Greater Spokane League greats, former Washington State standouts take on key roles for NCAA Tournament teams
A couple of former Greater Spokane League stars will make their NCAA Tournament debuts.
The best North Idaho prep prospect in recent memory will take part in the Big Dance. Several former Washington State players are holding down key roles for title contenders. And a pair of coaches with connections to Gonzaga and WSU are making their annual March Madness appearances.
Here’s a look at some of the NCAA Tournament participants with ties to the area:
St. John’s guard Dylan Darling
Four years ago, Darling was the super-scoring Greater Spokane League MVP at Central Valley High. Now, he’s a key cog for the Big East champion and one of the hottest teams entering the NCAA Tournament.
St. John’s surprisingly drew a No. 5 seed despite winning 19 of its last 20 games, including a 20-point victory over UConn on Saturday in the Big East Tournament final. Darling has been a steady presence all year for legendary coach Rick Pitino’s team, appearing in 32 games with 12 starts.
Darling, a 6-foot-1 junior, is averaging seven points, 2.5 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 1.4 steals per game while shooting 40.8% from the field. He tallied eight points, five assists and three steals in the championship win over UConn. Darling had a season-high 23 points during a win over Providence last month.
Darling amassed 33.2 points per game as a senior at CV, earning Class 4A Player of the Year honors, then signed with Washington State – his parents’ alma mater. He spent a season as a reserve with the Cougs, then had his sophomore year cut short due to injury before transferring to Idaho State in search of a bigger role. He found it, earning Big Sky Player of the Year after producing 19.8 points and 5.7 assists per game in his one season with the Bengals. That led Darling to an even greater opportunity, to join a power-conference program with championship aspirations.
Iowa State forward Blake Buchanan
A Lake City High grad, Buchanan has started 33 games for the second-seeded Cyclones. The 6-foot-10 junior is averaging 8.4 points, 5.7 rebounds, 1.5 assists and just under one block per game while shooting 64.5% from the field. He scored a season-high 17 points during Iowa State’s 91-42 rout of Arizona State in the Big 12 Conference Tournament.
Buchanan was a four-star recruit out of Lake City and earned Idaho’s Gatorade Player of the Year as a senior before beginning his collegiate career at Virginia in 2023. He made six starts and averaged 3.4 points per game as a true freshman, then started 22 of 32 games for the Cavaliers in 2024-25, recording 5.4 points and 5.3 rebounds per game before transferring to Iowa State.
Buchanan, the son of former longtime University of Idaho volleyball coach Debbie Buchanan, played his first prep season at Moscow High before transferring to Lake City. He was an All-State first-team honoree in each of his three seasons at Lake City. Buchanan averaged 15.2 points and 9.8 rebounds as a senior, leading the Timberwolves to a 26-0 record and a Class 5A state title.
Florida center Rueben Chinyelu
After starting all 40 games for the national champion Gators last season, the former Washington State big man has made considerable strides as a junior and is reportedly drawing the attention of NBA scouts. The 6-foot-10, 265-pounder averages 11.2 points, a team-high 11.5 rebounds and 1.1 blocks per game for Florida, which won the SEC regular-season title and earned a No. 1 seed for the NCAA Tournament.
Chinyelu ranks eighth nationally with 18 double-doubles on the season. He’s surpassed 20 rebounds in three games.
Recruited out of Nigeria by former WSU coach Kyle Smith’s staff, Chinyelu represented a notable recruiting win for the Cougs when he signed with the program ahead of the 2023-24 season. He served mostly as a backup as a freshman, but started 12 games and finished his one year in Pullman with averages of 4.7 points, five rebounds and 1.3 blocks per game.
After Smith left WSU to take the Stanford job, Chinyelu departed for Florida, and instantly adopted a starting role for a Gators team that beat Houston in the national title and finished 36-4. Chinyelu averaged six points and 6.6 rebounds last season.
Purdue center Oscar Cluff
Cluff, a starter at Washington State in 2023-24, is one of the top players for a second-seeded Boilermakers team. The senior has started every game this season, posting averages of 10.3 points and 7.4 rebounds with a remarkably efficient field goal percentage of 70.1%.
The 6-foot-11 Australia native shined at the Big Ten Tournament, averaging 17.3 points and 9.5 rebounds as Purdue swept through the event, upsetting Michigan 80-72 on Sunday in the championship. Cluff had a game-high 21 points in the final.
Cluff averaged seven points and 4.4 rebounds in 35 games at WSU, then transferred to South Dakota State, where he claimed All-Summit League first-team honors after producing 17.6 points and 12.3 rebounds per game.
