‘It’s great that I can go and represent and show out’

It is perhaps the closest thing Canada could have to a team in the NCAA Division 1 men’s basketball tournament and — of course — Winnipeg has a hand in it.

Most No. 16 seeds won’t garner much attention in the 68-team tournament, as many believe they are there for a good time, not a long time, but Long Island University has been an exception as five of its most important players hail from north of the border.

There are a pair of Ontario-born starting guards, Scarborough’s Malachi Davis and Toronto’s Jamal Fuller, who have played together since high school. Coming off the bench to play important minutes are freshman guard Max Ndlovu-Fraser and senior forward Caleb Johnson, who are rooted in opposite ends of the country, born in North Vancouver and North Preston, N.S., respectively.

And then there is Shadrak Lasu, the starting sophomore forward who is right in the middle of them all — Winnipeg.

The Canadian contingent helped LIU punch its first ticket to the Madness earlier this month in a victory over Wagner in the Northeast Conference semifinals. The Sharks will debut against No. 1 Arizona in San Diego, Calif., on Friday (12:35 p.m. CT).

“It’s amazing, because it shows us how we can connect,” said Lasu, who had 13 points, 13 rebounds and three blocks in the clinching victory.

“We spoke to each other, and we’ve come to realize we’re doing something special. And it’s crazy how we didn’t really know each other until we came to the program, and it’s like the ties and the bonds that we built, we built just for the simple fact that we’re all Canadian and we’re all represented in one country on our back.”

The 6-8 forward considers Winnipeg home, but he was born much further away: Egypt. It’s where his parents fled to after a war broke out in South Sudan, and where he lived for three years before his family emigrated to Canada for more opportunities in 2009.

Rural Manitoba was their landing spot, and after bouncing around the country for a couple of years thereafter, they returned to the province in 2012 and haven’t left since.

Lasu spent his younger years in towns like Niverville and Lorette before moving to Winnipeg for high school.

He attended St. Norbert Collegiate for grades 9 and 10, then transferred to Churchill High School for his last two years, where he played in the Northstar Prep program.

It’s not as if Lasu was destined for the court. Aside from his older sister, no one in his family has a history of playing basketball. But Lasu had designs on going to university, and he knew it would be a big ask financially for his parents. Basketball, he said, became an outlet.

“I just exploded. I became really good, and I adapted this game really quickly,” he said. “I only started playing in 2021, so this is like my fifth official year of playing basketball in my life. So things kind of took off on a crazy trajectory, and ended up with me getting a full scholarship.”

It was the same for his older sister, Mercy, who currently plays Division 2 basketball at Lewis University in Chicago.

“It worked out for both of us, like the resilience and the hard work and the time and effort that we put into the sport and into our school and whatnot, and you’re able to reap the benefits out of it,” Lasu said. “And I’m here now.”

Lasu has started nearly every game for the Sharks this season (except two due to injury), averaging 5.2 points, 5.4 rebounds and 1.5 blocks across 23.2 minutes per game.

Last year, Winnipeg had two representatives in the tournament, as Simon Hildebrandt played for High Point and Kyler Filewich played for Wofford.

“Coming out of high school and living in Winnipeg for a majority of my life, it does mean something,” Lasu said.

“Winnipeg in general, that’s my home. It’s where I grew up. And the fact that I can be able to say, ‘I’m from Winnipeg, and I’m playing in the tournament,’ and everyone’s like, ‘Damn, where’s Winnipeg?’ It’s great that I can go and represent and show out.”

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