Canadian combo guard Jefferson Koulibaly commits to Washington State
Washington State has effectively rounded out its 2020 recruiting class, receiving a commitment Friday from Jefferson Koulibaly, a long and explosive point guard from Canada.
A top-10 prospect in Canada, Koulibaly announced his commitment in a YouTube video with North Pole Hoops.
“This has been my lifelong dream, to play in a Power Five conference,” Koulibaly told North Pole Hoops in an interview earlier this week. “I didn’t know if it was going to be this year, or next year as a 2021, but I know and felt in my gut on the visit that Washington State was the place for me.”
Koulibaly, a Montreal native who plays at Lincoln Prep in Hamilton, Ontario, was originally supposed to be a member of the 2021 class, but it was later learned the 6-foot-4, 180-pound guard will reclassify to 2020.
Koulibaly will join 6-5 New York combo guard TJ Bamba and 6-9 Nigerian big man Efe Abogidi, who’ve already signed letters of intent with the Cougars.
Koulibaly doesn’t have a star rating on 247Sports.com and his only other offers came from Missouri State and Holy Cross, although according to the site, he took an unofficial visit to Rutgers three years ago and also had interest from Maryland.
Accoring to Lincoln Prep’s website, Koulibaly is averaging just shy of 30 points per game, at 29.2, and is second on his team in 3-pointers at 41, though he’s shooting just 31 percent from beyond the arc.
Koulibaly also leads his team in rebounds, at 10.6 per game, and he’s been the top facilitator for the Huskies, dishing out 5.6 assists per game. He’s also shown a commitment to the defensive end of the floor and leads Lincoln Prep at 2.7 steals per game – something that should be valuable within Kyle Smith’s scheme at WSU.
Per the Ontario Scholastic Basketball Association, Koulibaly had the top individual performance by a player in the area each of the last four months, recently recording 48 points, 16 rebounds, 10 assists, one block and one steal in a game against FHC Prep.