Seton Hall basketball: For veteran forward, a summer of stocks and sales Mike Nzei spent two months working a demanding, coveted finance internship in Manhattan. He squeezed in gym time with some unsuspecting midtown ballers.

Jerry Carino | Asbury Park Press

Show Caption Hide Caption Seton Hall basketball's ping pong ace Sophomore forward Michael Nzei puts his superb hand-eye coordination to use around campus.

On summer weekdays Mike Nzei was up with the sunrise, on the subway before 6 a.m. and settled into his midtown Manhattan workspace while most of the college basketball world remained fast asleep.

This was life as a full-time intern at Cantor Fitzgerald, one of New York’s top financial services firms.

“One of the rules is, you have to be there before the head trader,” Nzei said.

Early on, it became obvious to Seton Hall’s postgraduate power forward that this coveted two-month gig was every bit as competitive as a midwinter Big East rock fight. And he knew exactly how to respond.

“He was the first one as his desk and the last one to leave,” said Kevin Grier, a former Seton Hall walk-on and Cantor employee who recommended Nzei for the internship. “It got to the point where they were telling him to stop staying late.”

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After work, which sometimes ended at 7 p.m., Nzei repaired to a nearby Equinox Fitness Club for runs with colleagues and neighborhood ballers. He never told them he played college ball (and he cut off his dreadlocks, further obscuring his identity), but they pieced it together. At 6-foot-8, with a career field-goal percentage of .621, Nzei kind of stood out.

“There’s a lot of people hacking you,” he said with a laugh, “so I would shoot it a lot.”

This is how the Pirates’ most experienced returnee spent his summer. No individual instruction, no team workouts, no weight room. With the coaching staff’s blessing, the MBA candidate bolstered his real-world resume. Now a guy who hardly spoke English when he arrived from Nigeria six years ago commands a boardroom and a locker room.

“It says a lot about his work ethic, about the sacrifices he’s willing to make,” assistant coach Grant Billmeier said. “He knew a lot of people would love to be sitting where he was sitting.”

There is much bellyaching in the college sports universe that schools use the players. Well, Nzei is using the system for all it’s worth — which, as his story shows, is quite a bit.

'People were blown away'

Nzei grew up playing soccer in Nigeria. His father, who died in 2012, supported the family by fixing up salvaged cars — often seven days a week. Mike came to the U.S. at age 17, took an NCAA-mandated academic redshirt as a freshman and spent the past three seasons as Seton Hall’s first big man off the bench. He’s on pace to at least tie the program record for career games played and could become the fourth player in Pirate history to appear in four NCAA Tournaments (Arturas Karnishovas, Bryan Caver and John Leahy are the others, from 1991-94).

In the classroom, Nzei posted a 3.56 GPA while earning a bachelor’s degree in economics. He’s a three-time All-Academic Big East honoree. One thing he learned at Cantor: Coursework matters.

“If you’re a student and you take the classes I do, they have a certain respect for you,” he said.

Grier, a Christian Brothers Academy grad who was a senior on the Hall’s 2004 NCAA Tournament team, took notice. A good friend and former teammate of Billmeier’s, he took Nzei under his wing at the assistant’s suggestion.

“Kevin’s been a really good mentor to me,” Nzei said. “When he said being a basketball player and athlete helped him do well in a competitive (business) environment, it caught my interest.”

They met several times in the spring to prepare for Cantor’s rigorous application process: two phone interviews, then a four-part in-person interview.

“To hear his story, and how he got to where he is today, it’s mind-blowing,” Grier said. “Six years ago he didn’t speak English. Now he’s on the same level as kids who are at Ivy League schools. Those are the kids he’s competing with for these jobs.”

Known as the capital markets summer analyst program, the internship exposed Nzei to different aspects of Cantor’s operation, from stocks to sales. Nzei said the team-oriented environment felt similar to basketball, and the people skills he developed on the public stage of major-college sports came in handy.

“It’s very demanding, and the feedback I got was he more than held his own,” Grier said. “People were blown away by how impressive he was. He did a terrific job representing the school and the basketball team.”

Catching up on the court

Nzei spent his weekdays living in a Manhattan sublet. On weekends he came back to South Orange and hit Walsh Gym with whoever was around — Billmeier, often, or some teammates. At times he was in there alone.

Admittedly, he has some catching up to do in terms of strength work. The staff is not concerned.

“Mike is extremely mature,” Billmeier said. “He knows what he has to do for his game to be sharp.”

More important, Billemeier said, is the status Nzei earned in the locker room.

“He’s a great role model for his teammates because they’re all going to see him having a big-time job in New York City,” the coach said. “Every kid who comes into our program, they all think NBA, but this opens up guys to see life after basketball.”

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Along with junior guard Myles Powell, Nzei is ready to take on a significant leadership role this winter. He was reticent and deferential to seniors in the past; no longer. During a team meeting Monday, he was one of the most outspoken voices.

“Before, I was a guy who listened and gave my input in a few words. Now I’ll have something to say,” he said. “I will leave a lot to Coach (Kevin Willard) but I feel at this point, if I see someone doing something wrong, I won’t keep it to myself. I have to tell them, ‘This is what the team is about.”

What is it about? That’s another thing Nzei learned this summer.

“People say coaches only care about you for basketball,” he said. “The coaches were fully in support of me, always checking on how I was doing with the internship. It showed me beyond basketball that the school, my coaches and my teammates really cared. Everyone cared.”

To see Mike Nzei's campus-best ping-pong skills, check out the video atop this story.

Staff writer Jerry Carino: jcarino@gannettnj.com.