The Wisconsin connections in the 2023 NCAA Tournament

The primary Wisconsin contribution on the 2023 NCAA Tournament will come in the form of Marquette, the Big East champion and a No. 2 seed on the men’s side, and a women’s team that earned the No. 9 seed thanks in part to a memorable win over Connecticut during the season.

Aside from the obvious connection of Marquette being, you know, located in Wisconsin, the men’s team includes Big East sixth man of the year David Joplin of Brookfield Central High School and coach Shaka Smart, a graduate of Oregon High School who's in the running for national coach of the year awards. Others on the men’s roster are Milwaukee native Caleb Kozinski (who played at IMG Academy out of state), Michael Kennedy of Homestead High School and Jake Ciardo of Germantown High School.

The women’s basketball team features Homestead alumna Chloe Marotta, the Golden Eagles’ second-leading scorer (14.5 points per game) and top rebounder (9.1 rebounds). Emily La Chapell of Appleton East also has started 19 games this year and appeared in 31, averaging 5.1. Former University of Wisconsin coach Jonathan Tsipis is also part of Marquette’s support staff.

What about the rest of the field? These are the Wisconsin players on other teams or players and coaches with prominent Wisconsin ties heading into the Big Dance.

In the starting five (men)

Reece Beekman, Virginia

Beekman was born and spent his early years in Milwaukee before attending high school in Louisiana. The junior starter scores 9.3 points per game and is second on the team in assists while leading the squad in steals.

Greg Elliott, Pittsburgh

He played four years at Marquette and joined Pitt as a graduate transfer this season. He’s started every game for the Panthers and is averaging 10.7 points and 3.0 rebounds, both career highs.

DeAndre Gholston, Missouri

Gholston played the past two seasons at UW-Milwaukee before joining Missouri as a graduate transfer. He’s averaging 10.5 points and 2.4 rebounds for the Tigers.

Joey Hauser, Michigan State

The Stevens Point High School alum and former Marquette player sits second on the team in scoring at 14.2 points per game and leads the Spartans with 7.0 boards. He was an honorable mention all-conference pick in the Big Ten.

Tyrese Hunter, Texas

The Racine St. Catherine’s alumnus played a role for Iowa State in upsetting Wisconsin in last year’s NCAA Tournament. After transferring to Texas, he’s started every game and averages 10.5 points per game.

Kobe Johnson, USC

The alumnus of Nicolet High School averages 8.8 points and 4.8 rebounds per game for the Trojans and has been a regular starter during the season. He’s also second on the team in assists.

Reserves

• Andrew Alia, Drake. The walk-on hasn’t played this season for the Missouri Valley champion but was previously Midwest Classic Conference player of the year at Kenosha St. Joseph.

• Leon Bond III, Virginia. The true freshman from Wauwatosa East has not played this season.

• Danilo Jovanovich, Miami (Fla.) The freshman forward from Whitnall High School has appeared in one game this season.

• Logan Landers, Grand Canyon. The Cedarburg native transferred in from Kansas State and has appeared in 13 games this season.

• Adam Larson, Southeast Missouri State. The redshirt freshman from Fennimore comes off the bench for the Ohio Valley Conference champion, which survived a buzzer-beating 3-pointer from Tennessee Tech to seal off a run to the crown as the No. 5 seed. Larson averages 5.1 points and 13.5 minutes per contest.

• Patrick Suemnick, West Virginia. Formerly of Denmark High School, the sophomore transferred from Triton College in Illinois and has seen action in 19 games for the Mountaineers.

• Ben Vander Plas, Virginia. Vander Plas, who was named after coach Tony Bennett’s father Dick (Ben’s father, Dean, played for Dick at UWGB), transferred from Ohio, where his big NCAA Tournament game actually eliminated Virginia in 2021. He’s started 15 games this season and scores 7.4 points per contest. Unfortunately, he’s out for the year with a hand injury suffered in a Wednesday practice before the ACC tournament.

• LJ Wells, Northern Kentucky. The freshman from Eau Claire Memorial has played in 24 games this season and started four for the Horizon League champion Norse, averaging 1.6 points.

Head coaches

Tony Bennett, Virginia

His Wisconsin ties are well documented. He played at UW-Green Bay for his father, Dick, a patriarch of Wisconsin men’s basketball. Tony attended Stevens Point and Green Bay Preble High Schools.

Nate Oats, Alabama

The native of Watertown is head coach at Alabama, the No. 1 overall seed in the tournament and SEC champ in both the regular season and tournament. But it’s not a season without serious controversy, including for Oats himself in the aftermath of star player Brandon Miller's connection to a murder.

T.J. Otzelberger, Iowa State

The graduate of Thomas More High School in Milwaukee led the Cyclones past Wisconsin last year in his first year as the program’s head coach.

Bruce Pearl, Auburn

The long-tenured SEC coach was at UW-Milwaukee for four seasons, overseeing the team’s dramatic run to the 2005 Sweet 16.

