This year there is only one local team participating in March Madness. Here’s how you can still support the Bay Area

English

Let’s face it, the 2022-23 season hasn’t been a particularly good season for Bay Area college basketball.

St. Mary’s is the only Bay Area team to have qualified for the NCAA Tournament. Cal won just three games for the year, and Stanford finished under .500 despite repeated recruiting successes. The USF lacked domestic presence to make a second straight trip to March Madness, and Santa Clara, despite having another potential first round NBA draft pick in Brandin Podzemsky, failed to win a single game in the West Tournament. Coast Conference (WCC), losing to USF. in double overtime after defeating the Dons in the regular season.

San Jose State is the only San Jose Bay team to have some serious success this year, led by Mountain West Player of the Year Omari Moore and Coach of the Year Tim Miles, but the Spartans still have room to go to compete against the likes of the likes. San Diego State and for the first time since 1996 took to the big dances.

The absence of teams from the Bay area does not mean the absence players although from the Bay Area. The Gaels have five local players and 15 other players at this year’s tournament who have local connections, as well as several coaches.

Cade Arbogast, Arkansas

Arbogast played at De La Salle under Justin Argenal, brother of Razorbacks assistant coach Gus Argenal. When Arbogast’s Spartans faced Monte Vista, he took on Matt Musselman, the son of current Arkansas head coach Eric Musselman. Arbogast came to Arkansas for a walk, but was awarded a scholarship in January.

Vince Barringer, Boise State

A three-year-old St. Francis player known as a deadly 3-point shooter, Barringer is a minor Broncos player who will play the North West in Sacramento. He’s redshirted this year, suggesting a scholarship and significant playing time may be in his future.

Luke Barrett, Saint Mary

Barrett moved to the Gaels after winning the North Coast Section (NCS) in Piedmont. He became a scholarship holder after becoming a mainstay in Randy Bennett’s rotation last year and played in 26 games in 2022-23 and averages the second most minutes of any player on the bench for St. Mary’s.

Cade Bennett, Saint Mary

Bennett was a classmate of star quarterback Aidan Mahani at Campolindo. He is the younger of head coach Randy Bennett’s two sons. His older brother Chase plays in the third division Linfield.

Souley Boum, Xavier

Boam, who played schoolball at the Oakland Institute of Technology and averaged 10.9 points per game as a USF rookie, starts in the backcourt as an alumnus transferred to the Musketeers. He spent the previous three seasons at UTEP, but this year will be his first and only NCAA Tournament appearance.

Joey Calcaterra, Connecticut

Catholic graduate Marin became a cult hero in one season at UConn, earning the nickname “Joey California” and a reputation as a sharpshooter off the bench. Calcaterra had spent four seasons in San Diego and was ready to move to Vanderbilt before Huskies head coach Dan Hurley called at the last minute.

Cole Despy, TCU

It will be a relatively short trip from San Jose to Denver for the Despie family to watch the Horned Frogs take on either the state of Arizona or Nevada. Despie moved to the Horned Frogs, scoring 17.8 points per game as a senior at Bellarmine.

John Flannigan, Nevada

The 6-foot-8 De La Salle freshman who often wears a headband and old-school mustache joined the Wolf Pack this year.

Kevin Gad, Saint Mary

Gad, a Gael freshman, will join Granada high school teammate Andrew McKeever at St. Mary’s next year.

Jacob Grandison, Duke

Other than listing Oakland as his hometown and San Francisco as his birthplace, there is little in Grandison’s official biography to indicate that he has any connection to the Bay Area. He attended Berkeley High School before spending a graduate year at Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire, but he only played one season with the Yellow Jackets. Grandison played two seasons with Holy Cross and two with Illinois.

Demarchay Johnson Jr., San Diego State

A Salesian graduate plays the role of an Aztec bench as a freshman in a red shirt. The 6-foot-10 forward Johnson appeared in seven games.

Keshad Johnson, San Diego State

After spending his first three years of high school at Envision Academy, Johnson played at San Leandro in high school. He starts for the Aztec team, which drew in the first round of the College of Charleston.

