Five Canadians, including one from Winnipeg, headed to March Madness

March Madness is full of unique stories every year, but this one is a little different. Long Island University is heading to the NCAA tournament with five Canadians on the roster, including one from Winnipeg.

Toronto’s talent pipeline is strong. Malachi Davis and Jamal Fuller, high school teammates, are bringing their connection south of the border to the NCAA tournament.

“We ended up bringing that same tech energy and coming here and flipping it around. This year, we won the NEC championship and are going to the tournament. Our record was 24-10, so I feel like we changed our program a lot,” said Fuller.

Davis added, “For Canada, it’s pretty big. There’s five of us on the team. Canadians, as well as our coach, who is also Canadian, so you know, the Canada pipeline is big for our program.”

The Canadian presence doesn’t stop there. Max Ndlovu-Fraser and Caleb Johnson are two more players helping LIU showcase just how deep Canada’s basketball talent runs.

“It’s amazing to just be around a group of guys who were all from different parts of Canada, but we all share that same Canadian heritage and be able to just experience something like this with them,” said Ndlovu-Fraser.

Johnson added, “It’s our overall closeness, and just the brotherhood that we built along the time that we spent with each other. We are all rooting for each other and want to see each other do well.”

Lastly, from Winnipeg to March Madness, Shadrak Lasu is carrying hometown pride onto college basketball’s biggest stage.

“It feels great, representing the Northstar family, where I played, and coming out of Winnipeg,” said Lasu.

“It’s an amazing feeling, good to represent the country, and represent, it’s not just Winnipeg, it’s Winnipeg, Toronto area, Vancouver, Nova Scotia. We are coming from different parts. We get to represent the whole of Canada in one, going to this tournament.”