Canadian Freshmen Make Impact on NCAAW Power 4 Conference Awards

Syla Swords, Toby Fournier and Delaney Gibb were all over Conference Awards lists as NCAAW heads into the postseason.

It’s the most exciting month in college sports — March Madness is here.

In recent years, Canadians have been making an impact south of the border on NCAA teams, and the women are making their names known. There are 135 Canadians playing in NCAA women’s basketball programs across the country this year, and many will head into the NCAA Tournament later this month.

This week though, conference tournaments are kicking off. There will be a ton of exciting basketball to watch as the Power Four Conferences — The Big 12, the ACC, the SEC and the Big 10 — head into their tournaments.

Before the tournaments started, each conference released their winners of conference awards. Similar to professional basketball leagues, each conference had a Player of the Year, First Team, Second Team, Freshman of the Year, All-Freshman Team, and Defensive Player of the Year.

Three of Canada’s most exciting future prospects were honoured in three of the four conferences. Syla Swords of Michigan, Toby Fournier of Duke and Delaney Gibb of BYU.

Syla Swords — Michigan (Big 10): Second Team, All-Freshman Team

If you followed the Canadian Women’s team at the Paris Olympics, you may be familiar with Swords. She became the youngest player to ever represent Canada in Olympic basketball in Paris. Shortly after, she headed to Ann Arbor, Michigan to join their women ‘s basketball team as a freshman.

Swords joined an excellent Freshman class at Michigan, including her partner-in-crime on the court, Olivia Olson. Olson ended up winning the Big-10 Co-Freshman of the Year award (voted by coaches).

Syla on the other hand was named to the conference’s Second Team, as well as the All-Freshman Team. She is one of five NCAA players this season to achieve multiple 20-point double-doubles, and scored 27 points and 12 rebounds in her very first NCAA game against South Carolina.

In her freshman season, Swords averaged 15.6 points, 6.3 rebounds, 2.4 assists and 1 steal, shooting 42.6% from the field and 35.1% form three. Her best performance of the year was against no.1 UCLA on January 1, where she scored 30 points and made 4 three pointers.

Michigan heads into the Big-10 tournament as the 5-seed, earning a first round bye and awaiting their opponent. They will kick off their tournament on Thursday.

Toby Fournier — Duke (ACC): Freshman of the Year, First Team, All-Freshman Team

Toby Fournier was dunking in high school games, and has been a household name in Canadian basketball for years. Fans were excited to see her finally enter the NCAA, and she headed to Duke last fall.

Despite not starting in a single game for the Blue Devils in her Freshman season, Fournier averaged 14.1 points, 5.2 rebounds and shot 55% from the field. Her best game was Duke’s final regular season game of the year, where she scored 28 points, 6 rebounds, 1 steal and shot 73.3% from the field off the bench.

She was named the ACC’s Freshman of the year, but also made the conference’s All-Freshman team AND First Team.

Duke heads into the ACC tournament as the three-seed, earning a double bye. They will play their first game in the quarterfinal on Friday.

Delaney Gibb — BYU (Big 12): Freshman of the Year, Second Team, All-Freshman Team

Delaney Gibb headed to Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah last fall to start her college career with the Cougars in the Big-12. In her first season, she started every game she played for BYU, averaging 17.5 points, 5.5 rebounds, 4.2 assists and 1.6 steals.

Similar to Fournier, Gibb’s best game was the team’s last regular season game. She scored 36 points, 10 rebounds, 5 assists, 2 steals and 1 block, shootin 71.4% from three-point range and 72.2% from the field. She made 5-7 shots form distance and 13-18 from the field.

Gibb was named the Big 12 Freshman of the Year, also making the conference Second Team and All-Freshman Team.

BYU headed into the Big-12 Tournament Wednesday as the 12-seed, playing no.13 UCF with hopes to advance to play Kansas State in the second round.

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Conference tournaments start Wednesday and go until Sunday March 9.