Logan Johnson, St Mary

One of former NBA guard Tyler Johnson’s younger brothers, the St. Francis alum has started all but three games for the Gaels in the past three seasons since moving from Cincinnati when head coach Mick Cronin left to take over at UCLA. Los Angeles. He scored a career-high 34 points in a February win over Portland.

Aidan Mahaney, Saint Mary

Four years in the Campolindo starter, who lost only 15 games in his entire high school career, Mahaney was one of the best freshmen in the entire country. A 25-point debut against Oral Roberts was just the start for Mahani, who gained recognition on the national stage after scoring 18 in overtime against Gonzaga.

Chance McMillan, Grand Canyon

A Vallejo native in his second season with Lopez, McMillan started in each of the last 20 GCU games. He spent his first three years at a high school in St. Patrick’s. Vincent before transferring to Bethel Public School in his senior year. He then spent 2019-20 at Golden State Prep, Prolific Prep’s postgraduate program. Teammate Jovan Blackshear, Jr. was born in Oakland but played at the high school prom in Arizona.

Austin Ronzone, Arizona

Along with his twin brother Cade, Ronzon spent his high school career with Bishop O’Dowd before moving to the Sun Devils.

Cade Ronzone, Arizona

Ronzone and his twin brother Austin are part of the ASU team that will play in the top four against Nevada on Wednesday.

Ozia Sellers, USC

Sellers average 5.3 minutes per game off the bench for freshman Trojans. He was born in Fremont and raised in Hayward before attending Modesto Christian Academy and Southern California.

Darrion Trammell, San Diego State

It’s been a long road to fame as a St. Ignatius, but Trammell has finally found his place on the big stage for Aztecs. Overlooked due to his size, Trammell spent a year as a graduate student at Golden State Prep, then played at the City College of San Francisco, and then spent two seasons in Seattle. Since moving to SDSU this season, Trammell has played in all but one game and started in all but two.

Ross Williams, Texas, A&M-Corpus Christi

A 2018 Bishop O’Dowd graduate, Williams played at Menlo College and Colorado Christian before joining the Islanders as a graduate student. He played in 32 of 33 games, coming off the bench in 28 of them. He is averaging 9.7 points per game for the Southland Conference champions, fourth most on the team.

Jared Woolbrun, Purdue

When the Boilermakers hit the court, most eyes will be on 7-foot-4 center Zach Edie, but Purdue has an alumnus assistant who has played on the best teams in Palo Alto High since Jeremy Lin. Woolbrun, the son of former Stanford assistant and current Denver head coach Jeff Woolbrun, played at Purdue for the previous three seasons and is now in his first year on the coaching staff.

St Mary’s alumni assistant Holden Wright is also as local as can be. He was a student manager at De La Salle and Saint Mary’s before becoming a full-time employee.

Transfers

Connor Vanover is 7’5″ who is so tall that he does not need a ladder to cut the net after Oral Roberts won the Major Leagues, played in California before moving to Arkansas. Oral Roberts, known for scoring 15th at Ohio State in 2021, is Vanover’s third high school. Star quarterback Max Abmas, who led the Eagles to that 2021 upset, will once again make ORU the trendy choice for the upset.

Cal’s other transfer, Matt Bradley, starts at SDSU along with Johnson and Trammell. Andre Kelly, who moved from California to UC Santa Barbara ahead of the 2022-23 season, started all 33 games for the Gauchos that the Big West won to return to the tournament.

Local trainers

While the list of assistant coaches who have spent even a short time in the Bay Area is too long to list in full, Kansas assistant coach Curtis Townsend stands out. Townsend, a half-Filipino, grew up in San Jose and played at the now-closed Camden High School before attending Menlo and Western Kentucky College. He was an assistant coach at Leland and Del Mar, then worked as a head coach at Leigh and Willow Glen before moving up the ranks.

If you don’t like any of these players or teams, you can always cheer on Furman. The South Carolina school, which has about 2,500 students, is taking part in the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1980 after winning the Southern Conference. While the school is renowned for its beautiful campus, its real asset is its iconic singing of “FU All The Time!” University presidents have been known to sing this chant for decades, and the football team even wore it on the back of their helmets.

English