Read all about the 2023 NIRSA National Basketball Championships

The 2023 NIRSA National Basketball Tournament took place in College Park, Maryland last month and it was an incredible experience for all attendees! The tournament provided participants and guests with amazing games, great food, and an awesome environment thanks to the University of Maryland!

Over the course of three days, 67 teams participated in 130 games and scored over 7800 points. Ninety-seven different colleges were represented at this year’s tournament. The 2023 NIRSA National Basketball Tournament allowed participants to meet new people from all over the country and, for many of us, it was one of those experiences that will stick with us for a lifetime!

Women’s Club

The University of Wisconsin–Madison Red Badgers are the 2023 Women’s Club National Champions!

Repeating their success from the 2022 tournament, Wisconsin–Red are the champions of the Women’s Club Division! The Lady Badgers dominated in pool play, averaging 67 points per game and beating all their opponents by a combined margin of 95 points. Wisconsin–Red’s offense was led by Ellie Clements (96 points) and Kayla Bahr (75 points). Wisconsin-Red’s defensive effort was led by Alexa Jarecki, who totaled seven blocks throughout the weekend. The Lady Badgers impressed everyone with their powerful performances in pool play.

Wisconsin–Red continued their dominant performance in bracket play, opening with a 53-44 victory over UConn. The Lady Badgers then beat UCLA in the quarterfinals and USC in the semifinals. Just one team stood in the way of their chance at defending their 2022 National Title: James Madison University.

In the championship game, Wisconsin–Red trailed JMU 22-23 at halftime. They knew they had to adjust to JMU’s consistent offense scoring, and so the Lady Badgers came out swinging at halftime! Led by the strong play of Ellie Clements, who finished with ten successful free throws and eight rebounds, they outscored JMU 31-21 in the second half to win their second consecutive championship title!

Women’s Club Runner-Up

James Madison University

Women’s Club 3^rd Place

University of Southern California

Women’s Club 4^th Place

University of California, Davis

Men’s Club

The United States Air Force Academy–Falcons are the 2023 Men’s Club National Champions!

The USAFA–Falcons were the team to beat after wrapping up pool play with a perfect 3-0 record that was earned after facing off against some very tough opponents. The Falcons began with a dominant 67-35 win over Lehigh University. They continued their winning streak with a close 62-57 victory over the Duke Men’s club team. They then finished their pool games with another close 38-33 win over the MSU club team. The USAFA–Falcons’ outstanding performance and resilience in pool play translated to their success in bracket play.

In bracket play, the USAFA–Falcons continued their winning streak with a 56-47 quarterfinal victory over NC State Wolfpack and they then defeated the Baylor Men’s club team with a dominant 51-34 victory in the semifinals.

The championship game was a thrilling matchup between the USAFA–Falcons and the Texas A&M Men’s club team. The halftime score saw the teams tied at 26-26. At the end of the 40 minutes of regulation play, the game was tied at 50-50. During overtime, Derek Dickensceidt from the USAFA–Falcons stepped up to add 12 points from six successful free throws, which sealed the championship victory for the USAFA–Falcons with a final score of 60-52.

Men’s Club Runner-Up

Texas A&M University

Men’s Club 3^rd Place

Baylor University

Men’s Club 4^th Place

Clemson University

Unified

The University of Florida is the 2023 Unified National Champions!

The road to the 2023 NIRSA National Basketball Championships was anything but ordinary for the resilient team hailing from Gainesville! As they eagerly approached their shot at glory, a formidable hurdle presented itself in the form of the Ballin’ Badgers from Wisconsin. These once fierce opponents have since become amicable rivals. With everything on the line, the intrepid University of Florida squad had no choice but to summon all their strength and grit if they were to emerge victorious in a grueling best-of-three series against such tough competition.

With the offensive help of Kiondre Brown adding 255 total points through the weekend and the defensive help of Lysander Reyes snatching 75 total rebounds throughout the weekend, Florida dominated their way to two impressive wins over the Badgers and earned their spot in the Unified bracket.

