Feb. 12, 2009

By Bill Hass
theACC.com

GREENSBORO, N.C. – If Florida State is successful in making the NCAA men’s basketball tournament for the first time since 1998, the Seminoles will have to give a thankful nod to the soccer fields of Nigeria.

That’s where two key members of this year’s team began their athletic careers. Senior Uche Echefu and redshirt freshman Solomon Alabi each turned from soccer to basketball as their height kept increasing. Ultimately, they both left their home country, came to the U.S. for high school and eventually were recruited by Florida State.

They have made a significant impact in helping the Seminoles to a 19-5 record and a No. 25 national ranking. Florida State is 6-3 in the ACC, tied for third place and just one-half game out of second place.

“It means a lot (to be ranked),” Echefu said. “I’ve been here four years and we’ve never been ranked or gone to the tournament. We want to save this moment and not let it slip away.”

Any discussion of Florida State basketball this season begins with senior point guard Toney Douglas, who has provided the impetus for the season to date with his scoring, passing, defense and play in the clutch.

“He does it all,” Echefu said. “He’s the backbone of our team this year.”

But even backbones need plenty of support, and Echefu and Alabi have provided their share. Despite missing virtually all of preseason conditioning and practice while recovering from arthroscopic knee surgery, the 6-9 Echefu is averaging 8.3 points and 4.9 rebounds. His experience also manifests in other ways.

“He’s a leader,” said Clemson coach Oliver Purnell. “It’s obvious – you can just watch him in warmup. I think the biggest difference between him now and a year or two ago is he’s patient, he understands his role, he lets the game come to him and when it’s time for him to step up, he steps up big.”

Alabi played in 10 games last year before being sidelined by surgery for a stress fracture in his leg. Granted a medical redshirt season by the NCAA, Alabi has been a force defensively because of his 7-1 frame but has come along nicely on offense. He’s averaging 8.0 points and 5.8 rebounds and is shooting 55.5 percent. He has hit 14 of his last 18 shots in wins over Clemson and Virginia.

“He’s 7-1 and then his reach is about 7-18,” said Cavaliers coach Dave Leitao. “By his size alone he becomes a defensive presence. It’s one of the reasons why they are so good defensively.

“Every day when he wakes up, he becomes a whole lot better and you can see the emergence of a guy that has a number of things that he’s learning how to do well and a guy with tremendous potential.”

Compared to players born in America, Echefu and Alabi are still relatively new to basketball, which is a distant second to soccer in popularity in Nigeria. The most successful Nigerian-born basketball player is Hakeem Olajuwon, who had a lengthy, outstanding career in the NBA and was once voted the league’s MVP.

Echefu, from the port city of Lagos in southwestern Nigeria, played midfield and forward in soccer until he began growing and people suggested he turn to basketball. He tried both for a while, then switched to basketball full time in the ninth grade. He left his family and moved to the U.S. in 2001 and played for three seasons at Montrose Christian School in Rockville, Md. He was intensely recruited and chose Florida State.

Alabi, born in the north-central city of Kaduna, was a soccer striker (a center-forward who is a scoring threat) who began to outgrow the sport. When he reached about 6-9, he said, other boys on his team began making fun of him. So in 2004 he turned to basketball and followed a similar path to Echefu’s, leaving his family a year later to move to the U.S. Alabi attended Montverde Academy in Florida.

Although they hadn’t known each other previously, Echefu and Alabi bonded as fellow countrymen at Florida State. Echefu was on his own early in his career as he adapted to the food, culture and basketball ways of American college life. He was able to help Alabi with the transition.

Opportunities to return home have been rare, but having each other eases the longing for the country, family and traditions they grew up with.

“I miss Nigeria a lot, miss my family, the culture, the food,” Alabi said. “So I was happy to know that Uche was here. I was excited to be around a Nigerian and talk about Nigerian things. He’s like a brother to me. Uche helps me out whenever I have a question if I don’t understand something.”

Although they speak different tribal tongues, they also speak a mixture that’s half pidgin English and half tribal language that each understands.

“Now we can play around, have some inside jokes,” Echefu said. “And I have someone to look at as my younger brother. I look out for him and make sure he does the right thing. If something goes wrong, it feels great to have him around.”

Echefu has helped Alabi understand that when coaches criticize players in practice or during a game, they’re just responding to a situation. If Alabi takes something the wrong way, Echefu helps him to calm down.

“In practice, whenever he’s slacking off, sometimes I will grab him like the shirt and tell him ‘you have to go hard every time’,” Echefu said. “Solomon is a tough guy, but I feel sometimes I have to push him.

“And it’s the same thing with me. If we’re playing a scrimmage and I’m not going for a rebound, he reminds me (about going hard). Just little things that help us get better.”

The players live on the same floor of an apartment and visit regularly, taking trips to the movies and the mall.

“Most of the time all he wants is for me to cook so he can eat,” Echefu said. “If I have the time I’ll do some grocery shopping and cook some home food, sometimes some yellow rice with baked chicken or steak.”

On a team where the players get along well, coach Leonard Hamilton said, the relationship between Echefu and Alabi is notable.

“Last year, when Solomon was dealing with his stress fracture, Echefu was very comforting to him,” Hamilton said. “I think (Alabi) probably needed Echefu because he was very positive with him, telling him he needed to be patient and everything was going to work out. (Alabi) was very down and disappointed he wasn’t able to help his team.”

A few other Nigerian natives have played in the ACC in the recent past. Obinna Ekezie played at Maryland from 1995-99, Akin Akingbala at Clemson from 2002-06 and Tunji Soroye is currently a senior at Virginia. Others are scattered at various colleges in the U.S.

There is always a warm greeting, Echefu said, whenever he plays against another Nigerian, “but when the game starts we are enemies.”

They are just as likely to come up against someone who played with them in high school. Soroye and Echefu were teammates at Montrose. Alabi played with Wake Forest’s L.D. Williams at Montverde.

“I want to block his shot so bad,” Alabi said with a chuckle as he looked forward to Saturday’s meeting with the Deacons. “Blocking shots pumps me up.”

Blocking shots has been Alabi’s strength and he has 50 of them to his credit this season, not to mention the uncounted shots he has altered. He also runs the floor well, thanks to his soccer days, and he is developing a soft, accurate touch around the basket.

Echefu, whose minutes were limited early because of missed practice time, believes he is just starting to round into shape and is looking forward to playing his best basketball between now and the end of the season.

And he’s hoping that will extend longer than in recent years. Echefu is acutely aware that the Seminoles haven’t made the NCAA Tournament in more than a decade.

“That really hurts when you sit down on Selection Sunday and your team is not called,” he said. “All the conditioning and all the hard work you put in and you didn’t make it.

“To me it would mean the world (to make the NCAA field). I don’t want to leave here without going to the tournament, I want to experience it. When I talk to people who have been there they say it’s the best feeling ever. I also want to have that feeling and keep that until I graduate.”

And that will make the journey from the Nigerian soccer fields seem worthwhile.

Bill Hass is a long-time observer of ACC sports. His career at the Greensboro News & Record spanned 36 years, from 1969 until his retirement in March, 2006. He is now writing "Bill Hass on the ACC" for theACC.com. His weekly columns will keep fans plugged in to the Atlantic Coast Conference.

This article can not be copied or reproduced without the express written consent of the Atlantic Coast Conference.