Mensah-Dartey Prepares for Esports NBA 2K Tournament

An undefeated season is what the senior from Southeastern boasts. Benny Mensah-Dartey has rolled the competition this season in NBA 2K, going a perfect 8-0 in ECAC play, dropping only two games in the best two out of three format this season.

    And now, the regular season has come to a close and with his perfect record Mensah-Dartey, whose gamer tag is bennymd has secured for himself the number one overall seed in the NBA 2K tournament and a first round bye.

    In regards to his success, Mensah-Dartey mentioned, "playing the game, and just being able to adjust to my opponents" being his greatest strength. 

    Head coach of the Esports team Ethan Cadore also had some words in regards to Mensah-Dartey's amazing season, "Benny has been an amazing second half player, being able to adjust on the fly and make the necessary second half adjustments to score more."

    When Mensah-Dartey was asked what his toughest matches were for the season, he was quick to respond. "The Milwaukee Bucks, because they have Giannis Antetokounmpo. Everybody plays as the Bucks."

    Preparation for the tournament is strong on the mind of the #1 seed, especially since he is seeing familiar competition having played his round of 16 competitor from Augustana University two weeks ago. Mensah-Dartey shared some of his thought process on how he plans to prepare. "I am going to switch it up, choose some different teams." 

Mensah-Dartey tends to play as the Oklahoma City Thunder because of the abilities of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander in the game. However, this time around he plans to potentially try another team.

"He (Augustana University) uses a lot of screens on offense, so I will probably switch up the defense a little bit," said Mensah-Dartey.

    Coach Cadore had some things to say on how he plans to help Mensah-Dartey prepare, "We are going to take things one game at a time, what has been preached to the team this year is to trust in your preparation, and Benny has put in a lot of hard work and is seeing the fruits of his labor come to harvest."

    When asked what it would mean to claim the title in the ECAC NBA 2K Tournament, a slow smile spread over Mensah-Dartey's face, "It would be pretty cool, I have never won anything like this before."

    Mensah-Dartey's round of 16 matchup versus Augustana University begins April 9th at 8 p.m.