Ex-Teammate Casey Jacobsen on Mark Madsen: `The Best Person You'll Ever Meet'

The FOX TV analyst said Madsen's `magnetic' personality should benefit him in recruiting as Cal's coach.

Casey Jacobsen found out about Mark Madsen’s ability to connect with people on the day he made his recruiting visit to the Stanford campus a couple decades ago.

Madsen was the star of coach Mike Montgomery’s team and was assigned to host Jacobsen, a big-time prospect from Southern California. Part of the day involved driving Jacobsen around in a golf cart to show him the campus.

“Mark pulls over and introduces me to the hottest girl I had seen that day and said he was really good friends with her,” Jacobsen recalled. “That turned out to be my (future) wife. Mark officially introduced me to my wife.”

Mark Madsen during a timeout with his team / Photo courtesy of Cal Athletics

Jacobsen and the former Brittney Blunt have been married for 20 years and have three teen-aged daughters, and all this time later Jacobsen’s sense of the first-year Cal coach’s ability to connect with others has only become stronger.

“Mark is magnetic, man. Anybody who has sat down with Mark for more than 5 minutes always walk away with the same thing: He is one of the nicest guys I’ve talked with,” said Jacobsen, 42, now a college basketball analyst for FOX and the Pac-12 Network. “People say that a lot but in Mark’s case it actually is true. He is genuine. It is not a show. He is interested in other human beings.

“He takes time to look people in the eye, firmly shake their hand, ask them how they’re doing. And everybody who walks away after meeting Mark, always tells me, `Man, Mark is amazing.’ I’ve never heard anybody say, `I don’t know about Mark.’ “

That quality in Madsen’s personality has Jacobsen convinced that his old teammate will have success recruiting players to Cal.

“It’s clear that Mark knows what he’s doing as a coach. Can he get better? Sure, we can all get better. He’s still a young coach. He can grow.” Jacobsen said. “But as far as connecting with human beings part of recruiting, going into a home and connecting with parents and young players, Mark has that A-plus. A-plus-plus. I don’t worry about that at all.”

Jacobsen went on to be a star for Stanford, a prolific scorer during his three seasons (2000-2002) in college and a first-round NBA draft pick. He played four seasons in the NBA before a successful run in Europe on teams in Spain and Germany.

His one season (1999-2000) with Madsen as a Stanford teammate remains vivid in his memory.

“He was a bruising power forward but had sneaky athleticism. He was very athletic in the ways you describe athletes traditionally — he was fast for his size, he had a really nice vertical leap, good hand-eye coordination,” Jacobsen said. “He was not a shooter. Was not a ballhandler. But he was very athletic, very strong, very good touch around the basket, and he dunked on your head if you were anywhere near him.”

Jacobsen figured out right away that he would approach games in practice differently depending on whether Madsen was on his team or the opposition.

“He enjoys contact and he almost didn’t really even care that he elbowed his own teammates on the way to a rebound,” Jacobsen said. “It was just the way he played. So when Mark was on the other team, I changed the way I played in practice.

“I did not challenge Mark at the rim because I thought he would put me on my back.I would pull up for jumpers or floaters when I played against Mark because I thought he was going to take me out. But when he was on my team, I absolutely loved it. He was a joy to play with.”

What got Madsen to the NBA the ability to merge his strength and athleticism with an uncommon energy level.

“The combination of athleticism and just his relentless style of play was probably his best skill set. I don’t know if I played with anybody who was that strong, that athletic and played that hard,” Jacobsen said. “You can’t deny his ability to just be everywhere at one time. That is impossible to miss. When you watched Stanford basketball play on television that year, Mark jumped off the screen.”

But Madsen also was able to separate his on-court persona from the way he operated away from the game. Jacobsen said he often struggled with juggling the two.

“What you’re taught as a human being — to be kind, thoughtful, considerate of others — does not help you on the court,” he said. “I was taught you’ve got to be an animal, you’ve got to be relentless, you’ve got to be sometimes even selfish on a basketball court to stand out, to succeed, to win. Off the court, you need to be the opposite of those things.

“Mark was the best I’ve ever seen. He was a true gentlemen off the floor, the best person you’ll meet. Never thought about himself. Then on the court he was a true competitor. On the court, he was like the Hulk. He truly was an animal on the floor, then the softest, gentlest person you’ll meet off the floor. There’s very many people who can do that.”

Jacobsen says he’s still coming to grips with Cal and Stanford moving from the Pac-12 to the ACC a year from now. But he thinks the Bears can use that to their advantage in basketball.

“How interesting is that? And how bizarre, honestly,” he said. “If you wrap your arms around that idea, the ACC is one of, if not the best basketball brand we have in America.

“Cal is a national brand. Its academic reputation is awesome — I can even admit that as a Stanford guy. Cal’s a fantastic school. They’re not as good as Stanford, but Cal is an awesome school with a big brand.”

It will be up to Mark Madsen to maximize that combination.

Cover photo of coach Mark Madsen courtesy of Cal Athletics

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