Two Kiwis win NCAA basketball titles within 24 hours in historic feat

New Zealand basketball has made history in the past 24 hours, with Charlisse Leger-Walker and Oscar Goodman both winning NCAA Division I national championships — the first time the country has had representatives in both the men’s and women’s finals and claimed victory in both.

Leger-Walker, 24, from Hamilton and of Te Whakatōhea iwi, became the first wahine from Aotearoa to win an NCAA Division I women’s basketball title when UCLA defeated South Carolina 79–51 in Phoenix, Arizona. She started the game, played 26 minutes, and finished with 10 points, four rebounds and two assists — one of the finest individual performances of her collegiate career.

The win was the culmination of a journey that included a full season lost to an ACL injury after transferring from Washington State to UCLA. “Reflecting back on the past two years, coming back from an injury, everything I’ve had to do to get to this point is surreal,” she told ESPN.

Leger-Walker first represented the Tall Ferns at just 16, becoming the youngest player ever to do so at the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games. Her mother Leanne and sister Krystal have also represented New Zealand in basketball. She co-runs the Basketball Secrets academy and acts as a recruiter for emerging Kiwi talent.

She told RNZ she hopes the achievement will inspire young New Zealanders to dream bigger. “A lot of the reason why I play basketball and want to continue playing it at a high level is so that I can inspire other rangatahi back home. This is so doable. Why not us? Why not us playing on the biggest stages in front of the whole world?”

She also spoke candidly about the difficulty of her recovery. “Sitting out for months and months and months, it’s really hard. You have to push yourself both physically and mentally to get back to even just playing out there on the court. And then it takes a whole other level to build back that mental confidence and trusting your body again.”

Less than 24 hours later, Taranaki-born Oscar Goodman, 19, became the second New Zealander ever to win an NCAA men’s basketball championship when Michigan defeated Connecticut 69–63 in Indianapolis. Goodman is a freshman forward who follows Jack Salt — who won with Virginia in 2019 — as only the second Kiwi man to claim the title.

Leger-Walker is set to enter the WNBA Draft next week. RNZ reported Basketball New Zealand celebrated both achievements as a landmark moment for the sport in this country. “I’m not going to be the last,” Leger-Walker said. “There’s going to be other people after me.”

What are your thoughts on New Zealand’s historic basketball weekend? Share them in the comments below.