March Madness approaches, but before the bracket of 68 is officially determined on this weekend’s Selection Sunday, we still have the conference tourmanents to resolve, and a number of Canadian players are going to be in action playing for bracket position this weekend.

TSN will be broadcasting all of the conference tournament games throughout the weekend, and these five Canadians are definitely going to be players to watch in their conference semifinals and championship games.

 

R.J. Barrett, Duke, from Toronto, ON

Yeah, you know him. Barrett has already secured his position as a top pick in this year’s NBA Draft, but within that tier of greatness, he’s finding himself in an interesting narrative when in comparison to other top prospects.

When Zion Williamson went down with a sprained knee, Duke was a middling 3-2 in his absence, despite fielding three other top prospects in Barrett, Cam Reddish and Tre Jones. The blame doesn’t solely land on Barrett, but now there just seems to be an ever so slightly higher level of skepticism.

Of course, Barrett is doing perfectly fine. He broke Duke’s single-season freshman scoring record earlier in the month, passing the previous high mark by Marvin Bagley (694), and his craft to get to the rim remains pure. This might be a trend to monitor through March Madness, however, and possibly even the NBA Draft.

 

Andrew Nembhard, Florida, from Aurora, ON

This guy may already have the highlight of the conference tournaments locked up, with this cold-blooded jumper to knock off LSU in the SEC quarterfinals.

This is how you put them on notice! Nembhard, a five-star recruit in last year’s class, had a solid freshman season for himself, earning SEC All-Freshman Team honours. The 19 year old is already proving himself a reliable set-up man, and his scoring game has really come on late in the season. Now, he has a signature highlight to point at, too.

 

Lindell Wigginton and Marial Shayok, Iowa State, from Dartmouth, NS and Ottawa, ON

Iowa State boasts not one, but two Canadians of note on its roster; Shayok and Wigginton are actually the team’s leading scorers, with 18.6 and 13.5 points per game respectively. The college game hasn’t seen a Canadian pairing like this since Cory Joseph and Tristan Thompson.

Shayok, the senior, is a transfer over from Virginia, and his experience shows — he made key plays to get Iowa State past Kansas State on Friday and into the Big 12 championship, including this filthy go-ahead three-pointer.

Wigginton, meanwhile, is a sweet-shooting sophomore. Together, the two Canadians have formed a dynamic offensive duo for Iowa State, and while they may not be together for much longer — it is Shayok’s final year of eligibility, after all — they’re certainly going to be worth a watch for anybody trying to get up on their Canadian ball.

 

Mfiondu Kabengele, Florida State, from Burlington, ON

Not many guys can lead their team in scoring while coming off the bench, but Mfiondu Kabengele did. He made another statement, too, by leading his team, No. 12 Florida State, to an upset of No. 2 Virginia to advance to the ACC Tournament final, in which he’ll go head to head against R.J. Barrett’s Duke team.

The nephew of Dikembe Mutombo, Kabengele plays like it, too.