During bracket play the Gators faced off against The University of Toledo, a formidable team with incredible speed and agility. They ultimately came out victorious with a 50-41 semifinal win. The stage was set for an epic showdown against the highly favored University of Louisville Cardinals in the final game of the tournament.

40 minutes just wasn’t enough time for the Gators and the Cardinals; they finished regulation play tied at 48 points apiece, which sent the game into overtime. In an intense overtime period, Florida emerged as the champions with a thrilling 56-52 victory over Louisville in one of the best games of this year’s national basketball tournament.

Congratulations to all participants in this year’s Unified Basketball National Championship!

Unified Runner-Up

University of Louisville

Unified 3^rd Place

Brigham Young University

Unified 4^th Place

The University of Toledo

Men’s Intramural

Columbus State University is this year’s NIRSA Championship Series Men’s Intramural National Champions!

The boys from Columbus, Georgia had a rough start in pool play as they lost 63-50 against Virginia Commonwealth University. However, they quickly turned things around in their next two games, winning 72-42 against Stockton University and 88-52 against the Sheridan College Generals, which brought their record to 2-1.

Determined to come home champions, CSU dominated in a hiccup-free first round (88-52 against the Sheridan College Generals) and continued to cruise through the bracket with a 73-48 victory over the Georgia Southern DEFENSE in the semifinals. As they approached the championship game, they knew it was time to get revenge against VCU for the only loss they sustained in pool play. The team’s heart and grit on the court brought them to a 77-65 victory over the Virginia Commonwealth University Rams. This truly was the icing on the cake as they listened to “We are the Champions” all the way back to Columbus!

Men’s Intramural Runner-Up

Virginia Commonwealth University

Men’s Intramural 3^rd Place

Georgia Southern–Defense

Men’s Intramural 4^th Place

Georgia Southern University–Get Some

All-Tournament Teams

Out of the 694 participants only a few were able to bring home the hardware! We need to recognize amazing individual performances and incredible sportsmanship that was on display throughout the weekend. Congratulations to this year’s National Basketball All-Tournament selections!

Women’s Club

• Andrea Gayle Garcia, University of California, Davis
• Victoria Nunez, University of Southern California
• Theadora Makrigiorgos, James Madison University
• Nancy Kerner, James Madison University
• Kayla Bahr, University of Wisconsin–Madison
• Ellie Clements, University of Wisconsin–Madison (MVP)

Men’s Intramural

• Tyren Stevenson, Georgia Southern University
• Dashaun Robinson, Georgia Southern University
• Latrell Winkey, Virginia Commonwealth University
• Ace Muhammad, Columbus State University
• Noah Lott, Columbus State University
• Darnell Moran, Columbus State University (MVP)

Men’s Club

• Braden Lee, Baylor University
• Nicholas Close, The Ohio State University
• Robert Cieri, Texas A&M University
• Nicholas Krontz, Texas A&M University
• Owen Gainer, United States Air Force Academy
• Kyle Brown, United States Air Force Academy (MVP)

Unified

• Thomas Laube, University of Toledo
• Ethan Langston, Brigham Young University
• David Keller, University of Wisconsin–Madison
• Reese Pace, University of Louisville
• Lysander Reyes, University of Florida
• Kiondre Brown, University of Florida (MVP)

All-American Officials

Just as teams strive to win a national championship, one of the highest honors for student officials across the county is to become an All-American Official at the national tournament. The six student officials listed below have positively impacted their university while also showing great leadership and growth throughout the weekend in College Park, MD. Congratulations to this year’s All-American Officials!

