Canadian freshmen hope to make their mark in women's March Madness and beyond
'I'm excited to be a Cinderella story,' says Sudbury, Ont.'s Syla Swords
With athletes like Caitlin Clarke, Angel Reese, and Paige Bueckers battling it out in last year's women's NCAA March Madness tournament, 24 million viewers tuned in for the championship game.
It was an all-time high which surpassed the men's championship audience for the first time in history.
That same season, the number of Canadian women competing in the tournament outnumbered the Canadian men 22 to 21.
But this year, a standout group of Canadian freshmen have not only made their way onto Division I rosters, but have made their names known across the league — further establishing the strength and promise of Canadian basketball programs.
On Friday the Hunger Games of college basketball will begin as 64 teams compete in the do-or-die 2025 NCAA women's basketball tournament.
WATCH | Canadians ready for March Madness:
Swords makes impact with Michigan
Syla Swords, a freshman for the Michigan Wolverines, is now a starting point guard for the team, but growing up she imagined she'd compete for Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ont., where both her parents played varsity basketball.
"My dad is the coach [at Laurentian], that's the gym I grew up in, and in my mind, that was the goal," Swords told CBC Sports. "Once I started getting recruited, watching the NCAA a little more, it started to get exciting."
At age 18, Swords made history as the youngest Canadian Olympian to play for the senior women's basketball team at the Paris 2024 Games.
"I still remember walking to the gym for the first time with the senior team, seeing Natalie Achonwa, Kia Nurse, in the same gym, and thinking, 'Oh, I'm gonna have to guard them now,'" she said.
"And then walking into the Olympic Village, seeing these seven-foot basketball players, seeing Giannis [Antetokounmpo], seeing Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, these big NBA household names, and thinking, 'yeah, I'm a part of this.'"
After playing with the greatest hoopers in the world, Swords not only feels prepared for the high-stakes games of March Madness, she's aiming to upset the bracket. Michigan is the No. 6 seed in the Regional 3 bracket of the tournament.
"I'm excited to be a Cinderella story. I don't think enough people know about what the University of Michigan women's basketball can do," she said. "We're such a special group of players."
Fournier's dunk goes viral
Also preparing for her March Madness debut is Toronto-born Toby Fournier, a 6-foot-3 forward for Duke who went viral for her ability to dunk already at age 14.
WATCH | Fournier on showcasing her dunking:
The Duke Blue Devils secured their bid to the tournament after winning the ACC Championship against Louisville, where Fournier was named the conference's Rookie of The Year.
"There's a lot of Canadian stories right now … It's just a really exciting time for women's Canadian basketball," Swords said.
For Delaney Gibb, a first-year on the BYU Cougars, representing Canada in the NCAA is an honour.
"I feel like I'm playing for something bigger than basketball, I'm playing for Canada," the five-foot-10 freshman told CBC Sports.
Rise in attention
Gibb also competed at the 2023 FIBA Women's AmeriCup and played for the bronze-medal winning U19 Canadian Team.
With the rise in attention to women's sports and the talent on the court in recent years, she is not only inspired by the change she's seeing, but proud to be a part of it.
"I feel like there's so much support right now in women's basketball in general, but especially with the Canadian athletes," she said. "It's so fun that I have the experience to also add to the eruption of women's sports and women's basketball."
The BYU women's team did not ultimately qualify for the March Madness tournament after losing out in the Big 12 tournament.
Viewership and investment
Meanwhile, Canadian freshman Jasmine Bascoe was named first team All-Big East for her contributions to Villanova.
Despite falling short of qualifying for the tournament this year, being a part of the sisterhood of Canadian freshmen has been a surreal experience for the Milton, Ont., native.
"It's something that I had never really felt prior to being in the NCAA. Talking to Syla, Toby, Delaney, we're all going through the same thing right now, but being able to talk and chat with each other and bring us back to reality a bit, it's a lot of fun," Bascoe told CBC Sports.
As viewership and investment into NCAA women's sports undoubtedly continues to grow, Bascoe is grateful for the women who came before her.
"It's really cool to see Angel and Caitlin in the WNBA now, but what they left behind in the NCAA opened the doors for us now," Bascoe said. "We compete just as hard as anyone else. Obviously it's different from men's games, but we have our own little touch to it and I think that's what makes it fun."
Bascoe's older brother Josh also competes in the NCAA, just recently wrapping up his senior season for the men's basketball team at Bucknell University.
"It's so awesome representing the country in the U.S.. A lot of people didn't expect that Canadians would be able to keep up with them, so just showing them that we can ball out too," Bascoe said.
On the men's side, a record number of 171 Canadian men competed in NCAA basketball in the 2024-2025 season, also illustrating the increasing output of basketball talent in Canada across the board.
"Canada is no longer just a hockey country. The rest of the world is catching up to American basketball, and Canada's been at the forefront of that," Swords said.
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