Eastern Michigan’s men’s basketball team has seen many additions to the program in recent years and Boubacar Toure has been one to standout amongst the rest. The Senegal native is a 7’0” center who made his way to EMU in 2018. Before his arrival to Eastern Michigan, Toure played collegiate basketball at Grand Canyon University. He started his career as a redshirt freshman during the 2015-16 season.
Toure averaged 4.4 points and 3.8 rebounds over the course of eight games. He also had a breakout performance during that time in which he scored a career-high 14 points against Black Hills State University. Toure’s college basketball career had come to a brief pause as he was sidelined for the rest of the season due to an injury. The 2016-17 season was his last season with the Antelopes before heading to Eastern Michigan University. Much like the previous season, an injury kept him from seeing action during his final year at Grand Canyon.
In 2018-19, Toure arrived at EMU with two years of eligibility. He was one of four new additions to the team last year. Toure had an impressive first season with the Eagles. He played in 31 games, having the opportunity to start in 26 of those. Over the course of 31 games, Toure averaged 24.5 minutes. He also became the first EMU basketball player to record back-to-back double-doubles to start his career since former EMU and NBA player, George Gervin did in his 1971-72 season. Toure led the MAC in field goal percentage by shooting 65% from the floor. By the end of the season, he averaged 8.6 points and 7.8 rebounds a game.
“Boubacar has shown that he can be a really good scorer consistently. He’s able to shoot from the free-throw line in now, he’s able to play from the mid-post and obviously, if he gets you on the block, he has a right and left hand hook that’s promising,” said head coach Rob Murphy. “With Boubacar being the only low post threat, he’ll get a lot more touches. If he can stay on the floor 25-30 minutes, I could see his scoring and rebounding output double.”
Toure’s first career-high in scoring with the Eagles came about on Nov. 26 against TCU when he scored 20 points. It was his seventh career start for EMU and he played 31 minutes. He also shot 60 percent from the floor along with pulling down 12 rebounds. He recorded back-to-back double-doubles in the first two games of the season on Nov. 5 and Nov. 9. The Eagles played Rochester on Nov. 5 when Toure made his first start with the team. He put up 15 points and also pulled down 15 rebounds.
Toure has shown that he has what it takes to be a dominant big man and glass-eater. During the 2018-19 season, he pulled down a season-high 16 rebounds on Mar. 2 against Northern Illinois. Along with 16 rebounds, he also scored 12 points which notched his eighth double-double of the season. He pulled down double-figures in rebounds 10 times throughout the season. He also scored double digits 14 times last season.
Murphy has high hopes for Toure’s senior year.
“Boubacar has had a really good summer. I think he’ll be one of the better big men in our conference and one of the better big men in the country. He should be the best defender in our conference,” Murphy said. “Right now, he’s improved every part of his game and we’re looking for him to have a huge year. He’s extremely confident and he’s a senior, the lone senior on this team, so he wants to go out with a bang.”
The Eagles begin their season on Nov. 8 against Siena Heights at the Convocation Center.