• Isabel De La Torre, Cal Poly Pomona
• Jack Hill, Oklahoma State University
• Luke Grycewicz, Wake Forest University
• Titus Matthews, Middle Georgia State University
• Fauz Adeyinka, University of Maryland
• Will Hollis, Angelo State University
• Christian Miller, University of Akron
• Joaquin Guzman, University of Texas San Antonio
• Jack O’Brien, Michigan State University

The officials’ shortage across the county has continued to become more and more extreme. NIRSA, campus recreation, and all levels of play would not be where they are today without the dedication to developing student officials within intramural programs. Thank you to everyone who has continued to dedicate long hours to officials’ development. And congratulations to all officials who participated in this year’s tournament!

Committee recognition

A big THANK YOU to our staff for their part in supporting this tournament! We can’t provide these quality tournaments and memorable experiences for our student participants and officials without our amazing volunteers from across the nation!

University of Maryland University Staff

• Jason Hess, University of Maryland
• Kurt Klier, University of Maryland
• Mary Kate Crawford, University of Maryland

NIRSA Tournament Committee

• Sean Butler, University of Rhode Island
• Nicole Jackson, NIRSA Staff
• Lauren Carlson, NIRSA Staff

Tournament Experience Committee

• Crystal Durham
• Eric Vaughn, Missouri State University
• Alyssa Kerr, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
• Andrew Rude, The Ohio State University
• Brittany Burriss, Duke University
• Britton Lyon, Georgia Southern University
• Calvin Diggs, St. Cloud State University
• Chris Spencer, University of Iowa
• Connor VanOverberghe, University of Missouri
• Cotter McAnally, University of Oklahoma
• Courtney Smith, Florida International University
• Dan LaPalm, Northeastern University
• Eli Goldfarb, Georgia State University
• Ethan Cobb, University of Missouri
• Sean Deady, University of Rhode Island
• Isaac Estrada, Oklahoma State University
• Jake Bearhope, West Virginia University
• Jasmine Randolph, Stephen F. Austin State University
• Brandon Teel, West Chester University
• Joshua Brunson, The University of Southern Mississippi
• Julie Johnson, Towson University
• Laura  Shively, Duke University
• Matt Sackstein, University of Massachusetts Amherst
• Re’Shawn Thomas, Stephen F. Austin University
• Scott Flickinger, Cornell University
• Stephanie Calhoun, University of Georgia
• Shaneisha Weir, University of Houston
• Zachary Apt, Drexel University
• Tayo Cole, Towson University

Competition Committee

• Alex Pettola, Mercer University
• Carter Kittrell, Middle Georgia State University

Officials Committee

• Michael Castaneda, The University of Texas at San Antonio
• Kara Hunter, Johns Hopkins University
• Brandon Bermea, Oklahoma State University
• Andrew Havrisko, Rowan University
• Daniel Chandler, James Madison University
• Emily Murphy, The Ohio State University
• Hannah Williams, Cornell University
• Jarrode Davis, The Ohio State University
• Luke Bettencourt, Nova Southeastern University
• Jasmine Holmes, Syracuse University
• Justin Paluch, University of Connecticut
• Kelly Salomon, University of West Florida
• Michael Thomas, University of Missouri
• Natosha Harris, University of Kentucky
• Nick Zivkovic , Georgia State University
• Zach Kula, Marshall University

Media Committee

• Donavon Hailey, Texas Tech University
• Venus Okwuka, Loyola University Maryland
• Gracelyn Jones, West Virginia University
• Megan Brady, Florida State University

 Unified Committee

• John Merryman, Sam Houston State University
• Brittany Mueller, Florida State University

Thank you to our supporting sponsors JC2 Officials and ETA Officials Camp for their participation in this year’s tournament!

Thank you to our hosts and recreation partners from the University of Maryland for their outstanding contributions to a great tournament!

It was great to be in College Park for the 2023 NIRSA National Basketball Tournament and to have the opportunity to connect with so many partners, colleagues, and friends! The tournament would not have been possible without the contributions of everyone involved.

Congratulations to all the teams and staff for making the tournament experience a wonderful one. We hope to see everyone next year at the 2024 NIRSA National Basketball Championships!