These players, teams in March Madness have ties to Kansas City and surrounding area

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) - The brackets are here and ready to be busted. With 68 teams selected for the 2025 NCAA Tournament, there are local connections to be made across each region.

Here’s some of the players, coaches and teams with connections to the area you’ll want to know about before action tips off this week.

South Region

• No. 3 seed Iowa State
  • Redshirt freshman Kayden Fish is a Staley High School alum.
  • Senior forward Conrad Hawley is a Raymore, Missouri, native and played in high school at Raymore-Peculiar High School. After starring as a quarterback in high school, he began his collegiate career as a quarterback at Kansas.
• No. 9 seed Creighton
  • Graduate assistant Mitch Ballock is a Eudora, Kansas, native and was a star for the Blue Jays for several years after starring as a high schooler at Eudora High School.
• No. 10 seed New Mexico
  • Sophomore guard Braden Appelhans is a Blue Springs, Missouri, native. Played at Blue Springs High School before transferring to Western Reserve Academy in Ohio. Appelhans played in 29 games for the Lobos this season, averaging 3.5 points per game.
• No. 14 seed Lipscomb
  • Junior guard Miles White is a Kansas City, Missouri, native who played high school basketball at Rockhurst before attending Rockhurst University prior to a transfer to Lipscomb. The 6-foot-3 guard averaged 2.9 points, 2.1 rebounds and 0.6 assists per game for the Bisons. He’s played in all 34 games for Lipscomb, averaging 13.6 minutes per game.
  • Junior guard Kellan Boylan is an Overland Park, Kansas, native who played high school basketball at Bishop Miege. Boylan was a KSHSAA Class 4A All-State selection while playing for the Stags and began his collegiate career at Air Force. He’s played in 28 of 34 games for the Bisons and averaged 8.5 minutes per game.

West Region

• No. 2 seed St. John’s
  • Former Kansas center Zuby Ejiofor transferred to the Red Storm after playing his freshman season with the Jayhawks in 2022-23. In his second season at St. John’s, Ejiofor averaged 14.6 points per game and 8.0 rebounds per game.

• No. 6 seed Mizzou
  • Senior guard Tamar Bates is a Kansas City, Kansas, native and played high school basketball at Piper High School. There, he was a two-time All-State honoree and won the 2020 DiRenna Award (presented to the top high school player in the Kansas City metro) before beginning his career at Indiana. Bates averaged 13.4 points per game this season while shooting 50% from the floor and 40% from 3-point range.
  • Junior forward Mark Mitchell is also a KCK native. Mitchell briefly played at Bishop Miege before transferring to Sunrise Christian Academy in Bel Aire, Kansas. He was a McDonald’s All-American in high school and was a 5-star recruit who began his career at Duke. In his first season as a Tiger, Mitchell averaged a team-high 14.1 points per game.

• Junior forward Aidan Shaw is from Overland Park, Kansas, and played high school basketball at Blue Valley High School. He’s appeared in 28 games this season for Mizzou and averaged 2.6 points per game.
• As the Tigers head to Wichita to take on Drake in the Round of 64, senior guard Caleb Grill will be back home. The Wichita native was the SEC’s Sixth Man of the Year in his second season as a Tiger.
• No. 7 seed Kansas
  • The preseason No. 1 team in the country enters the NCAA Tournament with a disappointing 21-12 record. Along with being a local program, the Jayhawks features several players who prepped locally.
  • Sixth-year guard Dajuan Harris is a Columbia, Missouri, native and helped KU win the 2022 national championship. Harris averaged 9.2 points and a team-high 5.7 assists per game. He’s the all-time KU and Big 12 record-holder in games played.

• Senior guard Zeke Mayo is a Lawrence High School product who grew up in Lawrence as well. Mayo’s making his third NCAA Tournament appearance after twice playing with South Dakota State in the big dance. Mayo was the second-leading scorer for the Jayhawks in his first year with KU, averaging 14.5 points per game while starting 31 of 33 games.
• Walk-on senior guard Patrick Cassidy is a Columbus, Kansas, native.

