas game is broadcast, many in prime time. If you want to watch >80% of Drake games you have to watch it online. There are many ways to see this as a spectacular move for Joseph.
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I think it's rather bold to predict Yesufu will put up the same production in the Big 12 as he did in the Valley. Just looking at some of the other players that have transferred out of the Valley recently, I'd say it's highly unlikely he performs in the same fashion. I guess we won't know until the season starts going.
 
His last four games (Missouri state, Loyola, Wichita State, USC) he averaged 20 ppg, was 12/20 from three, and 16/19 from the free throw line. It’s hard to play any better against the most difficult part of his schedule and he did it as the guy to stop on every teams scouting report. He played 40 minutes a game and his shooting didn’t slip at all. There’s zero reason to think he’ll be markedly worse next year. He won’t keep scoring 20+ a game. But he’ll still be double digits easily and will not have his playing time cut in half.
 
I think it's rather bold to predict Yesufu will put up the same production in the Big 12 as he did in the Valley.
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Actually, many MVC players have fared pretty well after transferring to higher-level programs.
Here are a bunch of recent MVC players who left to transfer to bigger programs and their stats show their numbers were pretty good-

Dru Smith left after 2 seasons at Evansville, and was an immediate starter and double-digit scorer in the SEC at Missouri. He lead the team this year in minutes played, points/game (14.3), assists/game (3.8 ), steals/game (2.1), and he shot 42% from three in SEC games to lead among qualifying players.-
https://www.espn.com/mens-college-ba...6993/dru-smith

DeAndre Williams left Evansville after 1 partial season and landed at Memphis. He was an immediate starter this season at Memphis, and was second in scoring (11.7 ppg), second in rebounding (5.8 rpg), second in assists/g (3.4), tops in steals, and was their best 3-point shooter (45.5%)-
https://www.espn.com/mens-college-ba...andre-williams

Liam Robbins left Drake and played this season in the Big Ten at Minnesota as their starting center His numbers for a Big 10 team were very good and did not decline very much, considering he played fewer minutes per game at Minnesota.
https://www.espn.com/mens-college-ba...7/liam-robbins

Ryan Taylor was another former Evansville player who left and transferred to a Big Ten team. He played the 2017-18 season at Northwestern, where he started every game, though he played a smaller role than he did at Evansville. He finished 3rd in scoring for a bad Northwestern team, averaging 9.8 ppg,
https://www.espn.com/mens-college-ba...01/ryan-taylor

MiKyle McIntosh left Illinois State and played his final season at Oregon. He was an immediate starter and his numbers there for a Power 5 team were as good or better than the numbers he had at ISU-
https://www.espn.com/mens-college-ba...ikyle-mcintosh

Deontae Hawkins is another former Illinois State player who left and played his final season for a Power 5 team. He played for Boston College of the ACC in 2017-18. He was an immediate starter, but his year there was shortened by a serious knee injury. But in the games he played, he put up numbers that were comparable, and in some cases better (he was leading the ACC in rebounding when he got hurt) than he had at ISU-
https://www.espn.com/mens-college-ba...eontae-hawkins

Reggie Lynch is another former Illinois State player who left and transferred to a Power 5 team. He played his final 2 seasons at Minnesota of the Big Ten, where he was an immediate starter and productive player (until he was dismissed from the team and kicked out of school). And his stats got better in the Big Ten compared with his stats in the MVC with ISU!-
https://www.espn.com/mens-college-ba...9/reggie-lynch

And the most recent was Javon Freeman-Liberty who transferred from Valparaiso to DePaul of the Big East. His scoring numbers did drop at DePaul, but some of that may have been due to DePaul's point guard (Charlie Moore) hogging all the shots. His other numbers remained comparable to what he produced in the MVC.
https://www.espn.com/mens-college-ba...reeman-liberty
 
Da Coach said:
Actually, many MVC players have fared pretty well after transferring to higher-level programs.
Here are a bunch of recent MVC players who left to transfer to bigger programs and their stats show their numbers were pretty good-

Dru Smith left after 2 seasons at Evansville, and was an immediate starter and double-digit scorer in the SEC at Missouri. He lead the team this year in minutes played, points/game (14.3), assists/game (3.8 ), steals/game (2.1), and he shot 42% from three in SEC games to lead among qualifying players.-
https://www.espn.com/mens-college-ba...6993/dru-smith

DeAndre Williams left Evansville after 1 partial season and landed at Memphis. He was an immediate starter this season at Memphis, and was second in scoring (11.7 ppg), second in rebounding (5.8 rpg), second in assists/g (3.4), tops in steals, and was their best 3-point shooter (45.5%)-
https://www.espn.com/mens-college-ba...andre-williams

Liam Robbins left Drake and played this season in the Big Ten at Minnesota as their starting center His numbers for a Big 10 team were very good and did not decline very much, considering he played fewer minutes per game at Minnesota.
https://www.espn.com/mens-college-ba...7/liam-robbins

Ryan Taylor was another former Evansville player who left and transferred to a Big Ten team. He played the 2017-18 season at Northwestern, where he started every game, though he played a smaller role than he did at Evansville. He finished 3rd in scoring for a bad Northwestern team, averaging 9.8 ppg,
https://www.espn.com/mens-college-ba...01/ryan-taylor

MiKyle McIntosh left Illinois State and played his final season at Oregon. He was an immediate starter and his numbers there for a Power 5 team were as good or better than the numbers he had at ISU-
https://www.espn.com/mens-college-ba...ikyle-mcintosh

Deontae Hawkins is another former Illinois State player who left and played his final season for a Power 5 team. He played for Boston College of the ACC in 2017-18. He was an immediate starter, but his year there was shortened by a serious knee injury. But in the games he played, he put up numbers that were comparable, and in some cases better (he was leading the ACC in rebounding when he got hurt) than he had at ISU-
https://www.espn.com/mens-college-ba...eontae-hawkins

Reggie Lynch is another former Illinois State player who left and transferred to a Power 5 team. He played his final 2 seasons at Minnesota of the Big Ten, where he was an immediate starter and productive player (until he was dismissed from the team and kicked out of school). And his stats got better in the Big Ten compared with his stats in the MVC with ISU!-
https://www.espn.com/mens-college-ba...9/reggie-lynch

And the most recent was Javon Freeman-Liberty who transferred from Valparaiso to DePaul of the Big East. His scoring numbers did drop at DePaul, but some of that may have been due to DePaul's point guard (Charlie Moore) hogging all the shots. His other numbers remained comparable to what he produced in the MVC.
https://www.espn.com/mens-college-ba...reeman-liberty
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Mcintosh is the only player in that group that went to a high level P5 team. I am in the camp that believes at best he will have a Maniscalco type year at best. He was going to have a chance to be an All Valley player, but at Kansas he could be 7 or 8 man easy by the end of the year. It will be interesting to revisit at the end of the year.
 
egib52 said:
Mcintosh is the only player in that group that went to a high level P5 team. I am in the camp that believes at best he will have a Maniscalco type year at best. He was going to have a chance to be an All Valley player, but at Kansas he could be 7 or 8 man easy by the end of the year. It will be interesting to revisit at the end of the year.
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Thank you.
 
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