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The NCAA basketball tournaments are a strange phenomenon. Apart from a relatively small pocket of diehards, almost nobody pays attention to college hoops — until mid-March, when it suddenly becomes the most talked-about sport in North America for a bit.
The key to March Madness, of course, is the single-elimination format, which cranks up the importance of every game and lends itself perfectly to low-stakes gambling. It’s amazing how emotionally invested you can become in some random Vanderbilt vs. McNeese State matchup taking place on a neutral court in Oklahoma on a weekday afternoon, simply because you filled out a bracket and threw 20 bucks into your office pool.
If you’re not the gambling type (and lord knows we need more people like you right now) there are other ways to derive enjoyment from the men’s and women’s tournaments — such as cheering for the top Canadian players. So, here’s a look at who to follow as the 64-team men’s bracket tips off Thursday, followed by the women’s on Friday.
Men’s
According to the Canadian website BasketballBuzz, which does a great job of tracking this sort of thing, a total of 168 Canadians suited up for NCAA Division I men’s teams this season, making our country by far the largest exporter of college basketball talent. And 36 Canadians are rostered by teams competing in the tournament, up from 20 last year and shattering the record of 30 set in 2022.
Two of them play for defending champion Florida, which is ranked fourth overall (behind Duke, Arizona and Michigan) and is the No. 1 seed in the South Region, where the Gators will face the winner of tonight’s play-in game between little Prairie View A&M and Lehigh on Friday night.
Xaivian Lee, a senior guard from Toronto, started all 33 games this season while averaging 11.5 points and about four assists after transferring from Princeton, where he spent the previous three years. But the most famous Canadian on Florida’s roster is 7-foot-9 centre Olivier Rioux, a redshirt freshman from Terrebonne, Que., who in November became the tallest person ever to get on the court in an NCAA basketball game when he checked into the Gators’ blowout win over North Florida. A cult favourite who wears a size 20 shoe and consumes more than 5,000 calories a day, Rioux made cameo appearances in 10 lopsided Florida wins and scored a total of five points while grabbing four rebounds.
Last year, Florida cut down the nets after beating Houston 65-63 in a hard-fought title game. This time, those teams are in line to square off for a trip to the Final Four in Indianapolis after Houston drew the No. 2 seed in Florida’s region. The Cougars’ second-leading scorer is Canadian-linked Emanuel Sharp, a senior guard who grew up in the U.S. and was born in Israel, where his American dad and Canadian mom (Justine Ellison Sharp, a former University of Toronto standout) both played pro basketball. Sharp averaged a career-high 15.3 points per game this season.
Unfortunately, another star guard with Canadian ties is likely out of the tournament due to some pretty stunning legal troubles. Aden Holloway, the No. 2 scorer (16.8 points per game) and top three-point shooter for 4-seeded Alabama, was arrested on a felony drug possession charge on Monday when police found over two pounds of marijuana in his apartment. The 21-year-old is out on bail, but he was kicked off campus and the team is preparing to play without him on Friday against Hofstra. Born and raised in North Carolina, Holloway has dual U.S. and Canadian citizenship through his Calgary-born mother. His American grandfather Dave Raimey starred in the CFL in the 1960s and ’70s and is a Canadian Football Hall of Famer.
Another Canadian to watch is Elijah Mahi, a senior forward averaging nearly 14 points for Santa Clara. The Broncos lost to perennial mid-major power Gonzaga in the West Coast Conference championship game but still received their first berth in the NCAA tournament since 1996, when they were led by a senior point guard named Steve Nash. A 10 seed, Santa Clara faces 7-seeded blue blood Kentucky on Friday afternoon.
Long Island features a dynamic duo of Canadian senior guards in Jamal Fuller and Malachi Davis, who lead the team in scoring with 16.4 and 14.4 points per game, respectively. But the 16-seeded Sharks look like endangered species as they face Arizona, the second-ranked team in the country, on Friday afternoon.
Other top Canadians to watch in the men’s tourney include guard Josh Omojafo (averaging 11.5 points for 11 seed South Florida) and forward Ose Okojie, who had the game of his life last night for Howard. Known more for his defence (he averaged 10.8 points this season), Okojie poured in a career-high 23 points to lead all scorers in an 86-83 play-in win over UMBC that gave the Bison a 16 seed. They’ll face Michigan, the No. 3 team in the country, on Thursday night.
Women’s
After averaging a team-high 13.4 points off the bench and winning freshman of the year honours in the Atlantic Coast Conference last season, Toronto’s Toby Fournier is now the clear top dog for 3 seed Duke. The 6-foot-2 forward, who could dunk in high school, is averaging 17.3 points and 8.2 rebounds per game and was voted to the All-ACC First Team as well as the conference’s All-Defensive Team.
Montreal’s Cassandre Prosper was another ACC standout this season, winning the conference’s Most Improved Player award for Notre Dame, which landed a 6 seed for the tournament. After averaging less than six points per game off the bench last season, the 6-foot-3 senior guard flourished in a starting role for the Fighting Irish. Prosper’s 13.8 points per game rank second on the team (behind superstar guard Hannah Hidalgo’s 25.2) and she’s the leader in rebounds with nearly seven per game.
Sophomore guard Syla Swords (14.5 points per game) is the second-leading scorer for 2 seed Michigan. Back in November, the Sudbury, Ont., native dropped 29 points on powerhouse UConn. But the Wolverines lost that game 72-69 to the Huskies, who are heavily favoured to win their second consecutive title and their record-extending 13th in school history.
South Carolina, which lost to UConn in the final last year after winning the title in 2024 with an undefeated season, has a solid Canadian coming off the bench in Agot Makeer. The freshman guard from Thunder Bay, Ont., is averaging 5.8 points and 3.5 rebounds for the Gamecocks, who landed a 1 seed for the sixth straight year.
Other Canadians to watch in the women’s bracket include guard Jasmine Bascoe, who leads 10 seed Villanova with 18.8 points per game; forward Cheyenne Rowe, scoring a team-high 14 per game for the University of Texas at San Antonio, which has the misfortune of facing UConn in the first round; and the James Madison pair of guard Bree Robinson and forward Brianna McLeod, averaging 12 and four points, respectively, for the 12-seeded Dukes.
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