From humble beginnings to hoops glory: Zine Eddine Bedri’s journey to Columbia

Zine Eddine “Zinou” Bedri knew that the best was yet to come after a rough start to his first-year season. The sophomore forward held onto his optimism—the very mindset that helped him when he left his home of Tebessa, Algeria at the age of 15 to continue his hoop dreams in the United States.

For the 2022-23 season opener, Bedri and a young, inexperienced Columbia men’s basketball team traveled to Jersey Mike’s Arena. Playing in front of 8,000 people against a Rutgers program projected to be top 50 in the country was already a daunting task for a first-year’s inaugural collegiate game. Adding to the pressure, head coach Jim Engles had tapped Bedri for the starting lineup. The Algerian native responded how he always had in the face of adversity: He decided to make the most of the opportunity he was given.

And make the most of it he did. In the 23 minutes he played, Bedri led the team in scoring with 8 points along with five rebounds and one assist in a game that resulted in a devastating blowout defeat—Columbia lost by 40 points. While his performance was solid for any college basketball player against a program like Rutgers, Bedri made it known in his postgame interview that he was hungry for more.

“The outcome was not what we wanted it to be. … It was good to be out there with my family, my teammates, and just play,” Bedri said. “As a team, I think we’re only gonna get better from here and as a player, too, I’m only gonna get better and things will be fine.”

Just one season later, the Lions began the 2023-24 campaign with one of the best starts in the program’s recent history. With a 9-4 record going into conference play—the most wins in non-conference play since 2015—Columbia men’s basketball has already passed last season’s win total with a little more than two months of basketball left to play. This rapid turnaround has surprised some followers of Ivy League basketball, but not Bedri.

“It’s all about the work that I put in,” Bedri said. “It was a tough loss at Rutgers, but I didn’t care. I knew if I kept doing what I was doing, I’m gonna get rewarded for it at some point, and then from a team standpoint, it is the same thing.

Bedri’s resilience and confidence come from his upbringing. Growing up in Tebessa, Bedri spent a lot of time around his family. He cherished the summers of his childhood when he would go to his grandparents’ house and spend time with his cousins. Due to his father’s busy work schedule, Bedri adapted to the role of caretaker for his younger brother and sister early on. When he did have free time, Zinou would meet up with his friends and play street soccer.

At around 10 years old, Bedri’s height caught the attention of a few of his closest friends at the time—Yanis, Moumen, and Abederrahman. They convinced him to play basketball with them at their local school club team, and Bedri was instantly hooked.

“I just stopped playing [soccer] because … I got too tall. And then [my friends] were like, ‘Oh, you should be a goalie,’ whatever. I didn’t like that,” Bedri said. “They kind of convinced me, they were like, ‘Yeah, just come with us [to basketball], it’s gonna be fun. You’re tall, you’re probably gonna be good at it.’ So I kind of just did it to be with my friends, for real, and from the first time I kind of just fell in love with it.”

Despite the late start to his basketball career, Bedri’s talent and hard work helped him catch up. With a late growth spurt around the age of 16 that left him near 6-foot-7, the Tebessa native found the game more and more enjoyable. However, the playing conditions in his home country were very different from those in the United States.

“We don’t have the same opportunities back home. Facilities are not as nice. We used to play outside [on] outside courts and you know, if you fall down, that’s very painful,” Bedri said. “If it rains, we can’t play, game is canceled. … If it’s too cold, game is canceled, stuff like that. So it was definitely a little bit of a struggle.”

Through determination, Bedri became one of the best youth players in Algeria, earning the notice of former Algerian professional basketball player Mounir Benzegala, who has played for the Algerian national team. The two first met when Benzegala began training him, and he soon became like “a second father” to Zinou, according to his father, Abdelkrim Bedri.

“I was wrapping up my career and wanted to start just helping student-athletes internationally get a chance to study in the US,” Benzegala said. “Funny enough, one of my teammates was like, ‘There’s this kid who’s like [6-foot-7], 13 years old. But I don’t think his father wants him to leave.’”

After hearing that Zinou’s father did not want his son leaving his home for the United States, Benzegala was almost ready to move on to another young prospect. However, he realized that Zinou had three characteristics that he had rarely seen combined in players he had coached.

“Usually when you get a tall and intelligent kid … he’s usually not very hard working. Just in general, it’s hard to get all three of those,” Benzegala said. “I would say that really separated him and that’s why he got better.”

After many conversations, Benzegala finally convinced Zinou’s father that the United States would be the best place for his son to take advantage of academic opportunities. Bedri would compete at Spring Creek Academy in Plano, Texas—a prep school where Benzegala was slated to coach.

Despite the appeal of the opportunities in the United States, Bedri and his family still found it difficult for the teenager to move over 4,000 miles away.

“The first world, as we call it in our country, is to move to other customs and another approach to living away from his parents and his family, and we are very attached to the family,” Abdelkrim Bedri wrote in a statement to Spectator, “But there was a dream for our son to be a famous basketball player. After thinking carefully, his mother and I made the decision based on what we thought was correct.”

“In order for Zinou to achieve his dream, we tried to overcome our very great fear for him,” Bedri’s mother, Houda Amrani, wrote in a statement to Spectator. “He was always responsible for himself, even when he was young, but now he has become mature and more responsible for himself, and I trust his decisions and love him very much and always.”

At 16, Bedri traveled by himself to the United States, barely fluent in English. He stayed with Benzegala’s family during the summer, and the two worked out together in preparation for his first prep basketball season in the United States. Through living together, Benzegala started to see Zinou as family.

“He was very thoughtful with my children when he was around my kids. And that’s not really the quality of many teenagers,” Benzegala said. “He’s just extremely loyal. Till this day now, he’s an alumni, and he’s concerned about how the program grows and continues and how he can help.”

By the time the basketball season arrived, Bedri’s sacrifice was rewarded. He averaged 10.6 points, 8.4 rebounds, and 1 assist per game in his first high school season. Over the next three years, Zinou not only led the Spartans to a Texas Christian Athletic League state championship, but also finished his career with a near 13-point average per game. While his impact was certainly felt on the court, Benzegala was more impressed with how he carried himself in other settings.

For Zinou, a unique sequence of circumstances helped him pursue his dream—however, many others like him in Algeria are not so lucky. According to Benzegala, a large portion of the country is college-aged, but many aspiring athletes are unknown to scouts.

In 2018, the NBA opened a basketball training center in Senegal to increase exposure for young talents throughout Africa. Efforts like these increase opportunities, but much more is needed to make playing at a higher level accessible. Like Benzegala, Zinou eventually wants to give back to the country he came from. But for now, he is focused on his own trajectory.

“Right now, I’m just focused on working as hard as I can to reach the highest levels of basketball possible,” Zinou said. “So, after that, I will be able to give … back to my community and do similar things or even better things. Why not?”