Settimo Yugu heading south to pursue his aspirations of making NBA

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Published Aug 01, 2025 • 4 minute read

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Basketball wunderkind Settimo Yugu, 16, plans to play elite prep basketball in the United States. Photo by Carey lauder /Submitted photoArticle content

For Manitoba’s Provincial 17U basketball coach Dan Becker, Settimo Yugu is a “unique player.”

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“He’s about 6-foot-9, very long, very skilled, very versatile, very smart,” said Becker. “You know, very unique for our province. He’s got a lot of upside. He’s a starter for us heading into the Canada Games (the male basketball tournament runs from Aug. 10-16) and he was a starter for us last summer, too. He’s definitely one of our leaders this year.

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“Then, in the fall, he’s going to CIA Bella Vista College Prep in Phoenix, Ariz. It’s a big Prep school. They play in the Nike Elite Youth Basketball (EYBL) Scholastic League, which is the biggest prep league in the U.S. It’s going to be quite an opportunity.”

Settimo Yugu is a star. Last season, along with his Team Manitoba teammate Terry Ogbeide, Yugu led the Kildonan East Reivers to an undefeated 23-0 campaign in 2024-25. They beat Dakota 67-52 in the MHSAA Championship tournament final as Yugu was named the tournament’s Most Valuable Player and Ogbeide was selected as a tournament all-star.

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But according to Yugu, who just completed his Grade 11 season, the 2024-25 campaign was going to be his last at Kildonan East. He was already planning to play elite prep basketball in the United States before the undefeated season began.

“One of the founders of Uplay, Dwayne Washington, made me an offer to play on his AAU team out in Toronto,” Yugu explained. “And then he found out that I didn’t have a school to go to next year. So, he offered me a school in Phoenix called Bella Vista. He said, just come out here, just go and play.

“I wasn’t planning to go back to Kildonan East for my last year. My plan all along was to play Prep school ball in the States. So, after going undefeated, high school was done. It was a storybook ending.”

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Despite his size and skill, Yugu is just 16-years-old. Born in Beirut, Lebanon, he came to Canada 2010 with his parents Batista and Sylvia, when he was just a toddler, so his transition to a new home across the world was never difficult for him.

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“My dad played a little bit of basketball,” Yugu said. “I just always found it very fun. Coming to Canada was never an issue for me. It was just a little kid running around the house and I didn’t know what was going on, so it was easy to adapt.”

It’s going to be a huge jump for Yugu who had thought about leaving Winnipeg last year but decided to stay simply because his parents felt he needed one more year at home. Now, his mom and dad are feeling good about the move even though their son is stepping into an incredibly competitive, fast and skilled level of basketball.

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The EYBL bills itself as “a highly-competitive basketball circuit known for developing future NBA players.” NBA MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the Knicks’ Jalen Brunson, Boston’s Jayson Tatum, Miami Heat centre Bam Adebayo, Lakers forward Anthoy Davis, Atlanta’s high-scoring point guard Trae Young and Sacramento star De’Aaron Fox all played in the EYBL.

Interestingly, not one American player was on last season’s Bella Vista roster. There were six from Toronto and one each from Angola, Senegal, Cameroon and Australia. It was a team that went 9-2 and shared the conference regular season title with Brewster Academy from Wolfeboro, N.H., and Wasatch Academy from Mt. Pleasant, Utah.

It will be a pressure packed environment for a guy who just led his local high school team to a perfect season.

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“Our team was fun,” said Yugu, who calls his dad and Attack Basketball’s program director Sukhvir Singh as his biggest infuences. “The day I walked into that school, I knew we were going to do something special. I actually knew some of those guys when they were little, so I knew we were going to be really good. In Grade 9 and 10, we took our losses, but last year, in Grade 11, we knew it was our year. We all just locked in and knew we were going to win.”

Of course, before he heads off to Bella Vista, he and Ogbeide will represent Manitoba at the 2025 Canada Summer Games in St. John’s, NL.

Last year, Manitoba finished fifth, this year, head coach Dan Becker and his assistants Scott Martin and Thendo Magugumela are hoping to break into the Top 4 with the likes of Ontario, B.C. and Quebec. “I think we’re going to do very good,” said Yugu, who played his club ball in the city with Attack Basketball. “A couple guys from last year stepped up. We have a very good team. I’ve been playing with this squad for almost like four years now and with the chemistry we’ve built, I think we should be able to go to the medal round and then who knows what will happen.”

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Settimo Yugu heading south to pursue his aspirations of making NBA

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