Women's Basketball | 10/19/2017 4:19:00 PM

To keep up with Ezinne Kalu you need a world atlas -- or at least access to social media.

The former Savannah State University women's basketball star currently lives in Budapest, Hungary and just began her third season as a professional and her first playing for Vasas Akademia in the Euro League.

"Playing in any foreign country is something you have to go into open-minded when it comes to the culture, the environment, and even the team," said Kalu, responding to questions through Facebook. "Being away from family when going to college was easy but being in a different time zone was a different challenge -- one that I was thankfully prepared for. Sometimes adversity would just hit me and I had to suck it up and still perform. I had to wake up and put the work in because that's what I was being paid to do. Overseas is a job. You come to work and perform, if you don't you get fired. With this being my third year, I am taking adversity by the horns."

During the summer, she helped the Nigerian National team go undefeated and win the AfroBasket gold medal for the first time since 2005 and qualify for the FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup in Spain next September.

Kalu, 25, has dual citizenship. Her father was from Abia State (southeastern Nigeria) and she grew up in Newark, N.J. Kalu played on the Nigerian junior national team while at SSU.

"Playing for my home country is ALWAYS a great experience," she said. "This year, however, was the first year I played in the AfroBasket tournament. The level of competition was very intense which was perfect for me. Every game was a championship game for us. Nobody wanted it more than we did. We fought so hard from the day training camp started until the end of the tournament. To be able to make history my first year, going 8-0 and then winning the gold medal had me speechless. Now we are ready to start the same process for Spain."

Few should be surprised by Kalu's post-college success. As a shooting guard (2011-15) with Savannah State, she poured in 2,119 points during her career and added 384 steals and 404 assists.

As a senior, she led the Tigers to a Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference championship and a Division I NCAA Tournament appearance.

And despite her team's 81-48 first-round loss to South Carolina, the 5-foot-8 Kalu showed she could play with the big girls by scoring 21 against the highly regarded Gamecocks.

"Attending SSU helped my career so much," she said. "It allowed me to create this platform that has given me so many opportunities in my life, on and off the court. The person who gave me advice was the one and only (Tigers) coach Cedric Baker. Not only was he an awesome coach but he was one of those people that saw so much in me from the moment he recruited me out of high school up until the last moment when I graduated. We had been through so much that I considered him my family. His advice and words still stick with me to this day. He never gave up on me even when I wanted to give up on myself. I don't know if he knows that but he does now. I am so grateful I was able to play for him."

Kalu graduated from Savannah State in 2015 with a bachelor's degree in history and plans to teach and coach basketball in the future.

But right now, she's having fun seeing the world and playing basketball.

Kalu spent her first two seasons as a professional playing in Portugal -- the first year with Torres Novas and the second year with Olivais.

"The second year was definitely better than the first," she said. "I say that because the area where I lived was a lot more diverse. I stayed near a downtown area so there was always so many things to do and so many places to see. I also like that the organization as a whole stood for something bigger than basketball. They were really about family and support. Every game, home or away, fans came out to support us."

Both years, she led the Portuguese league in scoring, assists, and steals and made the all-star team. With Torres Novas, she averaged 23 points, 6 rebounds, 5 assists and 4 steals a game. With Olivais, she produced 21 points, 4 rebounds, 4 assists and 4 steals a game while earning Forward of the Year honors.
Kalu still has aspirations to play in the WNBA.

"I went to a WNBA combine once in Florida before I went overseas," she said. "I actually did pretty well. However, the coaches, the few that were there, seemed to have their eyes more on the 6-footers. I do plan on attending another combine maybe sometime this spring. My ultimate goal is to play in the WNBA between now and next year."

Kalu hasn't limited her goals to just basketball. In May, she launched a cosmetics line called Kalu Kosmetics.

"It's one of my best projects," she said. "I am currently working on launching a new collection of products (lip glosses, eye shadows, lip liners, etc.) which will be ready when I return home this spring. Creating a brand outside of the court has always been a dream of mine. I am working harder each day to build it into something global. I am also working on a few other projects."

Her focus now is learning Hungarian for her new team Vasas Akademia, which opened the season 1-1.

"Every day is a new learning experience for me," Kalu said. "I'm learning different greetings, numbers, and certain keywords that I use while on the court. It's difficult, but my teammates really help me out. Well, first they laugh then they help."

The Lady Tigers start the 2017-18 basketball season with an exhibition game against Wesleyan University in two weeks on Thursday, Nov. 2 at 7 p.m. in Tiger Arena.