Grand Canyon men’s basketball completed next season’s roster Thursday with a bang, signing a top-100 prospect from the high school class of 2024.
Sammie Yeanay, a 6-foot-4, 230-pound forward from AZ Compass Prep in Chandler, signed with the Lopes. GCU no longer has scholarships available for next season.
Yeanay signed with Arizona State. But in late May he decommitted from the Sun Devils, who signed five-star guard Joson Sanon, after he decommitted to Arizona.
ASU is bringing in two offensive linemen through the transfer portal in Brandon Gardner from USC and BJ Freeman from Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
Yeanay, who played one year at AZ Compass Prep after moving from Gainesville, Fla., had offers from Florida, Alabama and Houston, among others. After next season, the Lopes will leave the Western Athletic Conference for the West Coast Conference, which features Gonzaga.
“It’s an incredible accomplishment for them,” said Pete Kaffey, coach and director of AZ Compass Prep.
Kaffey knew immediately when he first saw Yeanay play that he was a great college basketball player, with his ability to crash the boards and extend his game out there.
“He’s a versatile 4 who can play on the perimeter, shoot 3s, rebound really well, can play small ball 5,” Kaffey said. “Very versatile.”
Yeanay is ranked 90th in the country in the 2024 class by ESPN. He is ranked No. 94 by 247Sports, listed as a four-star recruit.
With Yeanay joining the Lopes, the team is now down to 14 players for the 2024-25 season as it attempts to make three consecutive trips to the NCAA tournament under head coach Bryce Drew.
They return five of their six best players: starters Tyon Grant-Foster (the WAC Player of the Year), Ray Harrison, Collin Moore and Duke Brennan, and sixth man Lok Wur. They also return guard Malcolm Flaggs, who came from ASU with his best friend Brennan last year.
Guard Caleb Shaw, who spent last season as a redshirt after transferring from Northern Colorado, returns to play.
Yeanay joins newcomers Dennis Evans (7-1 transfer to Louisville), JaKobe Coles (6-8 transfer to TCU), Traivar Jackson (6-6 transfer to Tarleton State), Makaiah Williams (6-6 transfer -2 to UT Arlington, where he was the WAC Freshman of the Year last season), Styles Phipps (6-2 guard from Phoenix St. Mary’s High, where he made All-Arizona) and Austin Mauer (7-foot from Cascade Christian High, where he was the Gatorade Oregon High School Player of the Year last season).
GCU will miss forward Gabe McGlothan, a key player in the team’s success over the past four seasons. Yeanay has a chance to fill that void.
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This article originally appeared in the Arizona Republic: GCU Completes Roster Signing of Top 100 Prospects Sammie Yeanay
