Mark Madsen's famous dance/AP photo
No former Stanford player evokes more mental images than Mark Madsen, who recently decided to end his playing career and give coaching a try.
He was hired this week as an assistant coach for the Utah Flash of the NBA's Developmental League. Whether Madsen will help much in terms of X's and O's remains to be seem, but there is no doubt he will bring a level of intensity not often seen in an asistant coach.
Several thoughts spring to mind when recalling Madsen's time at Stanford:
-- As tought and as physical as Madsen was -- and no one was ever tougher -- every opponent respected him. After trading pushes and shoves with Madsen for 40 minutes, Connecticut' power forward Kevin Freeman simply chuckled when Madsen's name was brought up following their game in 1999, the year UConn won the national championship. "He's the only guy who can knock you down again and again, and then help you up every time."
-- In a rebounding drill during practice, a plastic cover was placed over the entire basket to assure rebounding opportunities. Eric Reveno, then a Stanford assistant, recalls being in awe of what he saw as the 5-on-5 work continued. Madsen grabbed an offensive rebound and powered it back up, then fought through block outs to grab the offensive rebound again and put it up a second time, and then he did it a third time. Then after his fourth offensive rebound, Madsen tried to dunk the ball through the basket with such force that he was driven back by the plactic covering and landed on the seat of his pants.
-- Stanford had an open locker room before practice back then (ah, those were the days), and there were a number of strong personalities in that group of players -- the Collins twins, Casey Jacobsen and David Moseley -- but Madsen was the one in charge. When it was time for the media to leave, Madsen simply spoke up, and interview time was over. There was never a need for coach Mike Montgomery to intervene or even appear in the locker room.
He was the most physical college player I ever saw -- and the nicest. When you think of Mark Madsen, it is impossible not to smile.
For more Bay Area college sports, see jakestakeonsports.com.
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