Akwasi Abeyie Yeboah (born June 15, 1997) is a British professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

player for

Trapani Shark Trapani Shark is an Italian professional basketball team that is based in Trapani, Sicily. The club plays in the top division Italian Lega Basket Serie A (LBA) and the Champions League. The team triumphed over rivals Blu Basket to win the 2023 ...

of the

Lega Basket Serie A The Lega Basket Serie A (LBA) is a professional men's club (sport), club basketball list of basketball leagues, league that has been organised in Italy since 1920. Serie A is organised by Lega Basket, which is regulated by the Italian Basketball ...

. Yeboah competed for the Kent Crusaders of the English National Basketball League (NBL) and led the team to a championship in 2015. Yeboah played three seasons of

college basketball College basketball is basketball that is played by teams of Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. In the Higher education in the United States, United States, colleges and universities are governed by collegiate athle ...

for the

Stony Brook Seawolves The Stony Brook Seawolves are the intercollegiate athletics teams that represent Stony Brook University (SBU) in Stony Brook, New York. The Seawolves play as members of the Coastal Athletic Association (formerly known as the Colonial Athletic As ...

before transferring to play for the

Rutgers Scarlet Knights The Rutgers Scarlet Knights are the athletic teams that represent Rutgers University's New Brunswick campus. In sports, Rutgers is famously known for being the "Birthplace of College Football", hosting the first ever intercollegiate football ...

as a graduate student for his final season of eligibility.

Early life and career

Yeboah was born in

Sekondi-Takoradi Sekondi-Takoradi ( ) is a city in Ghana comprising the Twin cities (geographical proximity), twin cities of Sekondi and Takoradi. It is the capital of Sekondi Takoradi Metropolitan Assembly, Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolitan District and the Weste ...

, Ghana but moved to the London suburb of Chigwell, England at the age of nine after his mother Winifred found a nursing job to better provide for him and older brother Kwame. Yeboah started out as a soccer player and did not begin playing basketball until the age of 13. He was, by his admission, terrible at basketball at first. His physical education teacher told him that he was not competitive, which motivated him to improve. He competed for the Kent Crusaders of the English National Basketball League (NBL) after the

Barking Abbey School Barking Abbey School is a secondary school and specialist sports and humanities college located in the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham. It serves students from the London Boroughs of Barking and Dagenham, Redbridge, and Newham. Years 7 ...

, which he attended, partnered with the Crusaders to give their top players the ability to play in the NBL. He had a season-high 21 points twice, against the

Bradford Dragons The Bradford Dragons are an English semi-professional basketball club based in Bradford, West Yorkshire. Founded in 2001, the Dragons currently compete in NBL Division 1, the second tier of the British basketball system. Club history The clu ...

and

Essex Leopards The Essex & Herts Leopards were an English semi-professional basketball club, based in Brentwood, Essex and St Albans, Hertfordshire. The Leopards competed in Division 1 of the English Basketball League. The team was established in 1997 as War ...

, and scored 19 points in a 12-point comeback win against the

Reading Rockets The Reading Rockets are an English semi-professional basketball club based in the town of Reading, England. Founded in 1997, the Rockets compete in NBL Division 1, the second tier of the British basketball system. History The Rockets were f ...

. Yeboah was a key piece of the team that won the 2015 NBL Division I Playoff Championship. He averaged 12.7 points and 5.4 rebounds per game. In the league final, Yeboah scored 21 points and had seven rebounds. He received his only

NCAA Division I NCAA Division I (D-I) is the highest division of intercollegiate athletics sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States, which accepts players globally. D-I schools include the major collegiate athlet ...

offer from Stony Brook's head coach

Steve Pikiell Stephen Christopher Pikiell ( ; born November 21, 1967) is an American college basketball coach and since March 16, 2016, the head men's basketball coach at Rutgers Scarlet Knights men's basketball, Rutgers. Prior to Rutgers, Pikiell was the head ...

College career

Stony Brook (2016–2019)

Yeboah

redshirt Redshirt, Red Shirt, or Redshirts may refer to: Sports * Redshirt (college sports) Redshirt, in United States college athletics, is a delay or suspension of an athlete's participation in order to lengthen their period of eligibility. Typically ...

ed his first season at Stony Brook, which was Pikiell's last at the school before accepting the job at

Rutgers Rutgers University ( ), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a public land-grant research university consisting of three campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's College and was aff ...

. Stony Brook made the NCAA Tournament for the first time in school history as Yeboah sat out the season due to lack of projected playing time. As a redshirt freshman, Yeboah averaged 9.5 points and 5.1 rebounds per game and was named to the

America East The America East Conference (AmEast) is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with NCAA Division I whose members are located in the Northeastern United States. The conference is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1979, t ...

All-Freshman Team. He scored 21 points and had 16 rebounds in the first round of the America East Tournament in a 70–60 win against

Binghamton Binghamton ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of New York, and serves as the county seat of Broome County. Surrounded by rolling hills, it lies in the state's Southern Tier region near the Pennsylvania border, in a bowl-shaped valley at the con ...

. In his sophomore season, Yeboah averaged 15.3 points and 5.1 rebounds per game. He had nine 20-point games as a sophomore and was named to the Second Team All-America East. He scored a career-high 30 points to go with eight rebounds against Columbia on December 7, 2017. Yeboah averaged 20.4 points through the first 12 games of his junior season. On December 22, 2018, against

Quinnipiac The Quinnipiac were a historical Indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands. They lived in present-day New Haven County, Connecticut, along the Quinnipiac River. Their primary village, also called Quinnipiac, was where New Haven, Connect ...

