ST. MARY’S CITY, Md. — Yassine Idrissa, a 6-6 first-year forward from Rockville, has stormed onto the St. Mary’s College of Maryland men’s basketball scene, snagging D3hoops.com Region 4 Rookie of the Year honors on March 18, 2025. The T.S. Wootton grad didn’t stop there—Third Team All-Region 4 nods cemented his breakout season, making him just the second Seahawk to claim the rookie crown after Christian MacAuley in 2011 and the first all-region pick since Nick LaGuerre in 2015.
Idrissa’s trophy case was already gleaming. On March 5, he scooped up United East Conference Defensive Player of the Year and Rookie of the Year awards, plus a Second Team All-United East spot. His stat line tells the tale: a conference-best 2.5 blocks per game—13th in Division III—paired with 8.0 rebounds (sixth) and a .731 free-throw clip (11th). Across D-III’s 400-plus teams, per NCAA stats, his 66 blocks rank 14th, a wall in the paint for a St. Mary’s squad that finished 14-12 (10-6 UEC) and nabbed the No. 5 seed in the United East Championship.
The numbers dazzle. Idrissa logged seven double-doubles and hit double-digit scoring in 21 of 26 games. December 7 saw him erupt for a career-high 20 points against Valley Forge, while January 18 brought 14 rebounds against Lancaster Bible. His defensive peak? Eight blocks at Notre Dame of Maryland on December 4, a two-time United East Defensive Player of the Week flex. At 6-6, he’s a matchup nightmare—long, relentless, and clutch from the line.
St. Mary’s leaned on Idrissa’s spark for its third winning season in four years. The Seahawks’ 14-12 mark—a step up from 2023-24’s 11-15, per team archives—showed grit in a conference where every rebound counts. Coach Chris Harney’s crew turned heads, and Idrissa, barely a semester in, became the cornerstone. Only MacAuley’s 2011 rookie nod matches this feat in program history; LaGuerre’s 2015 all-region run was the last echo of such buzz.
D3hoops.com’s Region 4 spans Maryland to Virginia—dozens of schools—and Idrissa’s haul stacks him among the elite. His 66 blocks dwarfed league peers, and those seven double-doubles signal a star in the making. Next season looms, but for now, St. Mary’s basks in a freshman phenom who’s rewriting the record books, one swat at a time.
