DME Basketball’s Gaeton Wafo Capitalizing on Opportunity at SJN
Delafield, Wis. (Jan. 23, 2026) – All Luc Mbah a Moute wants to do is extend a hand, just like how a hand reached out and changed his life.
Mbah a Moute, a native of Cameroon in Africa, played 13 seasons in the NBA, including six seasons with the Milwaukee Bucks. That wouldn’t have been possible if it weren’t for someone who gave him the opportunity to leave his homeland for the U.S. to play basketball. By doing so, he was able to land a scholarship to play basketball at UCLA before being drafted by the Bucks in 2008.
These days, he’s helping gifted basketball players and gifted people achieve their dreams, including Gaeton Wafo of DME Basketball at St. John’s Northwestern.
Wafo is a 7-foot-1 center from Cameroon. This season, he is averaging 4 points per game, 5 rebounds per game, and 1 block per game. But his best performance of the season came Jan. 17 during a tournament in Florida, where he posted 19 points, 17 rebounds, 2 blocks, and 2 steals.
“He’s improved a ton this season,” said Patrick Hurley, assistant coach for DME.
Wafo is in his second year in the U.S. He moved from Cameroon to Boston in 2024 and then moved to St. John’s Northwestern at the beginning of the 2025-26 school year. He is a junior with DME, but DME coach Ben Wisniewski said Wafo will likely be a popular recruit in next year’s recruiting cycle.
The DME Basketball Program at SJN is a dynamic collaboration. DME is one of the leading basketball training academies in the nation, with more than 35 Division I signees in the past three years and a history of cultivating future NBA talent. This program offers a distinctive opportunity for qualified high school student-athletes to leverage the outstanding structure and brick-and-mortar academic excellence of SJN alongside a formidable basketball program.
Recent success stories include Tiefing Diawara, a freshman at Syracuse from Mali, and Kruz McClure, a freshman at DePaul.
So, what is Wafo’s potential?
When Wafo was younger, Mbah a Moute said Wafo’s size and skill set drew some similarities to Kevin Durant, a future NBA Hall of Famer. But, just as important to his basketball skill set, Mbah a Moute praises Wafo’s character.
“He’s a really good kid,” Mbah a Moute said. “He’s a really smart kid, a good person.”
Having that combination is important for Mbah a Moute in that he seeks to extend his hand and give opportunities for players just like him, 20-plus years ago.
“It’s very important to me,” he said. “A lot of people don’t get that chance. It’s very meaningful to me.”
And, in today’s college sports era with name, image, and likeness, or NIL, opportunities, players like Wafo have a chance to make a life-changing impact on their lives and many other lives back home much sooner. NIL deals for $100,000, for example, can be life-changing and set up loved ones back home for great success.
“It’s life-changing money,” Mbah a Moute said. “It would’ve inspired me.”
Wafo said there are many challenges for families in Cameroon. Mbah a Moute pointed to holes in infrastructure that make it hard for people with an interest in basketball and talent to learn and develop, despite the sport’s growing interest in the country.
Because of the pathway Mbah a Moute helped create, it inspired players like Wafo believe a dream is attainable.
“It’s very inspiring,” Wafo said. “It showed me that if they can do it, I can do it too.”
Other players Mbah a Moute has helped bring to the U.S. include Pascal Siakam, the 27th pick of the 2016 NBA Draft, and Landry Nnoko, the 2017-18 NBA G-League Defensive Player of the Year. His most notable find is Joel Embiid, the third pick of the 2014 NBA Draft.
“It pushes me (to succeed), especially if I get really good (in basketball),” Wafo said.
Mbah a Moute believes Wafo has a tremendous future ahead of him, and with him being at DME a SJN, he’s “well situated” for success – both athletically and academically.
Wafo’s favorite NBA players include Victor Wembanyama of the San Antonio Spurs, Nikola Jokic, and Giannis Antetokounmpo.
When asked the controversial question of who is the greatest of all time, LeBron or Michael Jordan, he said, “LeBron.”
Wafo said adjusting to life in the U.S. has been hard at times, such as being able to speak fluent English. But he’s also learned how to adjust to the different style of play. Hoops in the U.S. tends to be played at a higher pace with a bit more physicality than in most overseas countries.
There have also been challenges in the classroom. But said he enjoys the classes he takes at SJN, including history and algebra. He likes his teachers, too.
His favorite teacher is Mr. Ken Oxendorf, his algebra teacher.
“He’s attentive and not afraid to ask questions and hard working all the time,” Oxendorf said. “He’s constantly doing everything he can and (I) enjoy having him in class.”
The other part he enjoys about being at St. John’s Northwestern is the connection with his teammates and roommate. Wafo hasn’t been home since moving to the U.S. and admits there are times it gets difficult.
“It’s not easy,” he said.
But he is grateful for the friendships on the team as well as his classmates in class. It makes it feel closer to home, even though home is more than 6,000 miles away.
About SJN
St. John’s Northwestern is a safe, structured environment that provides each student a foundation for life with specialized programs that are built with future aspirations in mind. SJN is a private co-ed college preparatory boarding and day school and is accepting applications for grades 7-12 and post-graduate. Learn more at stjohnsnorthwestern.org.