Kyle Wiltjer of the Gonzaga University Bulldogs soars high above the competition during a game against the Seton Hall Pirates in the first round of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament in Denver on March 17.Justin Edmonds/Getty Images
The Gonzaga University Bulldogs are headed to the NCAA's Sweet 16, and their roster has two players with Canadian roots – one a recent Pan American Games medallist and the other the son of the coach of Team Canada.
Kyle Wiltjer is one of the stars of No. 11-seeded Gonzaga, and one of three college players who won a silver medal in Toronto with Canada's Pan Am Games squad this past summer. The 6-foot-10, 240-pound forward didn't grow up in Canada; he was raised in Portland, Ore. But he's the son of long-time Canadian national team centre Greg Wiltjer, an Olympian in 1984.
Kyle, a senior, shares something in common with a young Gonzaga teammate. Sophomore reserve guard Dustin Triano is the son of Jay Triano, who suited up for that same 1984 Canadian Olympic squad, later led the Toronto Raptors as the first Canadian NBA head coach and is now the current coach of Canada's men's national team.
"My dad has been such a huge part of my development – I've grown up around his practices, watching him coach the Raptors, getting to see players like Vince Carter and Chris Bosh and learn from them," young Triano said by phone from Spokane, Wash., where Gonzaga is located. "My dad and Kyle's dad played together and although Kyle and I never crossed paths until we met at Gonzaga, now we're friends, too. It's a small world really, basketball in Canada."
Triano, of Vancouver, has played a handful of minutes off the bench in Gonzaga's two upset victories in the tournament. All-Conference forward Wiltjer had 13 points and seven rebounds in their win over sixth-seeded Seton Hall, then 17 points and three boards in a stunning throttling of No. 3 Utah.
Wiltjer averaged 20.7 points a game for Gonzaga this season. He won an NCAA national championship with the University of Kentucky in 2012, then a young player in a small role.
He transferred after two seasons in Lexington and transformed his body with the help of Gonzaga's trainers during a red-shirt season. Now, the big kid with a knack for shooting three-pointers is a key reason why the Bulldogs are a contender to make the Final Four.
"He's a very productive, very skilled player with a high basketball IQ who is right in step with the trend and the direction that basketball is going – a big kid who can get in the paint and make plays or be another perimeter player and shoot from 20-plus feet away," said Rowan Barrett, executive vice-president and assistant general manager of the Canadian men's national team. "So we're really excited about Kyle and watching how he grows."
Wiltjer and Triano are just the latest Canadians to play at Gonzaga, a program that regularly recruits north of the border. Kelly Olynyk of the Boston Celtics and Robert Sacre of the Los Angeles Lakers were pillars there. The star point guard of last year's team was Kevin Pangos, a long-time Team Canada player now hooping professionally in Spain for Gran Canaria of the Liga ACB.
Gonzaga faces No. 10-seeded Syracuse on Friday night in Chicago.
Rachel Brady