“After a month I was the only one [of my friends] coming back,” Diop says. “Once I started I couldn’t stop.”

Diop started in organized basketball playing for the Saint Louis Basket Club. She was named the National Player of the Year for 2000-01.

In 2001, she played on the Senegalese junior national team that won a silver medal at the under-20 African Cup. The following year she joined the senior national team, and she is still on the team’s roster.

Diop’s 6-foot-5 frame and obvious talent attracted the eye of numerous club basketball teams in Europe, who offered her the opportunity to play professionally. Her father, however, wanted her to get an education before she pursued a professional basketball career.

“Whenever somebody would ask me to play for money,” Diop says, “I would just say no because I know that’s what [my father] would say.”

With school on her and her family’s minds, Diop looked to the United States.

“Education is why I’m here,” Diop says. “The United States is the most developed country so the education is the best here.”

Although she was originally recruited by Georgetown’s Big East foe St. John’s, a Red Storm coaching change put the Big East on the back burner as Diop decided on Southeastern Illinois Junior College.

Though the academics at a junior college were not the quality of education she and her father had hoped for, the basketball came easy to her.

“I was used to everyone being bigger and better than me in Senegal, so the competition was a step down at SIC,” Diop says.

She had an immediate impact on the Lady Falcons, helping them win the Region 24 title her freshman year.

As a sophomore during the 2005-06 season, Diop and SIC won yet another regional title en route to a 33-3 season and placed fifth in the national junior college rankings. Diop was third on the team in both points and rebounds, averaging 10.5 and 8.9, respectively. Her performance was good enough to garner all-Great Rivers Athletic Conference accolades in her second season.

Diop’s determination and commitment to winning were evident as Lady Falcons made their run in the 2005-06 playoffs. After a scare in the first round of the regional playoffs, a game in which SIC was the heavy favorite, Diop was all business.

“Coach was mad and we were mad,” she says. “I didn’t say anything [in the locker room], I just sat there. I was quiet until the next game, but I was ready. I think I played pretty well.”

She did play well, scoring 13 points in 28 minutes of play in the Falcons’ win.

After her sophomore success, Diop saw interest from numerous NCAA Division I schools. Pittsburgh, DePaul, South Florida, Penn State and Georgia recruited Diop in addition to Georgetown.

Though the other schools she looked at have had more success in recent years than the Hoyas on the court (10-17, 3-13 Big East last season), Diop chose Georgetown because she was convinced she could help the team improve as her own basketball skills got better.

“I came here to improve with the team,” Diop says. “I didn’t want to go to Georgia where they’ve already been to the Final Four a few times, because maybe they go to the Final Four again, but I don’t get to improve.”

Since she has not played her whole life, Diop has plenty of room to learn each time she steps on the floor.

“She’s definitely a late bloomer, as you would call it,” Georgetown Head Coach Terri Williams-Flournoy says. “But it makes it good because she comes in – she’s such a sponge. Anything you throw at her, it’s new to her, so she’s got it, versus already having certain behaviors, certain patterns, certain bad habits.”

Her height will certainly be an asset to Georgetown, who did not have a true center last season.

“She’ll definitely be a factor in our zone defense,” junior guard Kristin Heidloff says. “I’ve never seen anyone with an arm span that long.”

Diop is picking up where she left off at SIC, as she calmly goes about her business on the court and gets the job done.

“She’s quiet and usually keeps to herself on the court,” senior guard Kate Carlin says.

But that does not mean that Diop’s competitive desire has diminished since SIC was in the regional playoffs.

When asked what she is looking forward to this season, Diop simply responded, “Winning.”

Diop’s teammates and coach have also taken notice of her competitive nature.

“Whenever the ball goes out of bounds, it’s always Nata’s ball,” Heidloff says. “Whether she’s on blue or gray in practice, she always says it’s her team’s ball.”

“She just brings a certain air about her,” Williams-Flournoy adds. “She’s a competitor.”

Diop’s teammates are beginning to learn her tendencies – and quirks – on the court.

“When most post players call for the ball, they put their hands up and yell `ball, ball,'” Carlin says. “When Nata calls for it, she makes a kissing sound.”

Off the court, Diop is studying sociology and French, though she is also interested in health studies. Since she transferred her junior year, she was not able to major in health, but she says it is a possibility for a career when she is done with basketball. Still, for now, basketball is at the front of her mind.

“After I graduate, I’d like to play pro basketball,” Diop says. “In the United States, in Europe, wherever basketball takes me.”

The past few years of being away from her home have taught Diop to value her family life back in Senegal.

“The biggest difference between here and back home is that here there is too much emphasis on working and making money,” Diop says. “At home we would always get together for three family meals a day.”

Diop says Georgetown can be overwhelming at times, both with the coursework and the number of people on campus. At SIC only the athletes lived on campus, which consisted of only three buildings. And she noticed one other difference about Georgetown.

“What’s different about George-town?” Diop says with a grin. “The cold weather. Write that down.”