When the time came to decide their basketball futures, Prosper Karangwa and Andy Kwiatkowski made different choices. But come tomorrow they'll be pursuing similar goals on their way to shared basketball dreams.
Both proud members of Canada's national team, one had the choice to play college basketball in the United States and decided to stay home. The other had the same options and decided that playing down south was the obvious route.
Taken together they are proof that when it comes to trying to play basketball at a high level, there are different ways to reach the same place.
As the star forward for the No. 1-ranked University of Western Ontario Mustangs, Kwiatkowski is making his third consecutive trip to Halifax, where the final eight teams congregate each March to decide the best in Canadian Interuniversity Sport.
A leading candidate to be named player of the year, nothing less than a championship will satisfy the fifth-year senior from Cambridge, Ont.
"It would have been heartbreaking if we hadn't made it this year," he said in a telephone interview this week. "Everyone is really excited to go to Halifax. It's an awesome place to be."
Karangwa's expectations are different. The junior is one of 11 Canadian men and four women who will be playing in the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I basketball championships starting this afternoon.
He's already enjoyed the most important moment of his three-year career at Siena College. The 6-foot-7 point guard from Montreal exploded for a career-high 31 points against Alcorn State Tuesday to help Siena qualify for the 64-team, single-elimination tournament to decide the NCAA men's basketball champion.
The win earned Karangwa a front-page picture in USA Today, and the tiny Catholic school that sits near the Vermont border in New York State the right to play the powerful University of Maryland tomorrow.
"I'm looking forward to it," Karangwa said as he waited to board his flight to Detroit, on his way to Dayton, Ohio. "Maryland is one of the best teams in the nation, so you want to see what happens."
Kwiatkowski and Karangwa most recently crossed paths this past summer when the pair were both mild surprises to make the national team under head coach Jay Triano.
By making the team, Karangwa proved he had overcome the obstacle that often befalls Canadian athletes when they head south. Often they don't play enough to develop their skills and confidence.
"You want to play against the best competition you can," he said. "But there's a lot of quality players here, they take it seriously and you have to bring it every day. If you don't, you can get lost."
Triano points out that even someone as talented as Karangwa has had to wait patiently for his time in the sun, as even this year Siena typically runs most of its offence through their senior star, Dwayne Archbold. "You wait and wait and you might have only one year to shine," Triano said. "You get hurt that year and that's it, your career is done."
Kwiatkowski has been the focus of Western's attack since he transferred from Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, B.C., after his second year. He could have transferred to a Division I U.S. school, but found it to his advantage academically to stay in Canada.
Rather than have his game stagnate, he found his skills blossoming as he played heavy minutes and multiple roles.
Once primarily a power forward, Kwiatkowski has been given the freedom to devolop a perimeter game that he used this year to great effect. He averaged 25.1 points a game, second in the CIS.
It particularly helped him this past summer when he tried out for the national team, competing for a spot against players from NCAA teams.
"My mentality is to score and be aggressive and try to dominate," he said. "Some of the NCAA guys don't even start and average four points a game. It's hard for them to turn it on against even tougher competition."
And while Karangwa and some other Canadians will get the rare chance to bask in the glow of March Madness, Kwiatkowski says his annual trip to Halifax carries many of the same perks.
"The whole town is basketball crazy, everywhere you go people are asking about your team," Kwiatkowski said. "You play in front of 10,000 people, it's just a great atmosphere. I didn't get to go to the NCAA tournament, and some guys do, but maybe it's better to go to Halifax and be the man?"