Mark Madsen Diary #6 - 2/10/00We had a battle on our hands in playing against Oregon. The game got very close in the second half and then Ryan Mendez came in and took over. Ever since sophomore year, Ryan has been a player who comes into close games and always seems to make big shots. In our run to the Final Four, he saved us in the first round game and also hit a couple of threes to send us to overtime with Kentucky. Some players dissapear when the game gets close or when pressure builds up, but Ryan always seems to step up. Ryan started for us at the beginning of the season and now he is coming off the bench and Casey Jacobsen is starting. It is amazing how good Ryan's attitude is. There are many players who might pout in games or not play as hard and get mad about the change, but Ryan has never been one to feel sorry for himself or to complain. He goes to practices and games with an attitude that basically says, "What can I do to contribute for the team?" then he goes out there and performs.I really think the reason why we've been successful this year so far is because of two reasons. Firstly, there is a tremendous amount of mutual respect one for another between everyone. I really can't even describe it, but everyone really likes each other and is prepared to put the success of the team before individual statistics or glory. This is the way that team sports are supposed to be. An example of this is Joe Kirchofer, a very talented frosh from Sacramento. At 6'9" Joe is a tremendous shot blocker and has really developed a nice jump hook which he shoots 5-8 feet from the basket. Well, right now Joe is not getting a ton of minutes in games, but he comes to practice every single day and really pushes himself. By pushing himself, all of us other big men work harder as well. Joe has played particularly well in big games giving us a significant inside presence in the Cal game and the Oregon game last night. The emergence of Tony Giovachini has been very important for us as well. Again, in the Oregon game we had a six-point lead with three seconds left in the first half. Tony got open with about two seconds left and drilled a three pointer to give us a nine-point lead. That was huge. He's also played very good defense for us the entire season. Often, defensive efforts get overlooked on the perimeter, but Tony is consistently a very tough defender. We've had a lot of injuries recently on the team including Curtis Borchardt, Tyler Besecker, and Kyle Logan. Tyler and Curtis both have stress related foot injuries but should be back pretty soon. Kyle has a shoulder that pops out and had a knee injury earlier this year. It's amazing the way Kyle still comes out to practice, puts an awkward looking shoulder harness on and plays extremely hard. Kyle is probably one of the most athletic players in the conference and has a tremendous future ahead of him. I see every day the way he is fighting through this adversity. Kyle has taken the attitude that says "I'm going to go out there and keep on doing my best and let the chips fall where they may." I really admire him for that.I know that good things are going to happen with Kyle simply because he will never give up. |