Texas Tech forward LeJuan Watts
A key player for the Red Raiders, Watts was a standout at Washington State last season after one year as an important bench player for Eastern Washington. The Fresno, California, native averaged 13.7 points, 6.7 rebounds and 4.4 assists per game while shooting 54.9% from the field over 34 appearances at WSU. He recorded 9.4 points and 4.9 rebounds over 32 games as a freshman at Eastern in 2023-24, then followed coach David Riley to Pullman.
The 6-foot-6 junior is averaging 11.5 points, six rebounds and 2.5 assists per game while shooting 42.8% from the field in 31 games this season at Texas Tech. He poured in a career-high 36 points on 12 of 13 shooting during a win over Northern Colorado in December.
BYU forward Tyler Mrus
Mrus started 31 games at Idaho in 2024-25, averaging 9.7 points per game on 38.2% shooting before transferring to BYU. The Bothell, Washington, product had four 20-point games last season with the Vandals after suffering a season-ending injury early in the 2023-24 campaign. Now a junior, Mrus is averaging two points per game off the bench over 27 appearances this season for BYU.
Iowa State guard Mason Williams
The former Eastern Washington standout underwent hip surgery before the season and is redshirting for the Cyclones. Williams started 22 games for EWU in 2024-25, averaging 13.9 points, 3.2 rebounds and 2.4 assists per game. The Seattle native appeared in 17 games with the Eagles as a true freshman in 2023-24.
Troy guard Cobi Campbell
The junior from Puyallup spent two seasons at North Idaho College before joining the Trojans in 2024. Campbell averaged 11.3 points per game on 43.5% shooting two seasons ago at NIC. He appeared in 46 games with the Cardinals. Campbell has started 30 games for Troy this season, averaging nine points per game and shooting 40.4% from 3-point range.
Queens guard Seamus Wilson
Wilson played his prep ball at Logos School in Moscow, earning two Class 2A All-State honors. He holds the Logos records in points, steals and assists. A redshirt freshman, Wilson has not recorded any stats for Queens this season.
Houston coach Kelvin Sampson
Sampson, the 12th-year coach for Houston and a future Hall of Famer, got his first Division I coaching job at Washington State in 1987. He spent seven seasons in Pullman, leading WSU to an NCAA Tournament appearance during his final season with the team in 1994.
Sampson compiled a 103-103 record as WSU coach, then spent 12 years as Oklahoma’s coach before a brief stay at Indiana. Since taking the Houston job in 2014, Sampson has reached eight NCAA Tournaments. Houston advanced to the Final Four in 2021, and finished as the national runner-up last year. Sampson is a finalist for the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame’s 2026 class.
Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd
An assistant at Gonzaga from 2001-21, Lloyd hasn’t missed the NCAA Tournament since he took the reins at Arizona. Three of his Wildcat teams have reached the Sweet 16, and this season’s squad might be Lloyd’s best yet. Arizona drew a No. 1 seed after going 32-2 and winning the Big 12 Conference Tournament title.
Lloyd has a 144-35 record at Arizona. He was named AP Coach of the Year in 2022 and claimed Big 12 Coach of the Year this year.
He was an integral part of Gonzaga’s development into the nationally renown program it is today, making his name as a master recruiter.
UCLA guard Charlisse Leger-Walker
After cementing herself as one of the best players in Washington State women’s basketball history, Leger-Walker has become a standout for a national title contender.
The senior from New Zealand averages 8.9 points, a team-high 5.6 assists, 4.2 rebounds and 1.7 steals per game while shooting 46.8% from the field this season for the Bruins (31-1), who earned a No. 1 seed for the NCAA Tournament. Leger-Walker has started every game.
Leger-Walker played four seasons at WSU. She was an immediate star as a freshman in 2020-21, earning Pac-12 Freshman of the Year, and went on to collect All-Pac-12 honors in every season with the Cougs. She led the team to a Pac-12 Conference Tournament championship, its first in program history, in 2023. Leger-Walker appeared in 105 games for WSU, averaging 16.6 points, 5.6 rebounds and 3.7 assists during her Cougs career.
She suffered a torn ACL late in her last season at WSU, then transferred to UCLA in 2024 and sat out her first season with the Bruins to fully recover from the injury.
Washington forward Brynn McGaughy
The five-star freshman out of Central Valley High made an instant impact for the Huskies, a No. 6 seed. McGaughy averaged 9.5 points and 4.3 rebounds while shooting 48.7% from the field over 28 games (eight starts) this season. She has season highs of 20 points and 11 rebounds.
The 6-foot-3 McGaughy led CV to a 27-0 record and a Class 3A state title as a senior, averaging 16.3 points, 9.1 rebounds and 1.9 blocks per game. A McDonald’s All-American, McGaughy was widely considered one of the top recruits in the nation, and is the highest-rated recruit to ever sign with UW.
She was a Class 2B superstar at Colfax High for three seasons before transferring to CV, lifting the Bulldogs to a state title as a sophomore.