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Gonzaga Basketball

Six degrees of March madness: Gonzaga players have friends across NCAA Tournament rosters

Gonzaga freshman Chet Holmgren shoots hoops with a tiny basketball Sunday after the Selection Show at the  McCarthey Athletic Center. (Kathy Plonka/The Spokesman-Review)
Gonzaga freshman Chet Holmgren shoots hoops with a tiny basketball Sunday after the Selection Show at the  McCarthey Athletic Center. (Kathy Plonka/The Spokesman-Review)Buy a print of this photo
By Jim Meehan jimm@spokesman.com(509) 459-5585

Drew Timme hasn’t surveyed the rosters of every team in the NCAA Tournament but he made a fairly safe prediction.

Not on the tournament outcome, but on the number of players he knows on opposing rosters.

“There’s probably very few teams where I don’t know at least one person,” Timme said Sunday, shortly after top-seeded Gonzaga learned it will face No. 16 Georgia State on Thursday in the opening round.

Timme’s not alone as every Zag in the starting five recounted tournament connections with former AAU, prep or college teammates/opponents, or players they’ve met through camps, all-star games and, in Timme’s case, a nationally televised awards show.

“I worked out with (Illinois center) Kofi (Cockburn) a lot this summer,” the junior forward said. “At the Top 100 (camp), (Ohio State’s) E.J. Liddell and I became really good friends. Kevin McCullar at Texas Tech, he’s my boy, used to play against him in high school.

“Jamie Jaquez (Jr.) and I were roommates at the Ballislife (All-American) game in high school. At the ESPYs, I really became friends with (Jaquez’s UCLA teammates) Johnny Juzang and Tyger Campbell.”

That Top 100 camp in 2018 included Kentucky’s Oscar Tshiebwe, Villanova’s Justin Moore, Miami’s Isaiah Wong, Iowa’s Joe Toussaint, Auburn’s Walker Kessler, Michigan’s Hunter Dickinson and USC’s Isaiah Mobley, as well as several future pros, including 2020 No. 1 NBA draft pick Anthony Edwards.

Freshman forward Chet Holmgren was the MVP at the FIBA U19 World Cup in Latvia as the U.S. won the gold medal last summer. Nine of the 12 Americans are on NCAA Tournament rosters.

“It just speaks to the team we had over the summer, a group of winners,” Holmgren said. “That’s why their teams are in March Madness.

“We definitely were checking in with each other, but as we got to this part of the season … we were once teammates but not any more. It’s kind of been focusing on teams we’re on now. Once the season is over we’ll all be super friendly again.”

Holmgren was joined on the All-Tournament team by Purdue’s Jaden Ivey and Zach Edey, who played for Canada. Other U.S. players in the Big Dance include Tennessee’s Kennedy Chandler, Wisconsin’s Johnny Davis, Purdue’s Caleb Furst, Creighton’s Ryan Kalkbrenner, TCU’s Mike Miles, LSU’s Adam Miller and UCLA’s Peyton Watson. TCU’s Jamie Dixon coached the U19 squad.

Miller started 31 games at Illinois last season before transferring to LSU. He suffered a season-ending injury in October.

GU senior guard Rasir Bolton, a grad transfer from Iowa State, texted a few of his former teammates after the Cyclones received an 11 seed.

“I’m going to try to text a couple more and congratulate them,” Bolton said. “Hopefully they get the win and keep rolling through the tournament.”

Bolton said one problem with being in the tournament is it limits the amount of time he can watch his friends’ games. He said he might tune in for a few minutes, but “we have to stay focused on what we’ve got going on.”

Sophomore wing Julian Strawther won’t be pulling for Iowa State in its first-round game vs. No. 6 LSU. Strawther is good friends with Tigers’ starting sophomore forward Mwani Wilkinson, a fellow Las Vegas native.

“We were all texting a little bit, FaceTiming back and forth,” Strawther said. “I was going with (Wilkinson) talking about his draw. It’s really cool to see all of us living in the moment and enjoying it. We dreamed of playing in March Madness and all these big college games.”

Senior point guard Andrew Nembhard is one of 30 Canadian-born players on 23 NCAA Tournament teams, according to Basketballbuzz.ca. Nembhard’s younger brother, Ryan, was ninth-seeded Creighton’s starting point guard before suffering a wrist injury during the Big East Tournament.

Not included on the list of 30 is Georgia State senior forward Eliel Nsoseme, who was born in Congo but now considers Hamilton, Ontario, his hometown.

Nembhard is quite familiar with potential second-round opponent Boise State’s Emmanuel Akot and Abu Kijab. Akot, a transfer from Arizona, is a native of Winnipeg. Kijab, who began his career at Oregon, is from Ontario.

“Canada basketball has grown a lot, so there’s more players (in the tournament) than I think for sure,” Nembhard said. “I played with Akot on the national team and played against Abu when I was younger a couple times.”

Nembhard faced Canadians Charles Bediako and Keon Ambrose-Hylton (Alabama) and Marcus Carr (Texas) earlier this season.

Jessica Livingston posted a picture on twitter of her son and GU freshman guard Hunter Sallis, Chucky Hepburn (now at Wisconsin) and Saint Thomas (Loyola Chicago) on a seven-player youth team with the caption: “Three of these kids are dancing!”

Sallis and Thomas were teammates on the Millard North High (Omaha, Nebraska) state-championship team last year. Hepburn is from Omaha and played for Bellevue West’s state-title team in 2020.