If you are following March Madness, and even if you aren’t, you have probably seen the video of Kevin Canevari doing the Nae Nae dance after his team, the Mercer Bears, became the biggest Cinderella story of this year’s NCAA Basketball Tournament by defeating perennial NCAA powerhouse (and number 3 seed) Duke in the round of 64 on Friday. But, in case you’re the one who hasn’t, here you go:
So, who is this roundballer who has stolen the NCAA Tournament’s nickname “The Big Dance” all for himself? That’s Kevin Canevari, one of the 7 seniors on the Mercer Bears basketball team.
According to his bio on the Mercer website, Kevin is 5’11” guard who hails from Charlotte, North Carolina who will be graduating in a few weeks with a Business major. He was Born December 6, 1991 in Long Island, New York, and is the son of Kevin and Aggie Canevari. He has three older sisters, one of whom played Soccer for the College of Charleston. His favorite athlete is Brett Favre, and his favorite pre-game meal is a ham and cheese sandwich. Before coming to Mercer, Kevin played basketball at Lake Norman High School.
Here are Kevin’s stats heading into the Tennessee game from ESPN:
(Click to enlarge)
But, according to Langston Hall (or as we like to call him, “The Dorm”), he’s the reason that the Bears’ starting guard learned how to handle the ball. At the 1:20 mark in the video below you can hear the story from Hall, himself.
The world might just now be getting to know Kevin’s mad moves, but Mercer fans can see them at the warm up before every game, where he tends to prefer “KevJacks” to those boring jumping jacks that most folks use to limber up. In the video below, you can see Canevari doing a few KevJacks before the A-Sun Conference championship game.
And here’s Kevin showing off his now trademark moves in the Mercer locker room after a 79-76 win over Ole Miss. (The dancegery kicks in right around the 26-second mark.)
So, will Kevin be dancing again tonight? Tune in to the Mercer vs. Tennessee game at 6:10 PM EST on TNT to find out!!!
While you wait, here’s a perpetual animated gif of Kevin Canevari doing the Nae Nae to get you up for the game:
Oh, and Go Bears! (As if you couldn’t tell from our logo.)
