Here’s a look at WPIAL and Pittsburgh-area connections in the NCAA tournaments:
Royce Parham, a former North Hills athlete, helps Marquette
Royce Parham, who spent three seasons at North Hills, has made a difference for the seventh-seeded Marquette men’s basketball team.
Parham was recently named to the Big East all-freshman team. He’s averaging 5.7 points, shooting 43% from the field, and averaging 2.4 rebounds for the Golden Eagles (23-10).
He posted a career-high 17 points against another NCAA tournament-bound team in Iowa State earlier this season.
Marquette will open its NCAA tournament journey with a first-round game against No. 10 New Mexico at 7:25 p.m. Friday in Cleveland.
Ethan Morton teams up with Colorado State
Butler grad Ethan Morton had 11 points for Colorado State in the Mountain West title game as the Rams clinched the automatic bid last weekend.
Morton averaged 1.8 points per game across 132 contests during his four-year career previously with Purdue. Saturday was the first time he scored in double figures since he had 10 against Ohio State on Jan. 5, 2023.
As Post-Gazette high school sports veteran Mike White wrote in his chat this week: “It was great to see him after Colorado State won the Mountain West tournament hugging his dad. The kid has been through some tough times in college. Happy for him. I actually texted him after the game and he said there were a lot of emotions after the game.”
Colorado State will face fifth-seeded Memphis in the first round of the NCAA tournament. The game is scheduled to tip off at noon Friday at Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle on TBS.
Pittsburgh connections to Arkansas Razorbacks
Number 10 seed Arkansas and coach John Calipari (a Moon native) face seventh-seeded Kansas and Bill Self on Friday, and the Razorbacks expect to have freshman Boogie Fland on the floor. Their second-leading scorer and top distributor hurt his hand in January.
The Razorbacks are expected to be without Quaker Valley grad Adou Thiero, their top scorer and rebounder, who missed their last six games because of a knee injury.
Thiero was leading the Razorbacks with 15.6 points and 6.0 rebounds in 26 starts this season.
Women’s tournament notes
Arkansas State’s Kennedie Montue, a Plum grad, is dancing with the Red Wolves after spending the past three seasons with Oakland.
Montue helped push Arkansas State past James Madison in overtime in the Sun Belt title game. Montue was named to the all-league tournament team. She averaged 16 points during the two games along with averaging 7 rebounds.
She’s averaging 10.4 points and 4.8 rebounds per game this season, mostly coming off the bench.
• North Catholic grad Alayna Rocco will make her NCAA tourney debut with Harvard. The Crimson beat Columbia in the Ivy League title game.
The 5-foot-10 freshman guard is averaging 4.4 points and 1.2 rebounds per game. Rocco posted eight points in that title game.
Tenth-seeded Harvard will play seventh-seeded Michigan State at 4:30 p.m. Saturday at Lenovo Center in Raleigh, N.C. The game will be on ESPNews.
• Joining Harvard from the Ivy League is Columbia with another WPIAL product. Chartiers Valley grad Perri Page and 11th-seeded Columbia play No. 11 Washington in a First Four contest at 7 p.m. Thursday. The game, which will be held at Dean E. Smith Center in Chapel Hill, N.C., is scheduled to be on ESPN2.
Page, a 5-foot-11 junior forward, is averaging 7.4 points and 6.2 rebounds per game for Columbia, which won the regular season in the Ivy League. She has appeared in 29 games and started 16 this season.
Last season Page had six points and three rebounds in an NCAA tournament First Four loss to Vanderbilt.
Early win for Blackhawk grad Sean Miller
Blackhawk grad and Xavier men’s basketball coach Sean Miller saw the Musketeers continue with an 86-80 win against Texas on Wednesday night in the First Four. Also playing for former Pitt star Miller was another former Pitt player in John Hugley. Hugley had three points and two rebounds.
Miller will lead the Musketeers against Illinois in the first round of the NCAA tournament on Friday.
Other notes
• American University was also bounced in a First Four game. The Eagles were assisted by former Saint Vincent College assistant coach Nate Bollinger.
• Braylon Johnson, the brother of NBA star Cam Johnson and Penn State’s Puff Johnson, left the state when his brother was drafted, but still hails from Moon originally. He has not played in his freshman campaign for the Grand Canyon men’s basketball team.
First Published: March 20, 2025, 10:29 a.m.
Updated: March 21, 2025, 12:02 p.m.
