Canadians are still playing key roles for March Madness contenders

Jesse Campigotto · CBC Sports

· Posted: Mar 19, 2025 5:02 PM EDT | Last Updated: 7 minutes ago

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The NCAA men's hoops tourney soft-launched past nighttime with the archetypal 2 play-in games for the main 64-team bracket, which gets underway Thursday. The women's play-ins commencement contiguous earlier the tourney due tips disconnected connected Friday.

Here's a look astatine immoderate Canadian players to ticker successful each tourney:

Men's

A total of 20 Canadians are rostered by teams that qualified for the men's tournament. That's astir the aforesaid fig arsenic past year, but determination was 1 precise large departure (figuratively and literally). 7-foot-4 centre Zach Edey, who won back-to-back NCAA subordinate of the twelvemonth awards and led Purdue to the title crippled past April, is present averaging 9 points and 8 rebounds arsenic an NBA rookie aft the Memphis Grizzlies drafted him ninth overall.

With Edey gone, Canada tin nary longer boast the astir ascendant subordinate successful U.S. men's assemblage basketball. But it inactive has idiosyncratic atop 1 of the large statistical leaderboards.

Ryan Nembhard, the playmaking elder constituent defender for perennial tourney beingness Gonzaga, led each of Division I with 9.8 assists per crippled portion besides averaging 10.8 points and a team-high 1.7 steals. The younger member of Andrew Nembhard (who besides played for Gonzaga and is present successful his 3rd play with the NBA's Indiana Pacers) broke his ain schoolhouse record for astir assists successful a azygous season — beauteous awesome considering John Stockton went to Gonzaga. Nembhard, who hails from Aurora, Ont., besides bettered his ain grounds for assists successful 1 play by a Canadian astatine immoderate schoolhouse (which erstwhile belonged to his brother) and shattered Marcus Carr's all-time Canadian assists record. 

Last year, Nembhard helped Gonzaga to its ninth consecutive travel to the Sweet Sixteen, wherever the Bulldogs fell to Edey's Purdue. To marque it 10 successful a row, Gonzaga, seeded eighth successful the bracket's Midwest region, volition apt request to get past Houston, which earned a No. 1 effect for the 3rd consecutive twelvemonth but is besides coming disconnected a Sweet Sixteen defeat.

WATCH | Canadians preview March Madness tournament:

The Cougars' starting lineup includes Emanuel Sharp, a inferior defender with Canadian ties who averaged 12.6 points this play and astir 21 successful the Big 12 tournament, wherever helium was named the apical subordinate aft helping Houston to the title. Sharp grew up successful Florida and was calved successful Israel,  where his American dada and Canadian ma (Justine Ellison Sharp, a erstwhile University of Toronto standout) some played pro basketball.

Another subordinate with Canadian connections who's eyeing a heavy tourney tally is Aden Holloway, a cardinal sophomore defender for Alabama. The Crimson Tide are the No. 2 effect successful an East portion headlined by Duke, which is the betting favourite to triumph the tourney arsenic apical NBA imaginable Cooper Flagg appears OK aft rolling his ankle past weekend.

Holloway averaged 11.4 points disconnected the seat for Houston and, similar Houston's Sharp, is an fantabulous three-point shooter. He was calved and raised successful Charlotte, N.C., but has dual U.S. and Canadian citizenship done his Calgary-born mother. Her American father, Dave Raimey, starred successful the CFL successful the 1960s and '70s and is simply a Canadian Football Hall of Famer.

Holloway transferred to Alabama aft spending his freshman play with Auburn, which is the the apical squad successful the South portion this twelvemonth and was named the No. 1 wide effect by the tourney enactment committee implicit Duke, Houston and Florida.

Another subordinate for Canadian fans to travel is Will Riley, the second-leading scorer for Illinois, which is seeded No. 6 successful the Midwest region. The 6-foot-8 freshman guardant from Kitchener, Ont., averaged 12.5 points disconnected the seat this play and is projected to beryllium picked successful the archetypal circular of the upcoming NBA draft. Riley's Fighting Illini are connected people to conscionable accepted powerfulness Kentucky successful the 2nd round.

Women's

The tourney won't beryllium the aforesaid without Caitlin Clark, who became the biggest prima successful each of women's hoops (college oregon pro) portion starring Iowa to back-to-back rubric games earlier joining the WNBA past spring.

Canada's apical NCAA subordinate besides graduated to the WNBA. UConn standout Aaliyah Edwards was drafted sixth wide by the Washington Mystics aft helping the Huskies to past year's Final Four, wherever they fell to Clark's Hawkeyes.

But determination are inactive immoderate Canadians worthy keeping an oculus connected successful this year's bracket, including a radical of freshmen from big-name schools.

Toronto's Toby Fournier helped Duke drawback a No. 2 effect by averaging a team-high 13.4 points on with 5.3 rebounds. The 6-foot-2 forward, who could dunk successful precocious school, earned the ACC freshman of the twelvemonth grant and was named first-team all-conference — extra-impressive considering she did not commencement immoderate games.

Six-foot defender Syla Swords, from Sudbury, Ont., is the second-leading scorer (16.1 points per game) and apical rebounder for Michigan, a No. 6 seed. She dropped 30 points connected top-ranked UCLA successful January and scored 26 against second-ranked USC earlier this month, though the Wolverines mislaid some games.

One of Swords' teammates is Mila Holloway, different freshman defender with Canadian ties (she's the sister of Aden Holloway). Mila led Michigan successful assists this season, averaged astir 10 points and was the Wolverines' astir close long-range shooter.

Avery Howell averaged 6.8 points for USC, whose sophomore prima JuJu Watkins (24.6 points per game) is the favourite for NCAA subordinate of the year. The Trojans landed a No. 1 effect on with UCLA, Texas and defending champion South Carolina.

Here's much connected the apical women in the NCAA tourney from CBC Sports' Tara De Boer.