Forward Kalu Ezikpe is a first year player in the Cincinnati Bearcats program, but he spent his previous four seasons at Old Dominion so with a player his experience he was expected to be an immediate impact player.
After averaging 11.3 points and 7.1 rebounds in 2021-2022 at Old Dominion, it was easy to think he would come right into the program seamlessly and put up similar numbers, but it hasn’t happened as expected. Before playing against Houston January 8th, he had four DNP’s in a row and six on the season. Against Houston he put together very quality minutes against the nation’s No. 1 team. His line didn’t jump off the stat sheet, but it was something that immediately made me take notice that it was a game that could be a building block for him to get it going in the right direction. He played nine minutes scoring two points and grabbing three rebounds.
“He’s been really good in practice for an extended period of time now, going into Temple and really going into Wichita he’s been a guy we’ve been talking about. It’s probably time to give him another shot. I was frustrated with I’m early, not him, but his play. Frustrated with how he was performing defensively, he hasn’t pouted, he’s come to work everyday, he’s started to perform better in practice in those area’s. It made some sense to give him a shot based off the things he’s been doing in practice and thought there were some things for not playing in a long time that were positive,” said Wes Miller after the Houston game on Ezikpe.
He followed the Houston game with three solid games at ECU, SMU and USF. During the last four games he is averaging 5.5 minutes, 2.5 points, 1.2 rebounds and 1.0 blocks. He had six points Wednesday night against USF in six minutes of action, going 3-of-3 from the field. How Ezikpe is playing it shows the type of mental strength the young man has as he could’ve packed it in, but now he is positioning himself to be a vital piece as the Bearcats fight to make the NCAA Tournament. Having improved on the defensive end and being more relaxed on offense has helped during these last four games.
The 6-foot-8, 240 pound forward from Lawrenceville, Georgia continued to grind and even those outside of the program are starting to notice. His time in Clifton might not have started how he and the team wanted, but his trajectory is moving in the right the direction for the finish.
