Striving To be the Best, Nathan Mensah Shines on the Court and in the Classroom
Fans of San Diego State basketball have high hopes for the 2022-23 season, with most pre-season polls showing the Aztecs men’s team ranked among the top 25 in the nation.
One of the reasons SDSU is expected to do well during the upcoming season is the return of Aztec forward, Nathan Mensah, whose 7’4” wingspan is one of the reasons he is among the team’s top 10 statistical leaders in numerous categories including total rebound percentage (#2), block shots in a career (#3), and blocked shots in a single game (#2 tie).
A Big Decision
Now a fifth-year senior with the Aztecs, Mensah was initially unsure about returning, though he had a year of eligibility remaining under NCAA rules. He had earned his bachelor’s degree in marketing at SDSU’s Fowler College of Business in the spring of 2022, but after talking to his family, he chose to return to Fowler where he is currently pursuing his MBA.
Whether he’s on the court or in the classroom, the expectations he’s set for himself run high. Mensah is an outstanding student, having been named an Aztec scholar-athlete four times and as a recipient of a Jim Malik Award for spring semester 2020. The Malik Award goes to those SDSU student-athletes who achieve 4.0 GPAs in a semester. “I always strive to be the best whether it’s playing basketball, school and everything else that I do,” he said.
Growth Spurt Prompted Interest in Basketball
His role as an outstanding collegiate student-athlete was never something he aspired to during his childhood in Accra, Ghana. Mensah spent his early youth as a soccer player, and he didn’t consider playing basketball. But after a growth spurt in his early teens, his cousin advised him to switch sports, and he was an immediate success.
While still in Ghana, Mensah met fellow basketball player, Joel Mensah (no relation), and the pair became friends. After both participated in an NBA camp in South Africa, they were invited to come to the U.S. to further their education and play high school basketball by Kwaku Amoaku, founder of the African Youth Basketball Organization. The two Mensahs accepted Amoaku’s invitation and prepared for their new lives on the other side of the globe.
Coming to America
As his plane headed to the U.S. for the first time, Nathan, then just 15, realized he wasn’t sure of his fate. “I was excited for the opportunity, but I had a lot of questions and I wondered if I made the right move,” said Mensah, who left his entire family back home in Ghana. “Once I landed in New York, I met my first high school basketball coach and he helped to put me at ease with my decision.”
Mensah proved to be a star on the East Coast, and while he was attending high school in Massachusetts, he began thinking about the possibility of attending college. “SDSU began recruiting me during my sophomore year of high school and Coach Dutcher made me feel like family,” he said. “I also wanted to play someplace with nice weather, since New York and Massachusetts both have cold winters.”
After completing high school in Nevada, Mensah arrived at SDSU hoping to achieve success both academically and athletically. He was off to a good start: As a freshman, he played in all 34 of the Aztecs’ regular-season and post-season games and was named as an Aztec Scholar-Athlete for the first time.
Health Crisis
But during his sophomore year, Mensah faced a situation that not only threatened his basketball career, but also his life. In a game against Cal Poly on December 28, 2019, Mensah felt short of breath and made an early exit. It was the last game he would play for the rest of the season.
That night, he was coughing up blood and the next day, he was in the hospital being treated for a pulmonary embolism (a blood clot in the lung). After two days in the hospital, Mensah returned home but he realized the gravity of his situation when the Aztecs played Fresno State on New Year’s Day.
On that day, Mensah, who had never missed a game, planned to sit on the Aztecs’ bench in street clothes. But by game time, he wasn’t even able to make it to Viejas Arena. “I couldn’t get out of my bed until the second half,” he told the San Diego Union-Tribune’s Mark Zeigler. “I couldn’t walk without getting tired easily. I couldn’t use the stairs. It took 20 minutes to walk from my apartment to Viejas. It usually takes five.”
Though he managed to maintain good grades during this time, his return to the court was questionable. During the first part of 2020, he slowly began making progress and was hoping to return to the team in time for the NCAA Tournament in March. But fate intervened and the COVID-19 pandemic forced the cancellation of the tournament.
Return to the Court
After Mensah spent the off-season rehabbing and studying, he returned to play for the Aztecs during the first game of the 2020-21 season. It was like he’d never left: He set career-highs in several categories and finished the season being named to the Honorable Mention All-Mountain West team and the Mountain West All-Defensive Team. During the 2021-22 season, he was named the Mountain West’s Defensive Player of the Year and he made his second appearance with the Aztecs in the men’s NCAA Basketball Tournament.
Once he retires from basketball, Mensah plans to work as a marketing professional in the financial services industry and he’s gaining valuable experience through his internship at the San Diego office of Concurrent, a national wealth management company. “I chose to earn a degree in marketing because as a basketball player, you have to market yourself,” said Mensah, who has two sisters with marketing degrees as well. “I also thought that marketing would be a good degree to pursue once I’m done with basketball.”
But for now, Mensah is happily concentrating on maintaining good grades in his MBA program, continuing his internship, and dreaming about propelling the Aztecs deep into the NCAA Tournament. “I’m very content with where I am right now,” he said. “I’m hoping this will be the best year I’ve ever had.”
