Aussies in NCAA D1 men: Season primer
A preview of college basketball's strongest Australian talent pipelines heading in to the 2022-23 season.
Year after year, massive amounts of eyeballs are drawn to American college basketball. Prospect factories like Kentucky and Duke showcase emerging NBA talent, heroes are born at the annual March Madness tournament, and campus arenas buzz with passionate fans, unfettered by the same level of corporate greed found in the professional game.
For Australian fans, an extra layer of appeal lies in following homegrown talent that attempt to forge their names against the best amateur athletes in the world. Last year, there were some fantastic results - we saw successful final years from Lat Mayen, Junior Madut, and Kody Stattmann that resulted in NBL deals. There were some highly successful transfer stories - Madut Akec made the jump to Detroit Mercy, following the path of former Titan Bul Kuol and having a similarly prolific breakout, and Tyler Robertson made the jump to Portland, becoming their leading scorer, rebounder and facilitator in the process. Amongst several freshman who made an impact in year one, we also saw witnessed the arrival of Taran Armstrong, as he burst on to the scene for Cal Baptist, garnering rave reviews and placing his name amongst NBA draft discussions.
What does this upcoming NCAA season have in store? Here’s a breakdown of some of Australia’s strongest NCAA pipeline programs and what to expect.
Cal Baptist
There’s no better place to start than CBU. The Cal Baptist program is one of college basketball’s strongest Australian pipelines, with six Australians in the fold for the 2022-2023 season. The group this year is headlined by the Armstrong brothers out of Tasmania, Tre and Taran.
Tre, a 6’5 shooting guard, enters his fourth year with the Lancers. A quick trigger shooting specialist, Armstrong has had a lot of success with the program, averaging more than 30 minutes per game as both a sophomore and junior. Though his role and production last season roughly mirrored that of his second year campaign, scoring 11.4 points per game and 4.1 rebounds per game, his efficiency suffered a slight drop, finishing the season on 33.8% from behind the arc. It’s a mark that’s not indicative of his ability as a shooter, and he’ll be looking to improve on it this year.
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