Naki's Goodman in Michagen winning NCAA team
- Apr 7
- 2 min read
Taranaki teen Oscar Goodman has been part of the Michigan Wolverines winning the NCAA men's basketball title after a 37-year drought.
The Wolverines defeated the Connecticut Huskies 69-63 to claim the coveted college basketball championship for the second time.
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Nineteen-year-old Goodman, a freshman power-forward played limited minutes for the Wolverines this season as the team topped the Big 10 standings and made their way into the NCAA final with a statement win over the Big 12 champion Arizona Wildcats in the Final Four.
Michigan became the first team to score 90 or more points in five straight tournament games in the lead in to the final.
The 2.01m (6'7") Goodman who hails from Opunake was on the bench and did not get on the court.
Goodman has been a top junior prospect. At the 2024 FIBA Under-17 Basketball World Cup he was named in the All-tournament first team honours.
He was the first basketball player from New Zealand to earn All-tournament first team honours in a worldwide international basketball competition since 2002 (when Pero Cameron did so at the 2002 FIBA World Championship)
At half-time little separated the teams with the Wolverines ahead 33-29.
Both teams went on scoring runs but in the end it was Michigan's defence that helped them lift the title in what was a low-scoring game for them.
North Harbour playerJack Salt with the Virginia Cavaliers in 2019 was the first New Zealander to win a NCCA basketball championship.
Earlier in the week Charlisse Leger-Walker with her UCLA team became the first New Zealand woman to achieve the feat in her final year of college.
Leger-Walker will now put her name forward for the WNBA draft next week.
