🎙️Timeout with Sanjana Ramesh: India's latest Basketball Star

Sanjana Ramesh is one of the latest Indian Basketball phenoms to have received a full ride to a Division 1 program in the Unites States.

She popped up on the radar after her performances at the FIBA U16 Asia Championship in 2017(Averaging more than 6.5 points and 7 rebounds per game), followed by winning MVP at NBA Academy's first-ever women's camp in Noida coupled with a stellar performance at the Basketball Without Borders Asia Camp.

She now plays the stretch four position with the Northern Arizona University Lumberjacks and is looking to make a name for herself and take Indian Basketball to newer heights. Funnily enough, her basketball journey started with a try-out that she only attended due to the lack of a badminton team on campus. Ever since that day, she has absolutely dominated the competition, while simultaneously setting new standards for Indian basketball. I got the opportunity to take a time out with Sanjana Ramesh and ask her everything about life as a student athlete across the border, must watch basketball movies while in quarantine and more. Check it out:

We often hear a lot of college athletes talking about how difficult it is managing academic expectations with athletic expectations. Being an international student athlete, how have you been coping with the same?

It definitely is a difficult task, especially with NAU gunning to improve their women’s basketball NCAA rankings, along with the college boasting some of the best academic scores from their student athletes. To top it off, we have to adhere to a minimum GPA requirement, so it's important to always have your head in the game on the court and off it. Being an international student here typically means that you miss the little things like getting to speak to your parents right after a game or even comfort food sporadically, but all the people here at NAU regularly endeavour to make this feel like a second home as well.

What can you tell me about the difference in the crowds that show up for your games in India and your games in the USA?

It’s absolutely an entirely different experience to play in front of a crowd in the USA. Whenever we play top division schools, we pack our arena, and it just provides me with so much energy to do my best and is definitely a real home court advantage. When we were playing the New Mexico Lobos a while back, there were 8000 people screaming at us, I was on the bench and still getting some heat. It was so crazy that we couldn’t hear instructions from our coach or from each other, and we gave up a 19 point lead because the crowd really got behind them. It’s spectacular to see that kind of energy from the fans there.

With superstars like Kevin Love coming out about player mental health issues, do you ever see yourself facing the same anxiousness, and what kind of infrastructure exists in NAU to help athletes?

NAU is extremely pragmatic in the manner in which they deal with player mental health, from quarterly workshops to having a walk-in counsellor who does sessions for free. Personally, apart from some pre-game jitters I haven’t really had any mental health issues, but I think that we must stop stigmatizing mental health and seeing it as a sign of weakness. Especially in the field of sports, it’s really critical that we address issues that athletes face instead of just brushing it off as sadness.

In other interviews you have addressed structural problems that Indian basketball has faced, but if you could pick one thing that you think could take the sport to the next level what would you think it should be?

I would love to pick two; however, I think having a system is very essential. The game in the USA is a lot more technical, and they have a system for offence, defence, conditioning, nutrition, etc. It’s extremely detailed, and I think that bringing that to the Indian game will really help change the way we play.

Do you maintain an active network with other Indian women ballers that play alongside you at other division one colleges and share tips about the game? Additionally, have you brought back certain aspects of the game from there that you would like to teach to people here?

Yes, especially initially when they join we mention the different aspects of adjusting and the different styles of play and even more so since we play for the same team back at home. Since I’m still a freshman, this is the first time that I have come back. However, I do have many things that I would love to talk to my peers and coaches about and try to inculcate some of the different things that I have learnt at NAU.

Skylar Diggins Smith played an entire WNBA season pregnant in secret and was criticized for not playing the following season due to post-partum depression. In contrast, Michael Jordan was lauded for his famous flu game. Do you see the gender gap becoming more and more equal with the continuous outstanding performances that the Indian women’s team has been delivering? What do you think the fans can do to make things better?

I was actually thinking to myself that given the current context, it was also not responsible for Michael Jordan to have played with the flu, but often people do not focus on that when talking about the men in basketball. Honestly, there still exists a certain stigma. However, in India, the media coverage and recognition has improved for the women’s game. We definitely have a long way to go, but I think more than the fans, the onus is on the media and the manner in which they approach reporting the women’s game that could really change people’s impression. Especially here in the USA, I see plenty of people making jokes about WNBA players without realizing the effort and the skill at play.

I’m confident that you are eyeing a roster spot on a WNBA team, however, what other viable alternatives are people looking for among the women you speak to from different division one programs?

Personally, I would love to play in the WNBA as it’s the highest level of competitive women’s basketball, however, a lot of us also speak about playing in Europe (more specifically Spain), Russia or Australia. I would certainly love to play in different countries around the world because I love travelling.

What would you suggest as a basketball must-watch film during quarantine season?

Coach Carter is one of my favourite movies and if you are looking for a basketball romcom then Love and Basketball is undoubtedly a must-watch. My friends can’t stop telling me to watch Air Bud. About time, I fall prey to the peer pressure and watch it.

For all of those young women out there today who aspire to play at your level, what would you recommend they do during this time of national lockdown so that they keep in touch with the sport?

Prior to the lockdown I used to jog around 4 – 5 a.m. when no one was out, however, now that that's restricted, I think it’s important to continue doing some physical conditioning at home. Also work on skills like dribbling. More importantly, you can use this time to fine tune your skills and fix the little things.