READ MORE: KU given 7 seed in West region for 2025 NCAA Tournament

• No. 9 seed Oklahoma
  • Former Blue Valley Northwest star Clayton Custer is an assistant coach for the Sooners. The three-time Class 6A All-State selection helped the Huskies win multiple state titles prior to his college career, which began at Iowa State and ended in a 2018 Final Four run with then 11-seeded Loyola Chicago. He’s working under his former head coach, Porter Moser, who now is Oklahoma’s head coach.
• No. 10 seed Arkansas
  • The Razorbacks feature former Missouri Tiger Trevon Brazile, a Springfield, Missouri, native who is in his second season with Arkansas.
  • Head coach John Calipari began his coaching career as a graduate assistant at Kansas under Larry Brown and has met Bill Self twice before in the 2008 and 2012 national championship games.
• No. 11 seed Drake
  • The Bulldogs have strong ties to the area, with seven of their top eight rotational players being Missouri natives. Head coach Ben McCollum is in his first season at Drake after leading Division II power Northwest Missouri State to four national championships. Earlier this year, they defeated Kansas State at the T-Mobile Center in a non-conference game.

• Several of McCollum’s players from NWMSU joined him at Drake, including junior guard Bennett Stirtz. The Liberty, Missouri, native was the Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Year after averaging 19.1 points, 4.4 rebounds and 5.7 assists per game.
• Senior forward Daniel Abreu is a Springfield, Missouri, native and played for the Bearcats last season.
• Junior guard Tavion Banks is from Kansas City, Missouri, and was named the MVC Sixth Man of the Year after averaging 9.9 points per game.
• Sophomore forward Cam Manyawu is a Staley High School alum and averaged 7.2 points per game for the Bulldogs this season.
• Freshman guard Isaia Howard (Plattsburg, Missouri) and senior guard Isaiah Jackson (Independence, Missouri) prepped at Plattsburg and William Chrisman, respectively.
• Overland Park’s Joey Matteoni did not play for the Bulldogs this season but is a Blue Valley Northwest alum as well.
• No. 12 seed Colorado State
  • Sophomore guard Kyan Evans was the third-leading scorer on a Rams team that won the Mountain West Conference Tournament last week in Las Vegas. The Kansas City, Missouri, native and Staley High School alum is a 6-foot-2 guard who was the 2023 Missouri Gatorade Player of the Year. He started in all 34 games for Colorado State this season.
• No. 13 seed Grand Canyon
  • Back in the NCAA Tournament after winning a First Round game in the 2024 NCAA Tournament, Grand Canyon features Kansas City, Kansas, native Tyon Grant-Foster. The 6-foot-7 wing who averages 14.5 points per game is in his sixth season of college basketball action. He played for KU during the 2020-21 season and dealt with a medical issue in the 2022-23 season following a stint at DePaul, leading to the past two seasons at GCU. Grant-Foster is a Schlagle High School alum. Grant-Foster played in 25 games this season for the Lopes as he dealt with more injuries.

• No. 15 seed Omaha
  • Overland Park native Grant Stubblefield is a sophomore guard for the Mavericks. Stubblefield is a Blue Valley Northwest alum who has played sparingly for Omaha this season, averaging 1.6 points per game en route to their Summit League title.

East Region

• No. 2 seed Alabama
  • Freshman guard Labaron Philon had signed with Kansas before decommitting and enrolling at Alabama this summer. Philon, a four-star freshman from Mobile, Alabama, averaged 10.9 points per game for the Crimson Tide this season.
• No. 3 seed Wisconsin
  • Wisconsin star forward John Tonje transferred to the Badgers after injuries derailed his 2023-24 season at Mizzou. After playing in just eight games with the Tigers last season, Tonje has started all 35 games for the Badgers this year, averaging 19.2 points and 5.3 rebounds per game. Tonje was an All-Big Ten selection.
• No. 4 seed Arizona
  • The Wildcats’ director of basketball operations is Evan Manning, a KU alum who is the son of Kansas legend Danny Manning. Evan was a Jayhawks walk-on from 2012-16.
  • Walk-on guard Jackson Francois, the son of former Missouri athletic director Desiree Reed-Francois, plays for the Wildcats.
• No. 5 seed Oregon
  • Head coach Dana Altman was the K-State head coach from 1990-94. He’s in his ninth NCAA Tournament with the Ducks.

Midwest Region

• No. 11 seed Texas
  • The Longhorns were one of the last four teams in the field and feature former Missouri head coach Frank Haith. They play Wednesday night against Xavier for a chance to play Illinois on Friday.
• No. 13 High Point
  • Former Kansas guard Bobby Pettiford is now at High Point after transferring from KU to East Carolina. The Durham, North Carolina, native averaged 8.9 points, 2.4 rebounds and 3.4 assists per game this season while shooting 59 percent from the floor and 42% from 3-point range.

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