SAN DIEGO — He is a wide-eyed rookie living his NBA dream with Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks, but on Friday night, from his hotel room on the road, Sandro Mamukelashvili will be dancing alongside his former Seton Hall teammates when their March Madness dream begins against TCU.
“I’m gonna be there with them while they’re playing watching,” Mamu told The Post. “I can’t wait to see them go out there and show everybody how good they are.”
He wouldn’t change a thing about his senior season, even if Co-Big East Player of the Year honors didn’t prove enough to get the Hall back to the NCAA Tournament. Just because you’re no longer there doesn’t mean you can’t remember how to be Hall in.
“I want them to know there will be fans there, but also there are not fans there,” Mamu said, “but we’re there with our hearts and souls and we’re cheering for them.
“I love ’em, I miss ’em. I wish I was there with them. I feel like they made me so proud. I was walking around telling the whole [Bucks] team we made the March Madness.
“Let’s get the dub.”
He was an innocent kid from Tbilisi, Georgia, and learned the hard way as a skinny 6-foot-11 freshman about the magnitude of March Madness and the NCAA jitters that accompany it.
“At first, coming from Europe, I didn’t really know how big of a tournament it was,” Mamu recalled. “But then when I got there, and it was this crazy atmosphere of cameras everywhere, everybody excited, Selection Sunday and stuff, you just realize, ‘Oh, this is probably one of the biggest tournaments you’ll ever play.’”
The Hall defeated North Carolina State, but was no match for Kansas in the second round in the Midwest Region.
“I was sitting in the locker room and all these people flood the locker room with the cameras, they’d come to me because all the seniors were outside kinda giving interviews,” Mamu recalled. “And they come to me and they’re like, ‘So what do you think about Kansas? [Udoka] Azubuike, what do you think about him?, what do you think about that?’ I just came to America like two years ago, so I just said like, ‘Angel [Delgado] is better, I think we’re gonna dominate the game,’ and they took this to the next level where I said we’re gonna dominate. I feel like the whole Kansas hated me before the game (chuckle). I didn’t even mean it like that, I was just trying to show everybody that we were confident, but I feel like they took it the wrong way.”
The next year, the Hall lost to Wofford in the first round of the Midwest Region.
“Guys were upset, emotional,” Mamu said. “We didn’t know what would happen next year. Unfortunately, COVID happened. But I feel like even when you have a tough loss, it just brings you more together. The next year we went to Italy for the summer and all we talked about the whole trip was how we wanted to make the March Madness and go far and play together and have an amazing season. We just fell down, but we got back up and we got even stronger.”
Kevin Willard’s 2020 Pirates appeared destined for greatness. But COVID-19 quarantined March Madness.
“I definitely think we were one of the best in the country,” Mamu said. “It sucks, but I think we would be a Final Four team.”
If the defending NBA champs didn’t know much about Seton Hall, they know now.
“If I was a 12-year-old guy and I looked at myself right now I will be so happy where I’m at because I always wanted to be an NBA player, I always wanted to be where I’m at today,” Mamu said.
He signed a two-way contract with the Bucks’ G-League Wisconsin Herd, and has learned plenty and grown physically and mentally.
“Everything I dreamed of,” Mamu said. “It’s amazing. In the NBA you got so many great coaches around you you can learn from, and so many great players.”
None greater than Giannis. “Not probably, I think he’s the best player in the league right now,” Mamu said. “Super dominant and he works so hard and he will be even better. It’s just unbelievable watching him and learning from him. And the person he is so humble and so down to earth.”
Russia’s war on Ukraine has been especially emotional for Mamu.
“I stand with Ukraine,” Mamu said. “I feel like Russia invaded Georgia in 2008 in a similar way, so my thoughts and my prayers go out to the people of Ukraine. I hope the war is gonna stop soon, so they know all Georgia’s standing next to them and we pray for their safety.”
Mamu was living in Chicago with his Aunt Eteri in 2008. Thankfully, the people he knows in Ukraine were able to escape to Poland.
“My mom’s friends live there, some close friends of the family live there, a couple of guys I know live there,” Mamu said. “They left so they’re safe now, but it’s just crazy how one day you can just wake up and a war starts and you gotta leave your job and make sure your wife and kids are safe and just run to the safer place. That shoulda never happened.
“As I said, I stand with Ukraine and the people there.”
