Prospect Highlight: Noa Essengue 2006 FRA Ulm
Noa Essengue made headlines last summer when he left PFYM/INSEP for ratiopharm Ulm on a multi-year contract. The 2006-born talent has already started leaving his mark in Germany - even in the EuroCup.
Noa Essengue rose the ranks of prospects in France and became one of the top talents in the 2006 class, starring for the famed French academy PFYM INSEP. This off-season, the forward elected to leave INSEP with one year of eligibility remaining and had two main destinations from which to choose - ratiopharm Ulm in Germany and LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne.
Essengue looked at the ever-improving track history of Ulm and decided to head to southwest Germany on a multi-year contract. Essengue has lived up to his star status as he not only gets accustomed to the culture in Germany but the playing style and level as well. He has already started dominating in the German third division ProB.
Essengue grew up in the central French city of Orleans with a math teacher as mother. He started playing in the French U15 league during the 2019-20 season as a 12-year-old with CTC Orleans Metropole Basket. Essengue turned 13 in December of 2019.
Essengue spent one more year with CTC Orleans before moving in 2021 to Paris and join the Pole France YM - INSEP program, the famed institution which produced most of France’s former great players and still develops much of the country’s top talents.
During the 2021-22 season, Essengue played two games in France’s third league NM1 - picking up 3 points, 1 rebound and 1 block in 18 combined minutes.
INSEP also allowed him to play with ASVEL at the Adidas Next Generation Tournament Finals in May 2022 and he picked up 2 points, 4 rebounds and 2 steals in 13 total minutes of two games at age 15 in a U18 competition.
Essengue was just whetting the appetite of basketball observers and then he played for France at the FIBA U16 European Championship 2022, where he helped the country finish third, losing to Spain in the Semi-Finals but then rebounding and knocking off Greece in the Third Place Game.
Essengue finished second on the France team with 13.0 points and 5.7 rebounds while ranking third in steals at 2.1 per game to go with 1.3 assists. Essengue struggled with the three-pointer, making just 2-of-11 for 18.2 percent. His top game was in the Quarter-Finals win over Italy, where France rallied from 16 points down and won 84-77.
Against the Italians, Essengue collected 22 points - hitting 9-of-12 two-pointers but missing both of his three-pointers and making just 4-of-11 free throws (he shot just 54.8 percent from the foul line in the tournament) - while also picking up 11 rebounds - 7 of them from the offensive glass - 3 assists, 1 steal and 2 blocks with just 1 turnover in 34 minutes.
Buoyed by his outstanding performance at the continental level, Essengue went into his first full year with Pole France/INSEP’s first team in the French third division NM1.
It took about a month for Essengue to really start playing his game - he did not turn 16 until December 18. During a seven-game stretch from November 29 and January 7, he averaged 10.3 points on 56.4 percent shooting on two-pointers, 31.3 percent (5/16) on threes and 46.4 percent (13/28) on free throws and 2.0 rebounds.
Essengue added a 21 point game in mid-February against Chartres, making 6-of-8 shots and 9-of-12 free throws and finished the season with two strong games. Against Hyeres-Toulon, he tallied 13 points on 6-of-10 shots and 1-of-3 free throws while matching season highs with 8 rebounds and 2 assists. And against Kaysersberg, Essengue made 6-of-13 two-pointers, 1-of-2 threes and all four of his free throws for 19 points to go with 5 rebounds, 1 assist, 3 steals and 1 block.
Essengue’s 2022-23 season also was highlighted by the ANGT Belgrade tournament where he starred for PFYM INSEP, collecting 13.8 points, 8.5 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 2.0 steals - though he made just 1-of-11 three-pointers (9.1 percent) and 8-of-18 free throws (44.4 percent).
PFYM lost in their final group stage game to Mega Belgrade 66-63 but Essengue had his best game with 14 points, 13 rebounds, 2 assists and 5 steals.
Those performances resulted in Essengue being named to the All-Star Five of the tournament.
The showing also rose his stock even more. Players at INSEP usually stay for all three years of their eligibility but Essengue was drawing interest from other clubs. In addition to ASVEL, with whom he had played at the ANGT Finals in 2022, German top flight side ratiopharm Ulm were thinking about bringing on Essengue, who would say good to Pole France/INSEP in the summer of 2023.
Not much needs to be said about ASVEL - though there was an at least curious, let’s call it “trend” to leave ASVEL if you were a young talent - Victor Wembanyama, Matthew Strazel, Kymany Houinsou, Kilian Malwaya and Kenny Kasiama all left the club in 2022.
