By Matt Norlander

Some weren’t surprised (you can check the lord of this blog’s recent predictions, in fact) about Talib Zanna’s potential, but many around college basketball were introduced to the Nigerian’s talent Thursday night in Pitt’s 79-70 win over Maryland.

Zanna, a redshirt freshman, recorded the first double-double of his Pitt career by scoring 14 points and grabbing 12 boards in just 23 minutes of play. Suddenly, Pittsburgh appears to have more options and depth in the frontcourt. A team that’s still guard-oriented will now make scouting reports a little thicker.

So was Zanna surprised by how well we played, especially with Jordan Hamilton on the floor?

“I would say yeah,” Zanna, who moved to the United States in 2006, said.

It wasn’t always going to be like this — playing basketball in the United States. Zanna lived in a household that cherished good grades in school and wasn’t much of a family that adored sports. His late father never liked them, Zanna said.

“My father he [didn’t] care about sport,” Zanna said. “He just wanted us to do good in school. But I had a talent in basketball, so he told me to chase my dream. When I came here, I lived her for two or three years, and then he passed away.”

Basketball only became an option after he grew too tall for soccer, which of course is all the passion in Nigeria. Fortunately, Zanna’s father was alive to see him sign with Pitt and knew of his possible American success before he died this past spring.

Before that, Zanna trained in the mountains of Nigeria, running them three times per day to stay in shape and become talented and strong enough to attempt to make the transition to America. Confidence is something that quietly emits from Zanna. He and his Pitt teammates were very tame, very businesslike in their postgame departure from the Garden.

“As a team, we are confident in each other,” Zanna said. In fact, when asked what he’s not confident in the only thing he could come up with right now was his ball-handling. If he picks up that skill as swiftly as he has the English language and effective post play, the Panthers could have a surprise Freshman of the Year candidate.