Cal Basketball: Facing His Alma Mater, Mark Madsen Hopes to Forge a New Path

Others who have competed on both sides of the Cal-Stanford rivalry have lost in their inaugural reunion game.

Can Mark Madsen achieve what Mike Montgomery, Charmin Smith, David Esquer, Troy Taylor and Jerod Haase could not pull off?

On Friday night at Haas Pavilion, the first-year Cal basketball coach will get his first shot at Stanford, the school he helped lead to the 1998 Final Four during his playing days.

If Madsen coaxes a victory out of his Golden Bears, he will walk a path that tripped up many of his predecessors in this circumstance.

The Cardinal (10-8, 5-3 Pac-12) has won five of its past seven games, including a win over Arizona, and will be a tall order for the Bears (7-12, 3-5), who are improved but have a propensity for losing close games.

Others before Madsen have made the move from Stanford to Cal or vice versa, and failed to win in their inaugural return game:

— Montgomery was Stanford’s greatest men’s basketball coach — and also Madsen’s coach. After a detour to the NBA, Montgomery closed out his coaching career with a six-year run in Berkeley, guiding Cal to a conference title in 2010 — its first in 50 years. But Stanford beat his Cal team 75-69 in the first reunion.

— Smith played her college basketball under Tara VanDerveer at Stanford and later spent three years as an assistant for the program. Now in her fifth season as head coach at Cal, Smith is still looking for her first win over Stanford.

— Esquer coached the Cal baseball team for 18 seasons before making a move back to his alma mater for the 2018 season. The Cardinal lost 4-3 to Cal in their first meeting with Esquer at the helm.

— Taylor, who left Cal in 1989 as the program’s career passing leader, returned to spend five seasons as an assistant coach and even did radio work for the Bears. He made his debut as Stanford’s head coach last fall and the Bears handed him a 27-15 defeat in the Big Game.

Asked about Friday’s game, Madsen said his approach all week has been the same as it would be for any conference game. “Once game day hits, I’m sure there’s going to be a little bit of emotion because it’s my alma mater, had some great memories there, some great friendships and we had success,” he said.

“It’s personal in a lot of ways. My first unofficial (recruiting) visit was to Cal, and Jerod Haase was on the team. So I watched Jerod Haase practice, and now Jerod’s coaching Stanford and I’m coaching Cal.”

Oh yes, Jerod Haase. As Jason Kidd’s running mate in Cal’s all-freshman backcourt in 1992-93, he went 2-0 against Stanford. He helped the Bears to the NCAA’s Sweet 16, then transferred to Kansas.

In his eighth season as coach at Stanford, Haase is 9-8 against the school he played for 31 years ago. But he lost the first one, falling 66-55 to a Cal team powered by Ivan Rabb’s 25 points and 13 rebounds.

Madsen was 7-1 as a player against Cal — losing the first game before winning the next seven in a row. This will be a different challenge. “It’s been a long time since I’ve played so that’s almost like a distant memory,” he said.

Bears guard Jalen Cone, a first-year transfer from Northern Arizona, just recently got a sense of what the Cal-Stanford rivalry means to everyone involved.

Cone and a couple teammates drove to Stanford Stadium two months ago to sit in the Cal student section for the Big Game.

“I didn’t truly realize the significance of the rivalry until the football game . . . and I saw how crazy the atmosphere was,” said Cone, who joined students and Cal fans celebrating on the field after the Bears’ victory. “I never got to do anything like that . . . storming the field, taking pictures, dancing, hanging out with some of the football players. I get the Big Game now.”

Justin Wilcox, whose team has won the past three Big Games, reached out to Madsen this week to let him know the football team plans to show up at Haas en masse.

Cone and his teammates want to win this one for their coach.

“That definitely adds some spice to it, knowing that coach Madsen played for Stanford. We definitely want to get this win for him and the university. But if he went anywhere else and that team came here, it would be same as us wanting to get that win for coach Madsen.

“Just it being the rivalry and coach Madsen played there makes it that much more significant.”

Cover photo of Cal coach Mark Madsen by Darren Yamashita, USA Today

Follow Jeff Faraudo of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jefffaraudo