Ulm meanwhile were seeing more and more young talent come into their program from outside of Germany - and that being high level prospects. In 2019, it was French budding star Killian Hayes at age 18. In 2021, Montenegro prospect Fedor Zugic - the youngest player in EuroLeague history - signed just before his 18th birthday. Last season saw Spanish elite point guard Juan Nunez join the club at 19 as well as 17-year-old France talent Pacome Dadiet.
Another big factor for Essengue was that Yann Balikouzou is his agent, and he brought Hayes and Dadiet to Ulm.
So, it shouldn’t have been a surprise that Essengue and Ulm joined forces on a multi-year contract instead of the 16-year-old emerging star heading to ASVEL.
Ulm’s youth program director Chris Ensminger is impressed with the team’s next talent coming out of France.
“What we are seeing in France at the moment, especially in the youth development, is this outstanding athleticism with a lot of length. You cannot train that,” Ensminger said in an article in the Südwest Presse (Subscription required).”
“Noa is a big player, but he is still extremely mobile and agile. That makes him versatile and he can play different positions. The game outside of Europe is trending towards that style of basketball, and that’s what makes French talents with these skills so interesting.”
Ulm knew Essengue could need some time.
“It is naturally a big step for a young talent like Noa,” Ensminger added. “A new culture, new language, new team.”
The day after Essengue signed with Ulm, Essengue started the FIBA U18 European Championship 2023 in Nis, Serbia. Despite playing one year younger, he performed well, averaging 10.6 points - second-best on France’s team - to go with 4.3 rebounds, 1.0 assists and 1.1 steals.
The tournament ended in disappointment for Essengue and France. They won their first five games but then lost to Spain 70-58 in the Semi-Finals and ended up falling to Germany 67-59 in the Third Place Game to leave Serbia empty-handed. Essengue’s best game came in the Round of 16 against Poland as he tallied 20 points with 8 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 steal and 1 block.
“U18 euro - Not a failure, just a step…,” Essengue said on his Instagram.
Now it was time for Essengue to head to his new home Germany. Ulm gave him a double license to play in the BBL as well as the ProB third division.
Essengue lives alone in Ulm, cooking for himself while also taking classes online to finish his high school equivalency. He studies whenever he can - in the morning, afternoon or evening.
“It’s just a matter of organization,” Essengue said in the SWP article.
The youngster however will be happy once he is done with school, adding: “I want to concentrate on basketball.”
The SWP article says Essengue calls his mother back in Orleans almost every day.
Besides basketball, Essengue also is big fan of the Japanese manga series Haikyu, according to the SWP article. The main character of Haikyu is Shoyo Hinata, who becomes a great superstar volleyball player after working together with a former rival.
Essengue has been a quick learner on the court in Germany. In the ProB, he started with 15 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 steals in his first game. Two days later, Ulm rewarded Essengue for his work with 10 minutes in the first EuroCup game of the season, and he picked up 7 points and 3 rebounds against Trento.
The French talent’s main focus has been on the ProB with OrangeAcademy, and he has shown why he is considered one of the best 2006-born players in Europe.
He collected 25 points, 9 rebounds, 3 steals and 3 blocks in his second game and flashed his improved long range shooting on October 22 with 5-of-9 three-pointers in scoring 33 points to go with 14 rebounds against Schwenningen.
Essengue scored 29 points with 11 rebounds against Leitershofen and picked up 15 points and 18 rebounds versus Speyer - his third of five double-doubles thus far. Essengue even flirted with a triple-double on December 21 with 20 points, 11 rebounds and 8 blocks versus Breitengüßbach.
All told, Essengue is averaging 20.5 points, 10.2 rebounds, 2.3 assists, 2.0 steals, 1.8 blocks and 2.7 turnovers in 32 minutes in the ProB. He is shooting only 27.1 percent (13/48) on three-pointers and converting only 57.1 percent (60/105) on free throws.
The talent has appeared in four EuroCup games, picking up 15 points, 8 rebounds, 2 assists and 2 blocks in 36 combined minutes.
Ulm gave Essengue an early birthday present on December 17 as he played 2:37 minutes in his debut in the easyCredit BBL. One day before turning 17, Essengue blocked one shot on the road against FC Bayern Munich.
Essengue still has plenty of his first season left to prove himself even more - the calendar hasn’t even turned to 2024 yet. But he has already shown more than just glimpses of the stardom that many expect could come.
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