Only one Louisiana men’s basketball program — McNeese State — will participate in the 2026 NCAA Tournament, but the Cowboys won’t be alone in bringing some Boot flavor to the Big Dance.
Nine Louisiana natives spread out across six different teams earned bids in this year’s 68-team field, including some stars on notable contenders with legitimate staying power as the brackets advance.
Four of those players will take the court for two teams in Wednesday’s “First Four” games to tip off the state’s representation before even getting to the chaos of Thursday’s and Friday’s full slates.
Among the highlights: two Louisiana natives playing for a 2025 finalist considered among the handful or so of most realistic title contenders, and two Louisiana natives going head-to-head in one of the more intriguing first-round matchups.
Here are the rundowns of all the players by alphabetical order, team and when to watch.
Alphabetical Order
Ogien Ayo, Tennessee State F— Liberty Magnet
Chris Cenac Jr., Houston G — Isidore Newman (via Link Academy)
Corey Dunning, Prairie View A&M F — Lafayette High
Allen Graves, Santa Clara F — Ponchatoula
Tai’Reon Joseph, Prairie View A&M G — Scotlandville High
Jaron Pierre Jr., SMU G — St. Augustine
Joseph Tugler, Houston F — Monroe native (via Cypress Falls High, Houston)
Kam Williams, Kentucky G — Lafayette Christian
Lance Williams, Prairie View A&M G — St. Michael the Archangel
Which Teams Have the Most Louisiana Flavor
3 — Prairie View A&M: Corey Dunning (Lafayette), Tai’Reon Joseph (Scotlandville), Lance Williams (St. Michael)
2 — Houston: Chris Cenac Jr. (Isidore Newman), Joseph Tugler (Monroe native)
1 — Kentucky: Kam Williams (Lafayette Christian)
1 — Santa Clara: Allen Graves (Ponchatoula)
1 — SMU: Jaron Pierre Jr. (St. Augustine)
1 — Tennessee State: Ogien Ayo (Liberty Magnet)
When to Watch + Details
Corey Dunning, Tai’Reon Joseph, Lance Williams — No. 16 Prairie View A&M vs. No. 16 Lehigh — Wednesday, 5:40 p.m.
Prairie View A&M held off Southern late in this past weekend’s SWAC Tournament championship to complete its underdog run to the title as a No. 8 seed and earn its first NCAA Tournament berth since 2019. Three of the Panthers’ top six rotation players are all from Louisiana — all three graduate transfers in a veteran lineup overall with Dunning and Williams from Xavier-New Orleans and Joseph most recently from UTSA. Joseph, the team’s second-leading scorer with 18.2 points per game, started more than half the season before missing a few weeks and returning as a sixth man for the conference tournament run. Williams is the point guard with 3.3 assists to 1.6 turnovers per contest, one of the team’s four double-digit scorers at 10.1 points per game and, though the smallest player on the court, also a willing rebounder chipping in 3.2 boards be game. Dunning worked his way into the starting lineup down the stretch to add more size and rim protection, including 28 blocks in the past 11 games since he joined the earned that expanded role. The winner of Wednesday night’s First Four game will head to Tampa to face No. 1 Florida, the reigning national champion, at 8:25 p.m. Friday.
Former St. Augustine guard Jaron Pierre Jr. has been among the leading scorers this season for SMU, which faces Miami (Ohio) in the First Four. (Photo: Courtesy of SMU Athletics)
Jaron Pierre Jr. — No. 11 SMU vs. No. 11 Miami (Ohio) — Wednesday, 8:15 p.m.
Last year’s Conference USA Player of the Year and one of the nation’s leading scorers in his lone season at Jacksonville State has carried that performance right over to his senior season at SMU with 17.6 points, 4.9 rebounds, 2.0 assists, 0.9 steals and 0.5 blocked shots per contest in 33 appearances and 31 starts. His 37.8% shooting from beyond the arc has been one of the top-three marks in the Mustangs’ rotation. Pierre and company will face the team with the nation’s best record this season, the 31-1 RedHawks, whose lone loss came in the MAC Tournament quarterfinals. The winner will advance to face No. 6 Tennessee at 3:25 p.m. Friday in Philadelphia.
Chris Cenac Jr., Joseph Tugler — No. 2 Houston vs. No. 14 Idaho — Thursday, 9:10 p.m.
Houston graduated two of its three Louisiana natives after coming up just shy in a championship-game heartbreaker last April, but brought in another in the form of one of the nation’s top freshman recruits. Tugler is one of three returning starters from that title game and has enjoyed an All-Big 12 Defensive-Team junior season with 8.4 points, 5.4 rebounds, 1.5 blocks and 1.4 steals per contest. And Cenac, the former Isidore Newman star who spent his high school senior season at Link Academy (Branson, Mo.), has plugged right into the front line and led the team in rebounding at 7.5 boards a game, along with 9.5 points. Houston opens Thursday as heavy favorite in its opener, if not to at least reach the Sweet 16 where they would have hometown advantage in the regional.
Former Lafayette Christian star Kam Williams has been a key contributor in his first season at Kentucky, which faces Santa Clara in the first round. (Photo: Courtesy of UK Athletics)
Allen Graves vs. Kam Williams — No. 10 Santa Clara vs. No. 7 Kentucky — Friday, 11:15 a.m.
Graves showed some patience with a redshirt season in 2024-25 after wrapping his high school career by winning all of Louisiana’s top individuals awards and back-to-back state championships. And in his first college season, he has gotten right back to his award-winning performance as an All-West Coast Conference First-Team, Sixth Man of the Year and Freshman of the Year selection with 11.6 points, 6.5 rebounds, 1.8 assists, 2.0 steals and 0.9 blocked shots per game and, despite starting just four games, started generating NBA Draft buzz. Graves will see another Louisiana native in the first round as Williams and his Wildcats await. The former all-state selection and Tulane signee transfer this past offseason from the home-state Green Wave and has been a consistent rotation player throughout the season with seven starts in 22 games and averages of 6.2 points, 2.3 rebounds, 1.0 assists with most of his work (75 of his 104 field-goal attempts) coming from the perimeter as one of the team’s better 3-point shooters (34.7%)
Ogien Ayo — No. 15 Tennessee State vs. No. 2 Iowa State — Friday, 1:50 p.m.
The 6-foot-9, 180-pound forward out of Liberty Magnet joined Tennessee State this year after two seasons starting at Kentucky State, but hasn’t been listed as seeing any action this season.