Basketball: Zanna adapting to new home, impressing on the court

For redshirt freshman Talib Zanna, it’s all about family — two of them, to be… For redshirt freshman Talib Zanna, it’s all about family — two of them, to be exact.

Growing up in Nigeria with three brothers, two sisters and parents who supported him in all of his endeavors, it is clear that his immediate family played a big role in his life.

Now in his fourth year away from his family while playing basketball in the United States, Zanna still has some occasional problems adjusting to being in a foreign country without them, but his teammates on the Pitt basketball team have taken it upon themselves to be his second family in his new home.

“He fits in great even though he’s from a different country,” sophomore teammate Travon Woodall said. “We all embrace him. That’s the good thing about this team is that we’re always together, so we make everybody feel comfortable.”

“We’re all close,” Zanna said. “We’re like family. We joke around and have fun.”

Although he may be thousands of miles away from them, the 6-foot-9 Zanna still talks to his family on a regular basis over the phone. But he can no longer talk to the one person in his life who has meant the most to him.

Zanna’s father, whom he considers his idol, died shortly after Zanna committed to Pitt.

“That was a real tough moment for me. It’s a tough thing to handle,” Zanna said. “But I had a lot of people who gave me support and gave me good advice.”

Zanna has a picture of his dad in his locker and touches it before every game while saying a prayer for him. He can speak five languages and hopes to one day follow in his father’s footsteps and become an international businessman, which is why he is majoring in business.

He wasn’t able to make it back to Nigeria since being in the United States — even for his father’s funeral — and his family has never been to the United States, but he hopes they can take the long trip to Pittsburgh to see him play.

Playing soccer as a kid, Zanna’s brother encouraged him to try basketball because of his height advantage, and he was first discovered by U.S. high school basketball coaches at a big man camp in Lagos, Nigeria, run by his mentor and former Georgetown player, Godwin Owinje.

It was at that camp four years ago where Bishop McNamara High School coach Marty Keithline recognized Zanna’s abilities, and after a lot of long talks and paperwork, Zanna decided to leave his family to travel to the Forestville, Md., prep school to pursue his dream of playing basketball against top competition in the United States.

“I was scared because I was at a young age,” Zanna said. Yet his family stood by his decision because they knew just how much basketball meant to him.

Zanna instantly became a star at McNamara, averaging a double-double in just his first season there before eventually guiding them to a No. 3 ranking in the state his senior year, when he averaged 14.6 points and 11.8 rebounds per game.

While playing there he lived with a host family, the Bazilios, who treated him like he was one of their own and made him feel like he was a part of the family. One of the main reasons Zanna felt so at home there was because Ralph Bazilio was from Guyana and became a successful businessman in the United States.

“He’s somebody like me,” Zanna said. “We talk probably two or three times every week and they visit me sometimes.”

After spending three years with them in Maryland, he moved on to Pitt upon as one of the most coveted recruits in the D.C. metro area, a region loaded with high school talent.

He believes the redshirt season this year will be beneficial for him, allowing him to take a year to further acclimate to the American lifestyle as well as giving himself more time to grasp head coach Jamie Dixon’s system.

“The redshirt’s going to help me a lot,” Zanna said. “It’s going to make me learn a lot from offense and defense and get ready for next year.”

It seems to be paying off already, as he has been one of the top players in this summer’s Pro-Am league in Greentree. Through four games he’s averaging 12.8 points and 10.3 rebounds per game.

While that might be a surprise to some, the people who watched Zanna in practice last season saw this coming.

Former Pitt guard Jermaine Dixon compared Zanna’s natural abilities to a recent Panther great, saying, “If he works on his ball handling I think he can be as good as Sam Young. His rebounding is great, and he can shoot the ball.”

“I think that kid’s just going to be a pro,” Woodall said. “That kid’s unbelievable.”