Who is San Diego State basketball’s newest international player?
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Samson Mashebinu, a 6-foot-8 freshman forward from Nigeria, attended classes on the first day of the fall semester at San Diego State after he was discreetly added to the roster earlier this month.
There were no pronouncements on social media, no news release from the school, just an addition to the basketball roster on the athletic department’s website that says, “Bio to come.”
The San Diego Union-Tribune reported that the quiet public acknowledgment of Mashebinu’s spot on the team as a scholarship athlete was one step in the player obtaining a student visa. The Union-Tribune reported that he had to travel 1,500 miles to a consulate in Dakar, Senegal, to obtain the visa due to the difficulty of obtaining one in Nigeria.
What Samson Mashebinu brings to San Diego State
The addition of Mashebinu appears to be the final addition to coach Brian Dutcher’s rebuilt roster, which will begin play in the new-look Pac-12 Conference while trying to move past the disappointment of failing to make the NCAA Tournament last season.
He is the fourth international player to be signed this offseason. The three, who are all pros from Europe, are awaiting clearance from the NCAA.
Mashebinu just turned 19 and came out of the NBA Academy Africa in Senegal. He had a notable performance in 2024 at a Jr. NBA Elite Camp but was not able to travel with his team to an AAU tournament this summer, the Union-Tribune reported. That left SDSU coaches to watch film of and begin the process of assisting him with a student visa, the paper added.
San Diego State’s international recruiting push
In his wrap-up news conference after the most disappointing season in program history, Dutcher said the Aztecs needed to jump on board the trend in college hoops to recruit from the ranks of European pros.
The Aztecs signed three European pros in short order during the spring: point guard David Torresani of Nutribullet Treviso in Italy’s Lega Basket (LBA) Serie A, 6-9 wing Luka Skoric of Croatia and Luca Vincini, a 6-foot-9 forward from Banco di Sardegna Sassari in Italian LBA Serie A.
However, those three players are waiting to be cleared by the NCAA, which is taking a harder look at professional players whose compensation was above a certain level.
The U-T reported that Mashebinu is SDSU’s 13th scholarship player and that the team will hold two spots for walk-ons. One of those scholarships has gone to transfer guard Nick Anderson, who is expected to miss the season after tearing an ACL while working out in May.
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Bernie Wilson recently retired from The Associated Press after nearly 41 years, including stops in Spokane, Los Angeles and, for the final 33 years, San Diego. He grew up in Coeur d'Alene and graduated from the University of Idaho.