Rytis Petraitis' Rough and Tumble Style Makes an Impact

Cal forward Petraitis says he plays 'like a dog,' sort of like Mad Dog Mark Madsen

Rytis Petraitis / Photo by Jake Curtis

Cal’s Rytis Petraitis came into the interview room following the Bears’ 91-73 victory over Cal Poly on Thursday with a bruise on his cheek, some swelling around his eye and a smile on his face. 

It was a satisfying game.

The Cal forward had played 20 minutes, and had spent a good portion of that time on the floor either diving for a loose ball or wrestling for a rebound or taking a charge or getting clobbered while making a bold drive to the hoop.

He drew eight Cal Poly fouls – an astonishing number and twice as many as any teammate -- while committing no fouls himself. Early in the first half, with Cal trailing by nine points, Petraitis took an elbow to the face, forcing him to go to the locker room briefly to get patched up before coming out of his corner for the next round.

“I just went out there to be aggressive,” Petraitis, a transfer from the Air Force Academy, said. “And I got straight hit in the eye, started bleeding, so I was like, ‘You know what? I’m already banged up, so I might as well go all out.’ I felt like we needed someone to kind of energize the team, so I try to be that guy to he bes of my ability.”

How often does he get bloodied during a game?

“It’s happened a good amount of time,” Petraitis said. “They had to wash my jersey a couple of times, but I like it. It’s the way I play. I like to play like a dog.”

Like a dog, perhaps like a Mad Dog, which was Mark Madsen’s nickname when he played at Stanford.

“Some people might call him a throwback to an earlier time,” Madsen said of Petraitis.

Maybe a throwback to the late 1990s, when a Stanford standout named Mark Madsen spent a lot of time on the floor, diving for loose balls or boxing out so ferociously than an opposing player would be pushed to the floor out of bounds before Madsen insisted on picking him up.

When Madsen was asked whether Petraitis reminded him of himself, the modest Madsen had an interesting response.

“Well, Rytis is a much better player than I ever was,” said Madsen, who was a first-round pick in the 2000 NBA draft. “I couldn’t shoot like that. I couldn’t get steals like that. I will say this, I really admire how hard he plays.

“I remember when I was going through the draft process, went to the Lakers facility, and I’ll never forget what Jerry West said. He said playing hard is a skill, just like shooting is a skill.”

Madsen is correct when he said he could not shoot like Petraitis, who made his only three-point attempt on Thursday and was 6-for-8 from the foul line while scoring 13 points, collecting six rebounds and recording three steals.

But Petraitis' main skill, and one that was obvious to the 3,203 people who attended Cal’s home game Thursday, is that he plays hard.

Follow Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jakecurtis53

Find Cal Sports Report on Facebook by going to https://www.facebook.com/si.calsportsreport