Native American Athletes in the Men’s NCAA’s March Madness Basketball Tournament

Four months ago, college basketball teams all across the country began their quest for a conference championship and then for one of the most sought after spots, a spot in the NCAA’s March Madness tournament. On selection Sunday, the NCAA finally announced the tournament field for the 68 men’s team that will compete for division 1 national championship that will be held in Phoenix, Arizona on April 1st & 3rd.

For Indian Country, the representation on the some of the nations best college basketball programs continues to grow and this year will be no different. Below are a list of Native American players who will be participating in the March Madness tournament as well as some players who will be playing in other post-season NCAA Division 1 tournaments.

NCAA MARCH MADNESS

Bronson Koenig (Ho-Chunk Nation) is a 6-4 Senior guard for the University of Wisconsin Badgers who finished (25-9) this season in the Big 10 conference. The Badgers received the No. 8 seed in the East Region and will face ninth-seeded Virginia Tech (22-10) in the opening round on Thursday at approximately 8:40 p.m. (CT) on CBS in Buffalo, New York. Bronson hit one of the biggest shot of his career last season when he hit a buzzer-beater to send Xavier home to reach the Sweet 16 round.

Derek Willis (Arapaho/Pawnee/Creek Tribes) is a 6-9 Senior forward for the University of Kentucky Wildcats who punched their ticket to the NCAA tournament by winning the SEC tournament for the third consecutive year. Willis worked himself into a starting role for the Wildcats at times this season, his senior leadership provided the young star power roster with some stability in big games this season. Willis becomes the first Wildcat, since the 1997-1998 season, to have won three consecutive SEC tournaments.

Lindy Waters, III (Kiowa/Cherokee) – is a 6-6 freshman forward for the Oklahoma State Cowboys who earned a No. 10 seed in the Midwest region, and will face No. 7 Michigan on Friday, March 17 in Indianapolis. Waters, a Norman native, is averaging 6.1 points per game this season. He was coming on strong before he sustained a month long injury, knocking down six consecutive 3-pointers in wins over Arkansas, Oklahoma and West Virginia.

Chance Comanche (Choctaw/Comanche) is a 6-11 sophomore forward for the University of Arizona Wildcats who were rewarded with the No. 2 seed in the West Region of the 2017 NCAA Tournament. The Wildcats will travel to Salt Lake City and play North Dakota in a first-round game on Thursday, March 16 (6:50 p.m. MST / TBS). Chance is averaging 6.4 points per game for the Wildcats and has 14 blocks on the season. Had a career-high 14 points against the University of New Mexico this season.

National Invitational Tournament (NIT)

While the focus is on the NCAA tournament, we wanted to acknowledge Brad Green (Paiute/Shoshone), a 6-10 Freshman Center for the University of California-Irvine whose Anteater’s team was invited into the NIT Tournament. Brad averaged 3 points per game this season and had 17 total blocks. UCI won the league’s regular-season title with a 12-4 record, marking the third time in the past four years that the Anteaters won outright, or shared, the championship. UC Irvine begins play in the National Invitation Tournament (NIT) Wednesday night at Illinois State University in Normal, Ill.

CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament (CIT)

Also getting in on the post-season play this year is Michael Buchanan (Blackfeet Tribe)who is a 7-0 senior for the University of South Carolina-Upstate Spartans who have accepted a bid to play in the CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament (CIT) and will host a first round game on Thursday, March 16 at 7 p.m. in the G.B. Hodge Center. The Las Vegas, Nev. native played in all 31 games this season for Upstate and registered 19 starts. He led the team in both scoring and rebounding with 16.2 points and 9.5 rebounds per game, both of which are career-highs.