MENSAH LIVING UP TO HIS POTENTIAL
After missing most of last season, big man getting into a rhythm this time
Three thoughts on No. 24 San Diego State’s 80-68 win against No. 23 Arizona State on Thursday night at Desert Financial Arena:
1. Mensah’s monster game
The surprising thing about Nathan Mensah’s breakout game — career highs in points (17) and rebounds (15) — was not that it happened. Teammates and coaches all saw it coming.
“We all did,” Jordan Schakel said. “He just has to be aggressive, be dominant, just know how strong he is. I feel like he can do this game after game after game.”
The surprise is where it happened. Mensah noticeably struggled away from the cocoon of Viejas Arena as a freshman, his only full season of college basketball, and the numbers ref lected that. In 17 home games: 7.8 points, 66.2 percent shooting, 28 blocks. In 17 road/neutral games: 3.4 points, 39.0 percent shooting, 11 blocks.
He had yet to score more than eight points in a game out of state.
Maybe it helped the hostile opposing crowd Thursday amounted to only about 100 family and friends, and the pink, yellow, green, blue, purple foam pool “noodles” that ASU students madly wave behind the visiting basket on free throws were stationary next to their cardboard cutouts. Or maybe it’s just the 6-foot-10 junior from Ghana is finally adjusting to American basketball.
Mensah was building toward this last season. He had 12 points, 12 rebounds, four blocks and two steals against San Jose State in December. Twelve days later, he had 14 points on 6 of 8 shooting and a dominant defensive performance in a 28-point romp against Utah.
He felt winded in the next game, and a day later his season was over after doctors discovered a blood clot in his lung.
Mensah called Thursday “my welcome back game.”
“This is the Nathan Mensah we expect to see,” coach Brian Dutcher said. “You can’t miss as many games as he missed last year and then just come in and be in that kind of rhythm. Five games in, he’s starting to get his game timing back and he’s feeling comfortable on the f loor. I like him aggressive. I like him playing the way he’s playing right now.”
The key word in all that: aggressive. “I felt that was one thing that was lacking, to be aggressive,” Mensah said. “This year I took it upon myself to be more aggressive. … I think I just have to keep my foot on the gas.”
Another word: confidence. Mensah didn’t attempt a 3-point shot, something he makes in practice, during his first two seasons. He tried two Thursday night and one in the opener against UCLA.
Missed all three, but the fact he’s no longer afraid to take them speaks volumes.
“Confidence is huge for everyone in college basketball, including myself,” Schakel said. “I think you’ve seen Nathan get a lot more comfortable, a lot more confident, shooting jumpers, attacking the basket, being strong on the rebounds, just doing things that a junior does. You grow every year in college, and Nathan’s done a good job of getting better every year.
“I’m really looking forward to see
ing what he has in store.”
2. Zoning in
With 12:58 left in the first half, Arizona State had a baseline inbounds and the Aztecs coaches put up two fists for the first time this season. It’s their signal for a 2-3 zone.
Dutcher has talked for weeks about wanting to install one, particularly given the Mountain West scheduling format with back-to-back games against the same conference opponent in the space of three days.
“So they don’t get comfortable against us,” Dutcher said, “where we have a change-up to throw against them. That could be just a minute or two of 2-3 zone or maybe extended minutes, but (the idea is) to try to disrupt the rhythm of the other team.”
The most logical game to experiment was last week against NAIA Saint Katherine, and the original plan was for some zone sequences in the second half. Dutcher and de facto defensive coordinator Dave Velasquez ultimately decided against, reasoning they needed to work on switching the 1-5 (point guard and center) ball screens with Mensah and fellow post Josh Tomaic.
That paid off Thursday, f lawlessly executing the 1-5 switch and f lummox
ing preseason all-American point guard Remy Martin. Mensah and Tomaic were so well positioned, so low and wide, that Martin was unable to attack off the dribble despite the incessant screams from ASU coach Bobby Hurley to do just that.
“He had a little bit of a blank look on him,” Hurley said of Martin, who didn’t take a shot for the first 141⁄
2 minutes, “and wasn’t really having that fire and energy that I’m always use to seeing from him.”
The zone cameo was as much out of necessity as tactics, the latest example of the Aztecs coaching staff never settling despite holding teams to 54.5 points and 38.3 percent shooting through the first four games.
Velasquez noticed that, as good as they’ve been overall, their man-to-man defense on baseline out of bounds — BLOB, in coachspeak — was, uh, something less than that. Against UCLA, they allowed two baskets and committed one foul on BLOB plays. Against UC Irvine, same thing. Against Pepperdine, two baskets and two fouls.
So zone it was. They used it Thursday on three BLOB situations. The first time, Alonzo Verge Jr. made a deep, contested 3 from the right corner, the same kind of low-percentage shot the Sun Devils had been taking against SDSU’s base man defense. You take your chances with that.
The other two times resulted in misses.
Little things like that add up.
3. Coach H on Coach K
Earlier in the week, legendary Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski suggested college basketball “reassess” whether the season should continue amid the pandemic. Another coaching legend, Iona’s Rick Pitino, has made similar comments.
(Insert your cynical retorts here. Duke is 2-2 and Iona is 1-2 after each suffered double-digit home losses.)
Roughly 12 percent of the 357 Division I programs have paused team activities during the opening two weeks of the season for COVID-19 protocols. But that also means 88 percent are operational and playing games.
Hurley, who played for Coach K and won two NCAA titles at Duke, was asked Wednesday about his mentor’s comments. His response:
“It’s been a challenging start, and certainly I respect someone of Coach K’s magnitude and what he’s meant for the game. Any time he talks about the game, you have to pay attention and listen and respect his opinion.
“What I can say is these guys love to play; they want to play. These last eight months have been so hard
on these young people, and the time between the lines is an opportunity for them to express themselves and be who they are. To have an opportunity to play a nationally ranked team (in SDSU), our guys are so thrilled for that opportunity and appreciative of that opportunity.
“I will say there are risks, certainly, and we know a lot more about the virus than we did when we shut down the last time. Certainly, people that have underlying health issues and elderly should most likely not be around our program. But as long as our leadership feels it’s safe for us to go, we’re pushing forward.
“Players (like) Remy Martin, Alonzo Verge, Josh Christopher, they’re on like a five-month job interview right now. ...
“They’ve worked their whole lives to have an opportunity to potentially play in the NBA or at a high level overseas. So I’m not going to be one to take that away from our players.”