NCAA basketball news on juniors from France


This weekend in the ACC conference the basketball news concentrated on the big match-up between Duke and Maryland in front of about 8000 fans.

For the last two seasons this match was picked up in France because it had featured Diandra Tchatchouang playing against Allison Vernerey.

Today (2012) Tchatchouang's basketball career is back on track and she is playing professionally with Lattes Montpellier in the French League and also in the EuroLeague Women.

However Vernerey is still at Duke and looking forward to qualify for her third NCAA tournament. Duke beat Maryland (80-72) and are currently 7-0 in conference play.

The other junior French player in the news is Najat Ouardad. This is her first season playing NCAA Division 1 basketball.

She left France in the summer of 2006 to complete her high school education in America.

Before leaving France she played for USM Olivet in NF3 and was a member of the French U16 team in 2006 with Tchatchouang and Vernerey.

She spent her first two years in North Carolina at Forsyth Country Day High School. She then completed her high school education at Oak Ridge Military Academy.

She moved to Florida and Pensacola State College for two years (2009-2011) and this season enrolled at Auburn University.

The road to March Madness - Juniors from France

Najat Ouardad, Katrin Chiemeka, Allison Vernerey, Tamzin Barroilhet ©

1. Najat Ouardad plays for the Auburn Tigers in the Southeastern Conference (SEC). This conference hosts a number of recognised giants in women's college basketball such as: Tennessee, LSU, Georgia and Vanderbilt. She has played in all 20 games this season starting in 8.

Her school is currently in 11th place in the conference.

Due to the number of places normally awarded to the SEC, Auburn still have a chance of qualifying without winning the conference title.

You can watch some highlight clips from her last game by following this link, Quardad is playing in white jersey 3 Watch out for her hustle and a three-pointer, made in France.

2. Katrin Chiemeka plays for the Davidson Wildcats in the Southern Conference (SOCON). She has played in all 19 games starting in 17.

The men's success in recent years has exposed the school to more national basketball news. The only way the women can qualify for the NCAA Big Dance in March is to win their conference title in March. They are currently second in the conference with an 8 and 2 record.

You can watch some highlights from their last game in the youtube clip. Chiemeka plays in the white jersey 12. Once again you can see some French style three-point shooting.

3. Allison Vernerey is playing for the Duke Blue Devils in the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC). Vernerey has the best record of all the French based players currently playing basketball in the NCAA.

She has already been to two Elite 8 and Duke are expected to qualify for the Big Dance again this year.

Vernerey has played in all 18 games this season. She is yet to start a game but is the team's most accurate scorer. She has converted 64% of her shots (50-78).

You can watch a clip from her last game. She is wearing white jersey 43. (Please be aware that Dukes highlights are to music.)

4. Tamzin Barroilhet plays for the Kent State Golden Flashes in the Mid-American Conference (MAC). She has started all 16 games. You can watch all Barroilhet games free, live and uncut (mac-sports.com/Schools/KentState/LiveStreaming.aspx).

Kent State's only chance of playing in the final round of the NCAA tournament is by winning their conference title. At the moment they are three and three in conference play.

You can watch some highlights and interview from their last game. Barriolhet plays in white jersey 14 and once again you will see a couple of big shots from the land of many.

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Basketball news picture credits:
All the images and videos on this page are courtesy of the universities of the student athletes.

Auburn University
Davidson College
Duke University
Kent State University

Date created: 24 January 2012

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