The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
#WhatStartsHere: Kelsey Lang
06.19.2020 | Women's Basketball
The former Women's Basketball standout is now working at SMU and pursuing her MBA.
Usually at this time of year, former Texas Women's Basketball player Kelsey Lang is preparing for the upcoming season, working on her fitness and sharpening her skills for the European season, which typically tips-off in late September.
However, this summer finds Lang pursuing a new path, working as an event coordinator with the Southern Methodist University (SMU) Development and External Affairs, while also pursuing a Master of Business Administration in finance and marketing.
"I didn't want to sit in front of a computer all day and then go to school at night, and I thought this would be really interesting," Lang said. "This job allows me to meet donors and put together events, so I'm able to work with a lot of people while also going to school."
Last summer, Lang signed to play with Dafni Agioy Dimitriou of the A1 Ethniki (A1 National) Women's Basketball League in Greece. As the season approached, she already had it in mind that it would be her final season as a professional player. Two previous seasons playing overseas, first with Russian Premier League powerhouse Dynamo Moscow in 2017-18, then a season in Budapest with NKE Csata in Hungary's top league, the Nemzeti Bajnokság I/A, had taken a toll on her body.
A nagging foot injury led to surgery in the summer of 2018 and could require further operation sometime in the future. Add the travel required for games and the day-to-day rigors of being a professional athlete and Lang realized that her journey would end sooner rather than later.
"I always knew I was only going to play for a couple years overseas; I didn't really see myself having a 10-year career," Lang recalled. "After my first year I definitely recognized how hard it is on your body, you're pretty much over there between seven and eight months, which is a lot longer than the college season."
The Russian Premier League features several WNBA players, allowing Lang to play alongside former Notre Dame standout and current Las Vegas Aces guard Lindsay Allen her first season and gain experience in one of the toughest leagues in the world. But winters were harsher than the native Texan was used to, and travel was much more intense, requiring commercial flights that often took a full day, quite a bit longer than the quick flights from Austin to Norman, Oklahoma or Lawrence, Kansas.
Lang looked to play in Europe the next season, finding her way to Budapest for the 2018-19 season before moving to Athens last year.
She ended up playing the best basketball of her professional career during the 2019-20 season, averaging a double-double with career-bests of 15.7 points, 10.9 rebounds and 2.4 assists per game.
"The coaching staff at Texas did great job preparing me for what life was going to be like overseas," Lang said. "They had me as prepared as I could be to play professionally."
Former teammate Celina Rodrigo notes that a lot of the credit for Lang's success in Europe should go to Lang as well.
"Kelsey is one of the hardest workers I know and one of the best teammates I had," Rodrigo recalled. "I always knew she'd be in the right place when we needed her and would produce. I know she'll have success in whatever she does."
While the achievements her final season gave her pause and she briefly reconsider her decision, Lang knew she was making the right choice.
"I didn't really have that enjoyment of the game anymore, I knew mentally that I didn't have that excitement," Lang said. "I knew it was a good time to go back to school, especially with the pandemic and how difficult it was going to be for some of the players to get a job."
Lang worried that she may have some difficulty finding a job following her basketball career and though she had done some coaching during the summer between seasons, she did not have the desire to pursue it as a career. She understood that continuing her educational path would be a key to her future and applied for a pair of graduate programs at SMU, gaining acceptance in both and electing to pursue her MBA.
While looking through job posts on SMU's web site and came across the position with the development department. She was hired in April and set to start on May 18, but campus closures due to COVID-19 delayed her working from the office until the beginning of June.
"I had never really had a typical, everyday job, other than basketball, so it's a little different for me," Lang said. "I know it's different for a lot of professional players, trying to get back into the everyday working life. A lot of people understood what we did, workout every day, train every day, travel, go to games, spend a lot of time doing that, but some people don't consider it as work experience. It's hard to get that first hire after being a professional athlete. I'm grateful that this team gave me the opportunity and I'm excited to kind of just learn everything about."
The Woodlands, Texas, native appeared in 138 games with 83 starts for the Longhorns, finishing with 1,086 career points, ranking 36th all-time in program history, and 190 career blocked shots, which ranks sixth all-time in Texas record books. Lang's 138 games played for the Longhorns were more than any player since 1983.
"It's an exciting time and this has been a great first experience for me in the workforce," Lang said. "I think that working for university where there's so much room to grow and I can maybe continue this as a career or perhaps move into a different position. I don't really know what the future holds, but I definitely think that this is a great first step."
