Abdoul Karim Coulibaly

Abdoul Karim Coulibaly (born 23 December 2000) is a Malian college basketball player for the UMass Lowell River Hawks of the America East Conference. He previously played for the Pittsburgh Panthers and the St. Bonaventure Bonnies. Coulibaly is also a member of the Mali national basketball team.

Early life and high school career
Coulibaly grew up in Bamako and played soccer before switching to basketball at age 13, immediately excelling in the new sport. He moved to the United States at the age of 14 and attended the Scotland Performance Institute in Scotland, Pennsylvania. As a senior, he averaged 15.6 points and 11.4 rebounds per game on a team that finished 36–2. Coulibaly earned 2019 Mid-Atlantic Conference Player of the Year honors. He scored over 1,000 points and led the school all-time in scoring, rebounds, single-game points (42) and single-game rebounds (22).

College career
Coulibaly played sparingly as a freshman and averaged 2.7 points and 1.7 rebounds per game. He increased his scoring to 4.9 points per game over the past eight games. Coulibaly thought that he did not improve much due to a poor work ethic, and struggled with errors in translation as his native language is Bambara. On 23 January 2021, he scored a career-high 15 points in a 76–75 loss to Wake Forest. As a sophomore, Coulibaly averaged 5.2 points and 3.9 rebounds per game. Following the season, he transferred to St. Bonaventure, choosing the Bonnies over Georgetown, Arizona State, Wichita State, Butler, VCU, George Washington, Marshall, and Bradley. He averaged 3.7 points and 1.7 rebounds per game as a junior. Coulibaly transferred to UMass Lowell following the season. As a senior, he averaged 11.4 points and 7.6 rebounds per game. Coulibaly was named to the Second Team All-America East Conference.

U19 national team
Coulibaly has represented Mali in several international competitions. He averaged 13 points and 11 rebounds per game to lead Mali to the FIBA U-18 African Championship in 2018. In July 2019, he competed for the Mali team that won a silver medal at the FIBA U19 World Cup. Coulibaly averaged 13.1 points, 6.9 rebounds, 2.4 assists and 2.1 steals per game. In the gold medal game against the United States, he scored 17 points and had three blocks.

Senior national team
Coulibaly was selected for the Mali senior team to play at AfroBasket 2021. In 17 minutes per game, he averaged 5.7 points.