Sali Kourouma was already well-traveled when she committed to the Arizona Wildcats last year. She will continue that journey next season at Oregon. The forward announced her commitment to the Ducks on Saturday afternoon.
Kourouma was injured in the final seconds of the Wildcats’ second exhibition game against Point Loma Nazarene. Arizona had just five available players until the injury.
Kourouma appeared in 13 games before electing to undergo shoulder surgery that kept her out for the rest of the season. She ended the year with 9.5 points, 3.3 rebounds, 0.8 assists, 1.2 steals, 1.2 personal fouls, and 1.4 turnovers in 21 minutes per game.
Kourouma came to the U.S. from Mali in 2017 to play high school basketball but ran into issues at her school in the Phoenix area. According to reports, the academic part of the equation was not stable. So, she moved to Wichita, Kan. to finish high school.
Kourouma had an ACL tear her senior year of high school, then spent two years at Grayson College in Texas.
Her next stop was Arkansas-Little Rock where she was All-Sunbelt second team her first year and Ohio Valley Player of the Year her second year.
The Ducks missed the NCAA Tournament for the second straight season in 2023-24, finishing 11-21 and 2-16 in the Pac-12. One of those conference wins came against the Wildcats. They will move to the Big Ten next year.
