Yacoubou ready for big things at 'Nova
Long Island Lutheran's Achraf Yacoubou helped his team win a Federation title is now headed to Villanova. Credit: Jillian Lifson
Weakness isn't a word in Achraf Yacoubou's vocabulary.
The 6-5 guard, who led Long Island Lutheran to its second Federation Class A basketball title in the last three years, is the Nassau player of the year. And as good as he is, he might only get better.
According to one prominent college recruiting profile, scouts grade Yacoubou at 92 of 100. A solid mark, but still some room to improve.
The Villanova-bound standout proved his value in the Federation semifinal against Jamesville DeWitt's 6-10 blue-chip center Dajuan Coleman. Coleman powered DeWitt to a big first-half lead, but he wore down in the second half when Yacoubou helped provide relentless defense against him. Lutheran rallied down the stretch and stunned the four-time Class A public school champion, 75-71.
Yacoubou is a streaky shooter with range to the three-point arc. He averaged 19.5 points, and improving his shooting consistency will no doubt help his college game.
The Gatorade player of the year in New York and co-Mr. Basketball (with Mount Vernon's Jabarie Hinds) worked relentlessly in the offseason to sharpen his perimeter touch. He finished tied for 13th on Long Island with 51 three-pointers, including three big ones against DeWitt.
And if there's a guy who knows how to handle the ball, it's Yacoubou. Whether it's corralling it off the glass (9.7 rebounds per game), dishing it off (2.5 assists), or swiping it (2.8 steals), Yacoubou knows what to do.
Just ask his high school coach, or soon-to-be college coach.
"This is a young man who is very well prepared to play in the Big East," Villanova's Jay Wright wrote in an email to Newsday.
"He does what we need him to do," said Lutheran coach John Buck, a former walk-on at Wake Forest who knows something about big-time college basketball. "He can shoot, dribble, rebound, guard a center and guard a point guard."
So if scouts think there's still room for Yacoubou to improve, that could only be bad news for future opponents.
