The Rutgers men’s basketball team has struggled to consistently knock down jumpers and head coach Steve Pikiell hopes Akwasi Yeboah can help in that regard.
Yeboah is a graduate transfer from Stony Brook. Pikiell originally recruited Yeboah to Stony Brook before he left to be the leader of the Scarlet Knights.
And for his final collegiate season, Yeboah opted to join him in Piscataway.
“It’s been great honestly. It’s a credit to my teammates, coach Pikiell, and the support staff which all helped me settle in and get used to the environment. It’s been good,” Yeboah recently told TKR. “I’m enjoying the facilities and my teammates and classes are going well.”
In the past, Yeboah has said he wanted to play basketball at a high level and liked the trajectory that the Scarlet Knights are headed in.
Of course, Pikiell played a big role in him coming to Rutgers, too.
“It was just a great balance. The relationship I had with coach Pikiell because he recruited me to Stony Brook definitely played into it,” Yeboah said. “It was just familiarity and being comfortable.”
New to the team, Yeboah and the rest of the team embarked on a trip overseas to Spain and it was there he got to learn more about his teammates and everyone surrounding the program.
“It was cool. It was a great team bonding experience,” Yeboah said. “We got used to each other on the court and off the court.”
Standing at 6-foot-6, and 230-pounds, Yeboah is versatile. He can not only guard bigger opponents, but he can also handle the ball and shoot it from deep.
His teammates are much of the same.
“We’re very versatile,” Yeboah said. “I feel like we have a deep team and we’re all interchangeable with the positions so it makes us dangerous on both ends of the floor, defensively and offensively.”
The last two seasons, Yeboah was the leading scorer for the Seawolves. Last year, he led the team with 16.7 points and 7.7 rebounds per game while shooting 41.3 percent from the field, 78.5 percent from the free-throw line and 31.6 percent from 3-point distance when he was asked to do more all around. He has career deep shooting average of 33.5 percent.
This year, Rutgers and teams all around will be playing on a court which features the international 3-point line of 22 feet. While the majority of team has struggled with keeping their feet behind the line and with stepping out of bounds in the corners, Yeboah, who played with that distance growing up in England, hasn’t been phased by it.
“Probably the easiest adjustment was for him. The biggest thing is the sideline. There’s not as much room on those sidelines with line being pushed back. We stepped out of bounds a lot (in Spain),” Pikiell said. “That’s been the biggest adjustment, guys stepping out of bounds trying to get into the corner threes. Kwasi has no problem with that. He’s ready to launch no matter where his feet are.”
Follow Chris Nalwasky on Twitter @ChrisWasky.
