Junior forward Bryant Selebangue has been to many different places in his life. After coming to North America from Africa, playing JUCO and standing out at the University of Tulsa in the AAC, he now comes to Tempe as a piece that fits perfectly in the Sun Devil Basketball puzzle.
Before playing collegiate hoops, Selebangue resided in places across different continents. He spent the first five years of his life in the Central African Republic, then moved overseas and spent the rest of his life in the States and Canada. He went to a French high school in Canada and now speaks French at home with his parents.
Out of high school, Selebangue started his career playing ball with the Hutchinson Community College Blue Dragons. After that, he found himself in new threads at Florida Southwestern State College. Then he headed up to Tulsa, where he went on a 30-game tear, leading the AAC in average rebounds (9.2), defensive rebounds (6.2), and offensive rebounds (3.0), along with putting up a solid 12 points a game and leading his team in blocked shots and field goal percentage.
Although this may sound chaotic for some, Selebangue has used his experience with different players, coaches and systems to become the hooper he is today.
"Playing on different levels, JUCO, mid-major, I've seen a lot of things," Selebangue said. "I've seen a lot of guys, and I understand where certain guys have been. I understand when someone's not playing on the court; I understand when someone's not producing, so I'm always someone you can talk to, someone that can boost you and be that guy and help you out."
In addition to helping on the court, his many experiences in different places have affected him personally.
"I love conversing," Selebangue said. "I love hearing other outputs and perspectives on things. I am just a great listener, too. It feels like I've lived different lives, being born in Africa and growing up in America (and) Canada. I've seen different things and have my own interpretation … I can be someone to talk to.”
Now that he suits up in maroon and gold, he uses his skills of understanding multiple viewpoints of the game and knowing how to boost his teammates to be the energy guy the team needs to keep moving forward.
But now, he has run into somewhat of a crossroads.
He said as he has gotten older, he's learned to calm down more, but no matter what he does, he knows he has to be that energy that flows through his teammates and through the basketball.
“That’s my role,” Selebangue said. “That is my identity.”
After Selebangue's dominant nine-point, 13-rebound, two-block, one-steal game off the bench against USC, it is clear that he is getting more comfortable lacing up as a Sun Devil, especially with nine of his boards coming on the offensive end.
READ MORE: ASU defeats Bronny James and USC with a suffocating defense
Head coach Bobby Hurley said that he has liked Selebangue's efforts and expects the team's usual performance on the road against the University of Oregon on Thursday and Oregon State University on Saturday.
"He's got to go out there and outwork his opponent," Hurley said. "He's had some nice games for us when his mind is focused on that."
Hurley is not alone on this consensus. Junior guard Frankie Collins, who's considered the Sun Devil squad leader, has similar views about Selebangue finding success. Collins said it's up to Selebangue to come onto the floor and play hard all the time.
"With him moving forward, if (he) continues to come in and be that spark for us, he will see himself getting a lot more minutes and staying on the floor," Collins said.
Energy, offense and rebounding are the words that come to mind when talking about Selebangue, but now he is playing on an energetic team that has also been out-rebounded in every Pac-12 game so far and a team that relies more on their defense than they do their offense.
He said that associate head coach Jermaine Kimbrough asked things of him that he had never even done before. Coming to Tempe, Selebangue needed to be a “Swiss Army Knife" and to perfect that, he's had to work on defending the perimeter, locking up guards, rotating correctly and blocking shots.
ASU's next focus is their upcoming game against Oregon, and in regards to Selebangue, the main big man to beat is N’Faly Dante. Selebangue looks to outwork him, and even though he does have a little disadvantage in size, he wants to use his agility and speed to maneuver around him and be successful.
Edited by Vinny DeAngelis, Walker Smith and Caera Learmonth.
Reach the reporter at hjsmardo@gmail.com and follow @HenryJSmardo on X.
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Henry is a junior studying journalism and mass communication. This is his third semester with The State Press. He has also worked as a sports reporter.
