LEXINGTON, Ky. — On the eve of UCLA’s biggest game of the season, there was a fluid situation in the locker room.
The water boy couldn’t find anything to drink.
Nothing on hand aligned with Finn Barkenaes’ new sponsor, Niagara Bottling, leading to jokes about a personal prohibition.
“He can’t drink certain kind of drinks because he’s got an NIL deal,” Bruins coach Mick Cronin said of the head student manager who recently became the first water boy to land a national brand sponsorship. “And I was looking around, and they said, ‘No, it’s true.’”
UCLA men’s basketball manager Finn Barkenaes stands on the court during the Bruins’ NCAA tournament practice Wednesday at Rupp Arena in Lexington, Ky.
(Jan Kim Lim / UCLA Athletics)
Barkenaes can actually drink whatever he wants, but he’d strongly prefer it be a Niagara product.
The Diamond Bar-based company recently selected the senior business economics major to be its pitchman for what might be the ultimate Cinderella story of March Madness.
“Let’s be real, water boys don’t get NIL deals,” Barkenaes said, “so it’s been pretty cool to be part of something that’s, like, flip the script on things and get recognized, even if it is in kind of a joking manner.”
During the next few weeks, Barkenaes will be featured on Niagara’s Instagram and other social media platforms, the tagline being that 2025 is the “Year of the water boy.”
“At Niagara, we believe unsung heroes like Finn keep top athletic programs running strong with high-quality water,” said Julia Buchanan, the company’s vice president of marketing and communications. “He was the perfect choice as our first-ever NIL water boy — his dedication to UCLA athletics is unmatched, and he plays a vital role in supporting a legendary program.”
At first, Barkenaes thought the whole thing was a joke. A water boy pitchman? Seriously?
He realized otherwise once he started hopping on Zooms with company executives from around the country, leading to his signing a deal with undisclosed terms. Barkenaes did divulge that he’s already received several cases of water, with more likely to come.
“I’m jealous,” Cronin said as his team prepared to face Utah State on Thursday at Rupp Arena in the first round of the NCAA tournament. “That’s what I just told him.”
Handing out water might be the easiest thing Barkenaes does. He and the other managers sweep the practice court, load equipment onto buses and planes, tape simulated basketball courts onto hotel ballroom floors and try — in an often futile effort — to stop the team’s big men in practice while wearing oversized pads on their arms.
“He’s hitting us, pushing us,” center Aday Mara said of Barkenaes.
This isn’t the first time Barkenaes has been called a water boy. Arizona and Arizona State fans once used the term to heckle him, but the taunts had the opposite of their intended effect.
UCLA men’s basketball manager Finn Barkenaes poses alongside Niagara Bottling products. Barkenaes has an endorsement deal with the company.
(Niagara Bottling)
“The whole idea is that we’re out of the spotlight, and the people who work this job do it because they love basketball and they love UCLA,” said Barkenaes, who wants to work in wealth management or finance after graduation. “All of the staff with me, they’re not in it for the spotlight and the recognition, so I think people kind of embrace it, it’s kind of like a chip-on-your-shoulder thing. It’s like, ‘I’m the water boy, I’m the one that people typically don’t care about.’”
Now he’s the talk of the locker room, players calling Barkenaes “Money man,” “Niagara boy” and “Water boy.”
He just smiles, a nobody soaking in success.