Buzz Williams, Texas A&M

The head coach for the Aggies led Marquette to five NCAA Tournaments during his six-year tenure from 2008-14, including three Sweet 16s and an Elite Eight.

Assistant coaches and looser ties

• Tony Benford, TCU. He was an assistant at Marquette from 2008-12.

• JR Blount, Iowa State. The assistant coach was a two-time state champion playing for Dominican High School in Whitefish Bay.

• Justin Gainey, Tennessee. The assistant coach spent two stints at Marquette, including as an associate head coach from 2020-21.

• Darrin Horn, Northern Kentucky head coach. The former Marquette assistant was on staff at MU from 1999-2003, where he was part of the group that went to the Final Four.

• Kevin Jewell, Texas A&M Corpus Christi. The director of basketball operations served two years as a graduate assistant with Wisconsin from 2018-20.

• Steve Merfeld, Creighton. The Bloomington native and graduate of UW-LaCrosse has been with the Bluejays program for a decade. He was head coach for Hampton in 2001 when his 15th seeded squad knocked off No. 2 Iowa State.

• Mike Morrell, UNC Asheville head coach. He was director of basketball operations at VCU and then an assistant coach at Texas under Shaka Smart, now the Marquette men’s coach. He took over at Asheville in 2018.

• Kelvin Sampson, Houston head coach. The national head coach of the year candidate was an assistant with the Milwaukee Bucks from 2008-11.

• Brad Soderberg, Virginia. The Cavaliers director of scouting was a longtime assistant at Wisconsin and took over in 2001 as interim head coach.

In the starting five (women)

Lexi Donarski, Iowa State

The La Crosse Aquinas graduate already has had a huge impact on Iowa State, earning the Big 12 defensive player of the year honor last year and Big 12 freshman of the year the year before. At 12.2 points per game, she’s third on the team in scoring while adding 2.7 rebounds. She was again on the Big 12 all-defensive team this year.

Caitlyn Harper, Purdue

The redshirt senior who attended Arrowhead High School transferred from Cal Baptist this season and has been a regular starter for the Boilermakers, averaging 10.3 points and 3.8 rebounds. She also has a team-leading 18 blocks.

Erin Howard, Florida State

The graduate of Madison East is a redshirt senior who started her college career at Auburn. She’s started every game and brings in 7.6 points and 5.8 rebounds per game.

Tishara Morehouse, Florida Gulf Coast

The Atlantic Sun player of the year averaged 16.2 points per game this season and became the fifth straight FGCU player to win league player of the year. She’s shooting 49% from the floor and is now a three-time first-team all-conference choice. Morehouse played high school ball at Milwaukee King.

McKenna Warnock, Iowa

The Monona Grove native has started every game over the past three seasons at Iowa, and this year she’s bringing in in 5.9 rebounds and 11.0 points per game. The Hawkeyes, led by perennial All-American Caitlin Clark, are a bona fide championship contender.

Players in reserve

• Courtney Becker, Drake. The La Crosse Aquinas alumna scored 5.8 points with 5.3 rebounds off the bench for the Bulldogs, with appearances in 31 games.

• Mesa Byom, South Dakota State. The sophomore from Melrose-Mindoro has played in 21 games this season for the Horizon League champion.

• Erin Hedman, Sacramento State. The New Berlin Eisenhower graduate began her career at Minnesota and is now a junior in the Hornets, winners of the Big Sky Conference. She played in 10 games this year.

• Julia Hintz, Cleveland State. The New Berlin Eisenhower standout has been sidelined the past two seasons with injury.

• Jayda Jansen, Toledo. The senior guard from Sun Prairie comes off the bench for the MAC champion, scoring 6.7 points per game.

• Sarah Lazar, Saint Louis. The sophomore from Madison Edgewood has played in four games this season for the Atlantic 10 champion Billikens.

• Imani Lewis, Duke. After playing three years at Wisconsin from 2018-21, where she was second-team all-Big Ten in 2021, she transferred to Duke, where she played in 12 games last season and four this season.

• Aizhanique Mayo, Iona. She’s on the Gaels roster though hasn’t played this season, nor did she appear with Marquette last year when she was recruited to MU but parted ways with the program. Iona won the MAAC.

• Jordana Reisma, Cleveland State. The freshman from Brown Deer has appeared in 34 games this season, scoring 5.6 points per game with 3.3 rebounds. That included six boards when the Vikings upset UW-Green Bay in the Horizon League championship game.

Coaches

• Dawn Plitzuweit, West Virginia head coach. The West Bend native coached South Dakota to the Sweet 16 last year, then took the job at West Virginia before the 2022-23 season. She previously served as an assistant at both Wisconsin and Green Bay, as well as at Michigan under current UWGB coach Kevin Borseth.

• Carissa Thielbar, South Dakota State assistant. She played basketball in college at UW-Superior.

Did we miss any? JR Radcliffe can be reached at (262) 361-9141 or at jradcliffe@gannett.com.

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: These Wisconsin natives are heading to the NCAA Tournament