Completed Event: Men's Basketball at Baylor on October 10, 2025 , Loss , 74, to, 79
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at Baylor
L 74-79
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Grand Canyon University Athletics
Photo by: FIBA
Ouedraogo lifts France to World Cup silver
7/12/2021 10:55:00 AM | Men's Basketball, Paul Coro, Lopes Insider Blog
Lopes power forward led U19 national team to best-ever finish
If Yvan Ouedraogo's Grand Canyon career goes anything like his first public basketball as a Lope, GCU has landed a player who helps a team reach new heights.
Ouedraogo impacted France as a starter for his national team's best-ever finish, a silver medal, at the FIBA U19 Basketball World Cup this weekend in Riga, Latvia.
The 6-foot-9 power forward averaged 8.7 points, 7.7 rebounds and 1.3 steals in 23.2 minutes per game over seven World Cup contests. His rebounding average ranked 10th in the 16-team event, but the Bordeaux native played the second fewest minutes of players in the top 10. His offensive rebounding ranked third at 3.4 per game.
Ouedraogo shot 53.5% from the field and averaged a plus-10.3 per game for his team's scoring margin when he was on the court.
"This summer with the French national team will be an experience I'll never forget for the rest of my life," Ouedraogo said. "We only had five practices together as a team before the tournament because everybody was with their teams in the French professional league that was still going at the time. Despite this short preparation, we became a team really quickly and, even though we fell short in the final against the USA by two points, we still had a hell of a tournament and made history by being the first French team to become vice world champion."
In a role that emphasizes rebounding, screening, defense and running the floor, Ouedraogo performed consistently in the tournament with a physical inside presence but had a breakout game in a World Cup semifinal against Serbia on Saturday.
"It helped me a lot as a player," Ouedraogo said. "It was really important for me to be placed in a situation like that where I had a lot of responsibilities because I was named team captain and was able to play a lot of minutes to help my team reach that historic result."
France won a U19 World Cup semifinal game for the first time in history with Ouedraogo, 19, posting 11 points and 15 rebounds. The French had to rally from a 14-point deficit and Ouedraogo helped France overcome foul trouble to Victor Wembanyama, its 7-foot-2 star center who only played nine minutes.
Ouedraogo scored five points in a late third-quarter surge that brought France within four entering the fourth quarter, when he hit a turnaround jumper for a late 68-64 France lead.
"All of the good spirit of the team built this success," France head coach Frederic Crapez said in the postgame press conference.
France, ranked fourth in the tournament, nearly pulled off the upset in the Sunday final against the U.S. Ouedraogo gave France a better chance when he made a steal with the U.S. leading 83-78 and 1:21 to go.
The French rallied to within two and Ouedraogo defended a 15-foot jumper well into a miss, but France could not secure a rebound and a chance to tie with Wembanyama fouled out and Ouedraogo defending the play on the perimeter.
"They were more physical than we were," U.S. head coach Jamie Dixon, TCU's head coach, said in the postgame press conference. "I was amazed at how we got pushed around and their physicality and guarding the ball screens.
"We weren't on offensively but France had a big part to do with that."
Ouedraogo will be arriving in Phoenix soon for three seasons after transferring from Nebraska, where he started 34 games.
Ouedraogo impacted France as a starter for his national team's best-ever finish, a silver medal, at the FIBA U19 Basketball World Cup this weekend in Riga, Latvia.
The 6-foot-9 power forward averaged 8.7 points, 7.7 rebounds and 1.3 steals in 23.2 minutes per game over seven World Cup contests. His rebounding average ranked 10th in the 16-team event, but the Bordeaux native played the second fewest minutes of players in the top 10. His offensive rebounding ranked third at 3.4 per game.Ouedraogo shot 53.5% from the field and averaged a plus-10.3 per game for his team's scoring margin when he was on the court.
"This summer with the French national team will be an experience I'll never forget for the rest of my life," Ouedraogo said. "We only had five practices together as a team before the tournament because everybody was with their teams in the French professional league that was still going at the time. Despite this short preparation, we became a team really quickly and, even though we fell short in the final against the USA by two points, we still had a hell of a tournament and made history by being the first French team to become vice world champion."
In a role that emphasizes rebounding, screening, defense and running the floor, Ouedraogo performed consistently in the tournament with a physical inside presence but had a breakout game in a World Cup semifinal against Serbia on Saturday.
"It helped me a lot as a player," Ouedraogo said. "It was really important for me to be placed in a situation like that where I had a lot of responsibilities because I was named team captain and was able to play a lot of minutes to help my team reach that historic result."
France won a U19 World Cup semifinal game for the first time in history with Ouedraogo, 19, posting 11 points and 15 rebounds. The French had to rally from a 14-point deficit and Ouedraogo helped France overcome foul trouble to Victor Wembanyama, its 7-foot-2 star center who only played nine minutes.
Ouedraogo scored five points in a late third-quarter surge that brought France within four entering the fourth quarter, when he hit a turnaround jumper for a late 68-64 France lead.
"All of the good spirit of the team built this success," France head coach Frederic Crapez said in the postgame press conference.
France, ranked fourth in the tournament, nearly pulled off the upset in the Sunday final against the U.S. Ouedraogo gave France a better chance when he made a steal with the U.S. leading 83-78 and 1:21 to go.
The French rallied to within two and Ouedraogo defended a 15-foot jumper well into a miss, but France could not secure a rebound and a chance to tie with Wembanyama fouled out and Ouedraogo defending the play on the perimeter.
"They were more physical than we were," U.S. head coach Jamie Dixon, TCU's head coach, said in the postgame press conference. "I was amazed at how we got pushed around and their physicality and guarding the ball screens.
"We weren't on offensively but France had a big part to do with that."
Ouedraogo will be arriving in Phoenix soon for three seasons after transferring from Nebraska, where he started 34 games.
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