New Hornet Nathan Mensah becomes the latest NBA player from San Diego State – The San Diego Union-Tribune

San Diego State now has had 15 alums play in the NBA.

Nathan Mensah became the latest to join the exclusive list — and the fourth active NBA player — after being signed to a two-way contract by the Charlotte Hornets on Thursday. He appeared in games on both Friday and Saturday.

And he wasn’t just getting charity minutes, either.

With 7-foot Mark Williams sidelined from a back injury, the 6-10 Mensah got 13 minutes against the New Orleans Pelicans of Friday and 29 minutes a day later against the Philadelphia 76ers. He combined for four points, 15 rebounds and nine fouls in the two losses. His first NBA basket was a tip-in against 76ers center (and MVP candidate) Joel Embiid.

Mensah went undrafted last June after a stellar five-year career at SDSU, where he started a school record 130 games and twice was named Mountain West defensive player of the year. The Hornets quickly signed him to a contract for summer league and training camp, then sent him to its G League affiliate, the Greensboro Swarm.

There, he averaged 10.3 points, 8.6 rebounds, 2.1 blocks and 0.8 steals in 14 games — enough to get the attention of the big club.

“It’s always hard,” SDSU coach Brian Dutcher said the NBA. “You never know what these teams need. Sometimes they’re deep at your position and you don’t get an opportunity. But obviously, they’re not calling him up because they feel sorry for him. They’re calling him up because they think he can help them win games.

“This is business. They’re only going to take you up if they think you can be productive. Obviously, Nate has shown them enough in the G League that they feel he can be productive for them.”

Teams are allowed 15 players on the main roster, plus three on two-way contacts (up from two in previous seasons) for players with three seasons or less of NBA experience. They allow a player to bounce between the G League and NBA club, as long as they don’t appear in more than 50 of 82 regular-season games for the latter.

Two-way contracts also bind the player to the NBA club, protecting him from being poached by other teams. They’re not fully guaranteed contracts and you can be released at any time, but they pay substantially more than the G League — $559,000 if you last the entire season, or a pro-rated amount from your signing date.

Mensah joins Kawhi Leonard (Los Angeles Clippers), Malachi Flynn (Toronto) and Jalen McDaniels (Toronto) as current Aztecs in the NBA.

The list

Of the 15 SDSU alums who have played in the NBA, 10 have come in the Dutcher/Steve Fisher era over the past 25 years.

The list:

Randy Holcomb (2002), 4 games with Chicago
Kawhi Leonard (2011), 652 games with San Antonio, Toronto, Clippers
Malcolm Thomas (2011), 40 games with five teams
Jamaal Franklin (2013), 24 games with Memphis, Denver
J.J. O’Brien (2015), 2 games with Utah
Zylan Cheatham (2019 draft year), 5 games with New Orleans, Utah
Jalen McDaniels (2019), 214 games with Charlotte, Philadelphia, Toronto
Malachi Flynn (2020), 169 games with Toronto
Jordan Schakel (2021), 6 games with Washington
Nathan Mensah (2023), 2 games with Charlotte

Finals break

After a seemingly endless stretch of challenging games to start the season, the Aztecs finally got a mandated 10-day break from games that coincides with final exams. They have been operating on a two-days-on, one-day-off schedule.

“A welcome break,” Dutcher said, “where we can rest legs and get better, and where we can work on ourselves and not have to worry about an opponent for three or four practices.”

Next up is a Tuesday home game against University of Saint Katherine, an NAIA school based in San Marcos. That’s followed two days later by a game against Stanford, also at Viejas Arena.

Why so close?

Saint Katherine is strategically scheduled as a knock-the-rust-off game following the 10-day break. And it doesn’t mean the Aztecs will prep for only one day for Stanford.

“We don’t disrespect any opponent,” Dutcher said. “Saint Katherine is 8-2. You don’t get that record, no matter where you’re playing, unless you’re playing pretty good basketball. They’ll have our attention. We’ll respect them. But at the same time, we’ll subtly start prepping for Stanford. We’ll work on both teams.”

San Diego State forward Jaedon LeDee missed the team’s Dec. 9 game against UC Irvine with an elbow injury.

(Meg McLaughlin/The San Diego Union-Tribune)

Injury update

Good news on the injury front: Jaedon LeDee, after missing the 63-62 win against UC Irvine with a sprained right elbow, is back at practice. So is everybody else.

“Hopefully we’re back to full strength where everybody’s available,” said Dutcher, whose rotation players have already missed more games through injury than all of last season combined. “We haven’t had a guy miss practice this week, so that’s a good thing.”

Two-time transfers

A federal judge in West Virginia recently issued a temporary restraining order against the NCAA, granting immediately eligibility to second-time transfers who hadn’t received a waiver allowing them to play this season. The TRO was in effect just until Dec. 27, when the judge planned to rule on the case, but the NCAA waved the white flag and announced that all two-time transfers are eligible through the end of the season.

Many programs, like SDSU, shied from recruiting two-time transfers under the impression that the NCAA would not grant them waivers. But a few programs took them anyway and now are being rewarded, most notably UNLV among Mountain West schools.

Keylan Boone, who has previously played at Oklahoma State and Pacific, suited up for the Rebels a few hours after the TRO was issued and had 10 points and six rebounds in a 79-64 upset of No. 8 Creighton. Boone, whose brother Kalib is UNLV’s starting center after transferring from Oklahoma State, averaged 13.9 points per game at Pacific last season.