Cal focusing men’s basketball coaching search on Stanford alum Mark Madsen, per reports
In the fall, Stanford hired a Cal alum for its football coach opening. Now, in the spring, it appears Cal is preparing to bring in a Stanford alum for its men’s basketball job.
Former Stanford star and current Utah Valley coach Mark Madsen is the top candidate for the Cal job, according to multiple reports.
Madsen, 47, has been the head coach at Utah Valley for four years and has led the Wolverines to the National Invitational Tournament (NIT) semifinals, where they’ll face UAB on Tuesday in Las Vegas.
Born in Walnut Creek, Madsen went to high school at San Ramon Valley in Danville before going across the Bay to Stanford. In his four years on the Farm, Madsen averaged 10.9 points and 7.9 rebounds a game and twice earned First Team All-Pac-10 honors.
Playing under Mike Montgomery – who would later lead Cal to its only Pac-10/12 conference title of the last 60 years and is still the last coach to win an NCAA Tournament game at Cal — Madsen and the Cardinal made the NCAA Tournament all four years and reached the Final Four in 1998. The center tallied 11 points and 16 rebounds in a one-point overtime loss to Kentucky in the Final Four.
After Stanford, Madsen played in the NBA for nine seasons, winning two championships in three seasons with the Los Angeles Lakers before going to the Minnesota Timberwolves for six years. Mostly playing as a backup post player, Madsen averaged 2.2 points and 2.6 rebounds per game in the NBA.
Madsen spent one season as an assistant at Stanford (2012-13) and six years as a Lakers assistant (2013-19) before taking over at Utah Valley. Madsen’s gone 70-50 in his time at Utah Valley, surging from two 11-win seasons to start to 20 wins last year and a current 28-8 record this year.
Madsen and the Wolverines earned the trip to the NIT semifinals in Las Vegas by beating New Mexico, Colorado and Cincinnati. The head coach has done all of this while his wife, Hannah, is very close to giving birth to the family’s fourth child.
Congrats to Coach Mark Madsen and Utah Valley for punching their ticket to the NIT Semifinals… two days before the birth of his 4th child! What a moment between Mad Dog and his wife, Hannah! pic.twitter.com/O07llXmNYh
— Richie Schueler (@RichieSchueler) March 23, 2023
If he does take the Cal job, he’ll be replacing Mark Fox, who was fired after the Bears went 3-29 this season and 38-87 in his four years in Berkeley. Cal hasn’t had a winning record since 2016-17 and hasn’t made the NCAA Tournament since 2015-16, both under Cuonzo Martin.
It’ll also mean that the cross-Bay rivalry between Cal and Stanford has a Stanford alum leading Cal’s men’s basketball program in Madsen, while the Stanford football program has Cal alum Troy Taylor at the helm.