, Yeboah suffered a hyperextended knee but returned to the lineup after missing a game. Yeboah averaged 16.7 points and 7.7 rebounds per game as a junior for the Seawolves while shooting 41.3 percent from the floor and 31.6 percent from three-point range. He was named to the First Team All-America East. In three seasons at Stony Brook, Yeboah scored 1,317 points, the sixth-most in program history.

Rutgers (2019–2020)

Yeboah entered the transfer portal in March 2019 as an impending graduate student, but retained his eligibility at Stony Brook for the 2019–20 season. He was listed as the 36th-best graduate transfer according to ''Stadium'''s Jeff Goodman. On May 2, 2019, Yeboah announced that he would transfer to Rutgers, reuniting with his former head coach Steve Pikiell and choosing the Scarlet Knights over SMU and

TCU TCU may stand for: Education * Tanzania Commission for Universities, regulatory body for Universities in Tanzania * Texas Christian University, a private university in Fort Worth, Texas ** TCU Horned Frogs, the athletic programs of the school * Tok ...

. He was eligible immediately as a graduate transfer. Pikiell called Yeboah "a huge addition to our program,” and he was a key piece in helping Rutgers have one of the best homecourt records and its first winning season since 2006. Yeboah scored 20 points, including a three-pointer to tie the game at 72 with two minutes to play, in a 75–72 win against

Nebraska Nebraska ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Ka ...

on January 26, 2020, and surpassed the 1,500-point milestone. In his senior season, Yeboah averaged 9.8 points and 4.8 rebounds per game and earned the

Big Ten The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference, among others) is a collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representatives in 1 ...

Sportsmanship Award.

Professional career

On August 12, 2020, Yeboah signed his first professional contract with

Saint-Quentin Saint-Quentin may refer to: Places Canada *Saint-Quentin, New Brunswick * Saint-Quentin Parish, New Brunswick * Saint-Quentin Island, in Trois-Rivières, in Québec France * Saint-Quentin, Aisne, in the Aisne department * Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines ...

of the French

LNB Pro B The LNB Pro B, commonly known as Pro B, is the second-tier level men's professional basketball league in France. It is the second division of the Ligue Nationale de Basket (LNB), which has organized the league since the year 1987. The regular se ...

. He averaged 12.0 points, 3.8 rebounds, 1.3 assists, and 1.0 steal per game. On August 3, 2021, Yeboah signed with

Saint-Chamond Basket Saint-Chamond Basket is a professional basketball club based in Saint-Chamond, France. The team currently plays in the Pro B, the second highest professional division in France. The team plays its home games at the Halle André Boulloche, which has ...

. On June 19, 2022, he has signed with Darüşşafaka of the Turkish

Basketbol Süper Ligi The Basketball Super League (; TBSL), also known as the Türkiye Sigorta Basketbol Süper Ligi for sponsorship reasons, is the top men's professional basketball division of the Turkish basketball league system. It replaced the former Turkish Bas ...

(BSL). On July 7, 2023, he signed with Galatasaray Ekmas of the

Basketball Super League Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

(BSL). On July 23, 2024, he signed with

of the

National team career

Yeboah competed for Great Britain on its U16, U18 and U20 teams. In the

2017 FIBA U20 European Championship Division B The 2017 FIBA U20 European Championship Division B was the 13th edition of the Division B of the FIBA U20 European basketball championship. It was played in Oradea, Romania, from 14 to 23 July 2017. 21 teams participated in the competition. The h ...

, he averaged 14.3 points, 4.7 rebounds, and 0.9 assists per game. Yeboah scored 22 points and collected 6 rebounds in the third-place game, an 81–65 win against Russia, and was named to the All-Star Five.

Career statistics

College

, - , style="text-align:left;", 2015–16 , style="text-align:left;", Stony Brook , style="text-align:center;" colspan="11",

Redshirt , - , style="text-align:left;", 2016–17 , style="text-align:left;", Stony Brook , 31 , , 10 , , 21.2 , , .372 , , .341 , , .797 , , 5.1 , , .6 , , .5 , , .5 , , 9.5 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2017–18 , style="text-align:left;", Stony Brook , 32 , , 31 , , 28.5 , , .452 , , .355 , , .803 , , 5.1 , , 1.4 , , .9 , , .2 , , 15.3 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2018–19 , style="text-align:left;", Stony Brook , 32 , , 31 , , 31.8 , , .413 , , .316 , , .785 , , 7.7 , , 1.4 , , .9 , , .5 , , 16.7 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2019–20 , style="text-align:left;",

, 31 , , 22 , , 23.8 , , .435 , , .352 , , .781 , , 4.8 , , .9 , , .8 , , .5 , , 9.8 , - class="sortbottom" , style="text-align:center;" colspan="2", Career , 126 , , 94 , , 26.4 , , .419 , , .338 , , .792 , , 5.7 , , 1.1 , , .7 , , .4 , , 12.9

References

External links

Rutgers Scarlet Knights bioStony Brook Seawolves bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Yeboah, Akwasi 1997 births Living people Basketball players from London Black British sportsmen British expatriate basketball people in France British expatriate basketball people in the United States British men's basketball players Galatasaray S.K. (men's basketball) players Ghanaian emigrants to the United Kingdom People from Chigwell Sportspeople from Sekondi-Takoradi Rutgers Scarlet Knights men's basketball players Small forwards Stony Brook Seawolves men's basketball players Saint-Quentin Basket-Ball players Pallacanestro Trapani players 21st-century British sportsmen