He stands on guard for 3.
A Canadian sharpshooter from beyond the arc and four other players from the True North are leading Long Island University’s run to March Madness.
Leading scorers and Toronto high school buddies Jamal Fuller, who shoots 43.8 percent on 3-pointers, and Malachi Davis turned over a new maple leaf for the Sharks’ 24-10 season — one that’s a far cry from the team’s three-win campaign in 2022-23 — while showing international love in the process.
“We kind of bring the Canadian culture around here. Everyone says we talk a little different,” Davis, a redshirt senior guard, told The Post. “Our teammates try to get into it and make us feel at home a little bit.”
Fuller and Davis have been driving forces for LIU and they’re joined by fellow Torontonian Caleb Johnson, Shadrak Lasu of Winnipeg and Max Ndlovu-Fraser of Vancouver — all role players — for coach Rod Strickland’s Sharks, the No. 16 seed in the West Region, who take on No. 1 Arizona at 1:30 p.m. Friday in San Diego.
Davis, who averages 14.4 points per game, and Fuller were hoping to play in Buffalo, so it would be easier for their Ontario-based families to attend.
Fuller said their chemistry from playing together at Central Technical School “absolutely” translates to Division I ball, as Davis can send him a no-look pass with borderline telepathy.
Fuller, who averages 16.5 points per game, can take the ball to the hoop and finish strong through contact, he said.
The duo is no stranger to Johnson, who played at Central Tech rival Father Henry Carr Catholic Secondary School.
“Caleb was a dog,” Davis said. “He always had that go-at-you mindset. I feel like he brought that here.”
Sure, the rest of the team has embraced cultural differences, but they’re still a long way off from being honorary Canadian citizens.
“They’ll ask, like, ‘Oh, are there igloos?’ Or like, you know, just silly stuff, like that,” said Fuller, whose home metropolis has a population of around 3 million.
The Canadians even had to explain some of their nation’s culinary basics to their American peers, like what Tim Hortons is or that in Canada, pizza is often eaten with dipping sauces.
“To be honest, they don’t know what poutine is,” Fuller added, referring to a platter of fries smothered in gravy and cheese curds and sometimes a protein.
It’s not all lost in translation between the two nationalities, though.
“We got a couple of songs in our playlist, our pregame warm-up rotation with Drake,” he said. “So yeah, they mess with him.”
Now the entire Sharks team is ready to Mountie up and try to shock the world with an unfathomable upset over the Wildcats.
Strickland is making them believe.
“With privilege, there’s pressure and every game is hard-earned and not given,” Fuller said. “He just tries to instill that into us. And, you know, we just have a goal, a hard mindset, and are staying locked in.”
Their coach had LIU prepared for big moments, both physically — Davis vividly reminisced about brutal summer runs during the NEC championship postgame press conference — and mentally, to dream of making a Cinderella run.
“When we scrimmage and go at each other, coach will not make certain calls and stuff,” Fuller said. “The game isn’t always going to be in our favor. … He changed us for [recognizing] that.”
Davis, who played junior college ball for Lake Land in Illinois, knows all too well what the tooth-and-nail fight is for a moment in the sun as a Canadian.
“We had the longest journey,” he said.
Fuller also had to prove himself at the Division II Academy of Art University in San Francisco before getting his chance to shine.
“We never came out of high school and went to D-I. We had to grind,” Davis said.
The north stars are trying to change things and open a more direct pipeline for more Canadians to reach America’s big stage.
“Now that we’ve gone to the tournament, you guys can do it too,” said Davis. “We paved the way for you guys to come out here.”
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
