Mark Madsen Diary #3 - 1/21/00Oregon State was really a tough game for us. Coach Payne always gets his players to go hard no matter where they are playing. I thought the key to our winning that game was the defensive work that Michael McDonald did on Dino Tanner. We knew that Tanner wanted to get certain shots and he's hurt us a lot in the past. Mike just went out there and played defense with guts and determination. After the game, we all got on the bus and took a one-hour bus ride to Eugene where we would play Oregon a few days later. Tyler Besecker, a freshman on the team, had his laptop with him and a lot of rap music and beats and stuff like that. He and one of our managers, Tunde Sobomehin, started playing some rap music on the computer and Tunde just started rapping. The whole team and the whole coaching staff started listening and Tunde just went on for about ten minutes. It was unbelievable. A lot of guys call it "flowing." He sang about our win at OSU, about his own hometown of Portland, Oregon and all kinds of other stuff. It was a great performance and everybody on the bus thought so too.The Oregon game was a battle too and coming away from MacArthur Court with a win under our belt is huge. Jarron Collins really did a nice job this past week, especially against Oregon. He finished with 19 points and 13 rebounds, but came up with some huge rebounds in the last few minutes of the game. Jarron is really having a great year...I played on the USA college team this past summer and there were some very good players on the team. But I really think that Jarron is one of the most skilled big men in the country and one of the most versatile. At a little over 6'10" he can play small forward, power forward, or even center if he has to. In the Oregon game he hit the 15-foot jumper time and time again. Now we get to look forward to playing against Cal at their place. Most of the guys on our team have never played in Haas Pavilion, but it is a GREAT place to play. The Cal fans know basketball really well and they are LOUD!! When I played there as a freshman it was one of the first times it was too loud to hear myself think. I never really knew what that meant until I was out there and Cal scored a few buckets in a row and then a dunk. The place erupted. The rivalry with Cal is something that I think both of our teams take pretty seriously. We know each other pretty well and play together in pick up games over the summer. Sean Lampley has a bunch of friends over here at Stanford, so I see him over here from time to time. I'm excited to match up against Lampley on Saturday. He's been having a great year and is really doing a great job of leading the Cal team. You have to be really careful with Sean about keeping him away from the basket. He can go from a standing position to dunking quicker than most anyone. I'm just going to go out there and give him the best defense that I can and let the chips fall where they may. Another player that I know well on the Cal team is Raymond "Circus" King. I played against him a bunch in high school when he was at El Cerrito and he is quick. Circus is probably one of the reasons why Cal beat OSU last week. He came up with a few big buckets and assists, especially late in the game. Everybody calls him Circus because some of the things he can do with the ball are unreal. We definitely will have our hands full because Cal has a big group of talented freshman and other young players. We're looking forward to a great game this Saturday in a great college environment. This is a game that the entire Bay Area tunes in to watch. I'm actually from Danville, which is just a few minutes away from Cal and a bunch of my friends and former high school teammates went there. My assitant high school coach, Jim Barrons, played at Cal under Pete Newell. There is a lot riding on this game and it's going to be a lot of fun. |