CINCINNATI — A jump shot in practice looks easy to Cincinnati forward Kalu Ezikpe, despite first picking up the game much later than his peers in middle school.
Basketball did not always look natural as Ezikpe was cut from his 8th grade team.
“I was upset, I went back to the coach, we had a little conversation on why I didn’t make the team,” Ezikpe said.
Ezikpe got to work, and never looked back. Now he is a key player for the Bearcats off the bench.
“Everything won’t go right the first time. If you just keep working, you can do anything,” Ezikpe said.
“Kalu’s kept fighting," Cincinnati Bearcats head basketball coach Wes Miller said. "Kalu has kept working, he’s continued to have a really positive attitude, and that will be why it works out in the end."
Ezikpe’s journey to UC taught him an even more important lesson.
"You never know when the game can be taken away from you, being able to be good at more than one thing has always been important to me,” Ezikpe said.
“Here is this great athlete, who is really physical, really gifted on the basketball court, yet he’s this great artist, with this creative mind,” Miller said.
“He’s really good at it, I had art class in high school we was just doing like basic coloring in like the dots and stuff. Some of the stuff he makes look real, like I can see that on a real screen some where,” Cincinnati guard CJ Anthony said.
“I do want to have my own television show, my own animated television show... That’s a huge thing I’m trying to do with my whole drawing background and stuff,’" Ezikpe said.
“He always playing cartoons in his room,” Anthony said.
Kalu is working on a TV show with his brother, hoping to offer a new twist on animated comedy.
“Kind of put a little bit of spin of my culture. My parents are Nigerian too, not just black influence but a little bit of African influence on it too,” Ezikpe said.
“It’s a great feeling. For it to be based on a black family to, it’s a plus; his idea should sky rocket as soon as it takes off,” Anthony said.
But even if it doesn’t go right the first time, Ezikpe will keep working.
