Growing up in hockey-mad Canada didn’t temper Kofi Mensa’s enthusiasm for the game of basketball.

The Mountain State Academy sophomore never really grasped his country’s passion for the ice.

“I played a couple times at school,” Mensa, a 16-year-old Toronto native, said Thursday. “I guess it was OK, but I never really got into it like a lot of other people did.”

Instead, Mensa was coaxed into playing basketball by a friend about five years ago.

“I was kind of athletic and he told me I should be playing basketball,” Mensa said during a break in practice at the Birdcage. “So I went and I really liked it. I just liked the idea of trying to make baskets.”

He would watch hometown hero Vince Carter slam dunk basketballs and wish he could do the same.

Quickly, his athleticism led him to an AAU team and he began to dream about playing in the states.

During an AAU tournament in Maryland, Mensa was spotted by MSU Academy coach Rob Fulford.

He talked to one of the player’s coaches after the game and found out Mensa had been looking to enroll in a stateside school.

While several schools had turned the Canadian down, Fulford said yes.

Smart move.

“It was that simple,” Fulford said.

Actually, for Mensa, persuading his parents, whom he calls every evening, was the tough part.

“They didn’t want me to go; they thought I was too young,” he said. “It took me most of the summer to talk them into letting me go somewhere. I just know I wanted to play in the states. And they realized it was best for me.”

And he has, by any account, prospered.

The smooth 6-foot-2 guard is averaging 20.3 points, 6.5 rebounds and about three steals and three assists per game.

Mensa is already rated as one the nation’s best sophomores by Rivals.com. North Carolina has requested tape. West Virginia and Marshall are potential suitors.

Yet Fulford said Mensa hasn’t begun to scratch the surface yet.

“He dominates games because of his athletic ability,” Fulford said. “He really has no grasp of basketball fundamentals. When his athletic ability and fundamentals catch up, he’s going to be something. We’ll have every coach in the ACC, the Big East, the Big 10 and the Big 12 in our gym.”

Mensa wears No. 32 in honor of his favorite college player, O.J. Mayo, the state player of the year in 2007 at Huntington who is now at USC.

“It’s kind of ironic that he is from West Virginia,” Mensa said. “I like his game. I like the way he plays.”

Mensa said he enjoys being a student-athlete at MSU Academy.

“It’s really nice, the people are nice,” he said. “And the gym is always full. In Canada, you never get many people at games. Not like we do here.”

“What we want is to be Mountain State Academy,” athletic director Todd Cornett said. “We want our students to excel at academics and athletics. We want them to be assets to the school and also the community. Having a player the caliber of Kofi is just a cherry on top of the sundae.”

As his stock rises, the question will be whether Mensa stays at the academy. Fulford knows he will likely impress on the summer AAU tournament circuit.

“Our advantage is that we gave him a chance when other schools turned him down,” Fulford said. “I think he appreciates that. And he realizes the direction we are going.”

It’s also a plus that Mensa wants to leave his name on the program.

“Maybe one day they’ll name this building after me,” Mensa said, laughing. “I don’t know, maybe I’ll have my jersey on the wall. Something like that.”

“If anybody is going to have his jersey retired first, it’ll be Kofi,” Fulford said.

Mensa and teammates Jabs Newby and Josh Birchfield live with Fulford. The coach is a Duke fan while Mensa favors arch-rival North Carolina.

“I usually try to stay away from him when they (Duke) are playing,” Mensa said. “Coach said they’ll put my jersey on the wall if I go to Duke. That won’t happen.”

Oh, and that friend who introduced Mensa to basketball?

“He gave up the basketball dream,” Mensa said.

For Mensa, the dream is just beginning.