Syracuse, N.Y. -- As a teenager, Antonio Balandi would search Google for photographs of the Himalayas. Then he would go to his window.

"It was a beautiful view,'' Balandi, a senior walk-on on the Syracuse University men's basketball team, said. "I'd look at those mountains on my laptop and then look out my window and just be amazed by how surreal it is to see them out of my window.''

Balandi's family moved to Kathmandu, Nepal's capital city, when he was 11 years old. The Balandis had previously lived in Chad, Mauritania and Niger. They remained in Nepal for five years and then moved to the African nation of Burkina Faso when he was 16.

"A lot of people ask me if it was tough to move around so much as a kid, but I liked moving,'' Balandi said. "You make new friends, see new cultures, awesome food.''

Balandi and his family moved so often because of his father's job. Alain Domsam Balandi is a chief of operations for the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund, also known as UNICEF.

"Depending on where he applied and got accepted, that's where we would move to,'' Balandi said.

So born in Chad, Balandi moved to Mauritania when he was 3. Mauritania is on Africa's Atlantic coast just north of Senegal.

"There's a famous pizzeria right by the beach,'' he said. "Every time we went to the beach, we'd go there for pizza. It was amazing. They also had these biscuits for breakfast. We'd dunk them in milk. They were amazing.''

Four years later, his family moved to Niger, located in Central Africa on Chad's border, where he gained an interest in sports. All sports. Swimming, volleyball, basketball and track and field.

"I played tennis from age 3 to 9th grade,'' Balandi said. "I really liked it.''

For a few years, Balandi was Niger's second-ranked player in his age group.

"There was always this one kid who beat me,'' Balandi said.

The move to Nepal meant leaving the African continent for the first time. It also introduced Balandi to a vastly different culture.

"At my school there they had this program called Explore Nepal where each grade would go into the rural areas,'' Balandi said. "We did bungee-jumping, white water rafting and canoeing up in the border lands.''

On another trip, students helped villagers dig fire-domes to make cooking easier.

When it came to cooking, Balandi had a Nepalese favorite. Momos.

"It's a dumpling,'' he said. "A Nepalese version of dumpling with chicken or beef. Really good.''

In Nepal, Balandi gave up tennis to focus on basketball.

"Our school's team wasn't very good,'' he said, "but I liked it.''

But before Balandi could graduate from high school, his father was transferred again. This time to Burkina Faso, a country in Western Africa with Ghana to the south and Mali to the North.

"When I told my coaches in Nepal that I was moving to Burkina Faso, they asked about the city,'' Balandi said. "I was like Ouagadougou. They made fun.''

Balandi enrolled in the International School of Ouagadougou, an English-speaking school. He continued to play basketball and volleyball. A 6-foot-6 center, he was named the school's athlete of the year as a senior.

But, unlike more accomplished athletes like Syracuse centers Paschal Chukwu (Nigeria) and Bourama Sidibe (Mali), basketball wasn't Balandi's ticket to a college education in the United States.

His older sister had graduated from Bryant University in Rhode Island. His older brother went to Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon.

Balandi applied to several U.S. colleges, including Bryant and Lewis & Clark.

"My basketball coach was our AP human geography teacher,'' Balandi said. "At application time, he asked me what type of schools I wanted to look at. I told him I was interested in mechanical engineering and I liked basketball, so I wanted to go to a school with a good basketball reputation.''

"Look up Syracuse,'' said the coach.

Just as he had googled photos of the Himalayas, Balandi looked up Syracuse. He was intrigued. He applied and was accepted.

Balandi arrived at Syracuse as a freshman in the fall of 2014. He heard about walk-on tryouts for the basketball team. He weighed just 180 pounds and wasn't used to the physical nature of the American game.

"They had us playing pickup and I was being pushed around,'' Balandi said. He wasn't selected to join the team.

It was at this point that Balandi's father was transferred to Syria. The rest of the family would not join him there.

So his mother, Martine, and his four younger siblings moved to Portland, Ore. His younger brother now attends Florida Southern College in Lakeland, while a sister is at the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) in Savannah, Georgia.

In Balandi's sophomore year, the Syracuse coaches didn't hold tryouts because they had enough returning walk-ons. He skipped a year before trying again as a senior in the fall of 2017, but he still didn't make the team.

Then he met Chukwu and Sidibe, Syracuse's two African-born centers.

"We started working out together and playing basketball together,'' Balandi said. "They asked me if I would stay for another year.''

Balandi was set to graduate in the spring of 2018 with a degree in mechanical engineering. He decided to add a minor in mathematics and return for a fifth year.

Sidibe introduced Balandi to Syracuse assistant coach Allen Griffin. Balandi had bulked up to 210 pounds and his workouts with the scholarship centers had improved his game. Griffin, who had no walk-on to help his centers with practice drills, went to SU coach Jim Boeheim, who put Balandi on the roster.

Balandi made his college debut in Syracuse's 66-34 win over Eastern Washington on Tuesday, playing the game's final minute.

"That was unbelievable,'' he said.

Balandi knows the game appearances will be rare and brief. He will spend most of this season serving as practice fodder for the Orange's scholarship players.

At 6-foot-9 and 7-foot-2, Sidibe and Chukwu seem as tall as the Himalayas' highest peaks. Balandi could have just Googled them. Instead, he decided to open a window and see them for himself.

"I just missed the feeling of playing basketball,'' Balandi said. "I wanted to experience what it was like at a higher level. I want to play basketball for the rest of my life even if it's just recreational and I want to be a better player. I want to learn, especially from a great coach like coach Boeheim, and I want to play against great players like Bourama and Paschal.''

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