A New Zealand national from both the men’s and women’s college basketball teams has been crowned NCAA Champions for the first time since the tournament’s inception in 1939.
UCLA guard Charlisse Leger-Walker and Michigan forward Oscar Goodman, both number five and both from the North Island, are celebrating their career achievements as the “goats of New Zealand.”
“Great week to be a Kiwi,” Leger-Walker captioned a photo of Goodman on her Instagram account shortly after her own title win with the Bruins.
The UCLA guard took part in two firsts this season: the first title win for UCLA and the first Kiwi woman to win a US college basketball title, much less an NCAA Championship. She did so just before her departure from the team. She and five other seniors are slated to leave the Los Angeles team before the start of the 2026-27 season and vie for a spot in professional ball.
Goodman has confirmed his return to the Wolverines next season, stating he hopes to play a bigger role in the team’s success in his following three years at the University of Michigan.
UCLA’s Leger-Walker makes NCAA history
Leger-Walker, 24, scored 10 points for the Bruins in the championship game against the No. 1-seed South Carolina on Sunday, April 5.
This is the guard’s first and only active year on the team. She transferred to UCLA as a business major from Washington State for her fifth season of eligibility, granted due to games lost during the COVID-19 pandemic, and redshirted during her first year at UCLA to recover from an ACL injury.
The UCLA player said in a recent YouTube vlog that she had never made it past the first round in March Madness before, marking this season as “surreal.”
“When you constantly practice at a level where you understand you want to be national champions, it’s almost surreal when it finally does happen,” Leger-Walker said in a post-game interview with SiriusXM. “I went out there thinking, ‘I have nothing to lose;’ my teammates and coaches are so amazing at breeding confidence into me.”
Basketball is an inseparable part of the Leger-Walker women’s lives, who are of Indigenous Māori descent, the people most notable socially for the Haka dance.
Leger-Walker says that she started playing basketball at the age of three with her older sister at the behest of her mother, who played for the New Zealand women’s national basketball team and competed in the 2000 and 2004 Summer Olympics. The UCLA guard would eventually share the Washington State court with her older sister.
In true Māori fashion, the California-bound basketball champion immediately took to social media after her win, posting TikTok dances with teammate and UCLA’s first-ever female national defensive player of the year, Lauren Betts. The two seniors also joined UCLA guard Gabriela Jaquez on the court for a similar victory dance in front of the approximately 18,000 fans in the Phoenix Mortgage Matchup Center for the final game.
Island outlets such as the Polynesian Music Network are calling the championship win “A historic moment for the Pacific.”
Goodman becomes second-ever male Kiwi with NCAA title
Goodman is a 19-year-old freshman who helped the Michigan Wolverines clinch their second NCAA championship, the first in 37 years. He follows Jack Salt’s 2019 win as the second-ever male Kiwi to win the title.
Born in Opunake, New Zealand, the 6-foot 7-inch forward played 16 games off the bench with the Wolverines, making his collegiate debut against Oakland on Nov. 3. Goodman averages 1.4 points and 1.3 rebounds per game. Usually, the islander plays about 5 minutes, at least for now, during his redshirt year.
When asked how it felt to be a part of the “Final Four” in a video posted to The Michigan Insider YouTube page on March 30, Goodman responded that it felt “unreal.”
“If you had told me this five years ago, I wouldn’t have believed you at all. It’s a crazy feeling. Just to know that I’ve got a bucket in the ‘Elite Eight’ is an amazing feeling.”
Basketball is only now becoming big in New Zealand, he added, but the friends and relatives he left behind are aware of the importance of making it to the finals in March Madness.
Goodman says he waits for his moments to shine from the bench, hoping the deficit reaches the 20 to 30 points necessary for his game break.
He confirmed in the YouTube video that he will be returning to Ann Arbor next year to continue his college career with the Wolverines and hopes to play a “bigger role” on the team.
McKenna is a reporter for the Daily Press. She can be reached at mmobley@usatodayco.com.
This article originally appeared on Victorville Daily Press: Get to know the Kiwi basketball players who made NCAA history
Reporting by McKenna Mobley, Victorville Daily Press / Victorville Daily Press
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
