Indya Nivar (born January 16, 2004) is an American

college basketball College basketball is basketball that is played by teams of Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. In the Higher education in the United States, United States, colleges and universities are governed by collegiate athle ...

player for the

North Carolina Tar Heels The North Carolina Tar Heels (also Carolina Tar Heels) are the college sports in the United States, intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The name Tar Heel is a nickname used to refer to ...

of the

Atlantic Coast Conference The Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States. Headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, the ACC's eighteen member universities compete in the National Collegiate Athlet ...

(ACC). She previously played for the

Stanford Cardinal The Stanford Cardinal are the college athletics in the United States, athletic teams that represent Stanford University. Stanford's program has won 138 National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA team championships, the List of NCAA schools ...

Early life and high school career

Nivar was born in

Fayetteville, North Carolina Fayetteville ( , ) is a city in and the county seat of Cumberland County, North Carolina, United States. It is best known as the home of Fort Bragg, a major U.S. Army installation northwest of the city. Fayetteville has received the All-Ameri ...

, to Ebony Crooms-Nivar and Kenny Nivar, and has a younger sister. She played multiple sports growing up, including gymnastics, basketball, volleyball, and track, competing in the latter three at

Apex Friendship High School Apex Friendship High School, often referred to as AFHS, is a public high school located in the southwestern corner of Apex, North Carolina near the small community of Friendship, North Carolina. The school was founded in 2015 and is part of the ...

Apex, North Carolina Apex () is a town in Wake County, North Carolina, United States. At its southern border, Apex encompasses the community of Friendship. In 1994, the downtown area was designated a historic district, and the Apex train depot, built in 1867, is de ...

. In her senior season, she averaged 18 points, 8.5 rebounds, 3.8 assists, and 3.5 steals per game and was named North Carolina Miss Basketball, the North Carolina

Gatorade Player of the Year The Gatorade Player of the Year awards are given annually to up and coming high school student-athletes in the United States. They are given for boys baseball, boys and girls basketball, boys and girls cross country, boys football, boys and girl ...

, and

McDonald's All-American McDonald's Corporation, doing business as McDonald's, is an American multinational fast food chain. As of 2024, it is the second largest by number of locations in the world, behind only the Chinese chain Mixue Ice Cream & Tea. Brothers ...

. She led Apex to the NCHSAA 4A state championship game, finishing runner-up but being named the tournament's MVP. A five-star recruit ranked the 20th-best player in the 2022 class by

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

, she committed to

Stanford Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth governor of and th ...

over offers from

North Carolina North Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. stat ...

and NC State.

College career

Stanford Cardinal

Freshman season (2022–23)

Nivar debuted for the

on November 7, 2022, scoring a season-high 13 points in the season-opening 86–48 win against

San Diego State San Diego State University (SDSU) is a public research university in San Diego, California, United States. Founded in 1897, it is the third-oldest university and southernmost in the 23-member California State University (CSU) system. SDSU is ...

. She appeared in all 35 games (one start) as Stanford jointly won the

Pac-12 Conference The Pac-12 Conference is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the Western United States. It participates at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) NCAA Division I, Division I level for all sports, and its Co ...

regular-season title. On March 17, 2023, she scored 11 points in a 92–49 win against

Sacred Heart The Most Sacred Heart of Jesus () is one of the most widely practised and well-known Catholic devotions, wherein the heart of Jesus Christ is viewed as a symbol of "God's boundless and passionate love for mankind". This devotion to Christ is p ...

in the first round of the NCAA tournament, before Stanford lost in the second round. She finished her freshman season with averages of 3.2 points, 2.0 rebounds and 1.0 assists, in 12.6 minutes per game. After the season, she chose to enter the

NCAA transfer portal The NCAA transfer portal is a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) application, database, and compliance tool created to manage and facilitate the process for student athletes seeking to transfer between member institutions. It is i ...

and returned to her home state with the

; according to head coach Courtney Banghart, Nivar "said she didn't know we'd get good so fast".

North Carolina Tar Heels

Sophomore season (2023–24)

Nivar made her North Carolina debut on November 8, 2023, coming off the bench to score a game-high 17 points and get 11 rebounds in the season-opening 102–49 win against Gardner–Webb. She was the first North Carolina player to record a

double-double In basketball, a double-double is a single-game performance in which a player accumulates ten or more in two of the following five statistical categories: points, rebounds, assists, steals, and blocked shots. The first "double" in the ter ...

on her debut since 2013. She appeared in all 33 games (6 starts) in her sophomore season, averaging 6.4 points and 4.3 rebounds per game.

National team career

Nivar won gold with the United States at the 2022 FIBA Under-18 Women's Americas Championship, where she averaged 6.7 points, 3.7 rebounds, 2.3 assists, and 1.8 steals per game in six games.

Career statistics

College

, - , style="text-align:left;", 2022–23 , style="text-align:left;",

, 35, , 1, , 12.5, , 39.6, , 23.8, , 65.6, , 2.0, , 1.0, , 0.5, , 0.1, , 1.0, , 3.2 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2023–24 , style="text-align:left;", UNC , 33, , 6, , 21.3, , 37.1, , 23.9, , 50.0, , 4.3, , 1.4, , 1.3, , 0.5, , 1.7, , 6.4 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2024–25 , style="text-align:left;", UNC , 34, , 34, , 24.0, , 36.8, , 21.5, , 55.9, , 4.5, , 2.0, , 2.0, , 0.4, , 2.3, , 8.3 , - class="sortbottom" , style="text-align:center;" colspan="2", Career , 102, , 41, , 19.2, , 37.3, , 22.9, , 55.7, , 3.6, , 1.5, , 1.3, , 0.3, , 1.6, , 5.9 , - class="sortbottom" , style="text-align:center;" colspan="14", Statistics retrieved from

Sports-Reference Sports Reference, LLC is an American sports statistics company that operates databases of several sports. They include Pro Football Reference for American football, Baseball Reference for baseball, Basketball Reference for basketball, Hockey Ref ...

References

External links

UNC bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nivar, Indya Living people 2004 births American women's basketball players Basketball players from North Carolina People from Apex, North Carolina Guards (basketball) North Carolina Tar Heels women's basketball players