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Friday, February 2, 2018
This is the first of four in a series of profiles of Southeast Missouri State women's basketball seniors that will be published throughout the month of February.
This wasn't always Mandy Madden's path, as she stands in the Show Me Center getting ready to begin practice Friday ahead of a Saturday home game against Austin Peay.
Playing Division I women's college basketball? That was hardly a thought even a few years ago.
Getting a chance to play for a junior college national championship? Some kids in Topeka, Kansas, may have grown up dreaming of college basketball, but not Madden. Her embrace of the game was much more reluctant.
Southeast Missouri State's Mandy Madden puts up a shot during a game against Belmont on Dec. 28 at the Show Me Center.
Southeast Missourian file
But with just seven guaranteed games remaining in her career, the Southeast Missouri State senior forward is nearing the end of a journey that she most certainly has embraced, and credit, she says, goes to her father for seeing inspiration where she, at first, did not.
"I was a daddy's girl, so I pretty much did whatever he said. He'd say, 'Today we're gonna do this,' and I'd say, 'Yeah, let's do that,'" Madden says.
"He'd always trick me into doing stuff I didn't want to do: 'Let's go chop wood,' and I was like, 'Oh, yeah!' And then it was, 'Why'd I agree to all this stuff?' I just do whatever my dad tells me, but it's all for the good. And it pays off in the end."
Nearing the end of a four-year college career and a college degree, Dad's vision has paid off.
There was not necessarily an organic interest in basketball for a young Madden, but there was something else that grew quickly: Madden, herself. Stretching the measuring tape to 5-foot-10 as just a sixth grader, her father, Mark Madden, imagined his daughter could use her natural advantages to find success on the basketball court. So he laid out his decree -- Mandy would play basketball.
Madden wasn't interested at first, but as a tall sixth grader following parental directions, she joined the middle school team coached by her father.
She describes her experience playing under her father as "a love-hate relationship," but as a seventh grader, she began to find herself gradually feeling more and more connected to the sport, as finding a goal and working toward it fueled her.
"I think one of my first memories I ever had was when my dad made me watch clips of how to do a hook shot, and I thought it was, like, so cool," Madden says. "I thought, 'Oh my gosh, I'm gonna do that.' My dad made me watch clips of [players'] signature moves -- he's like, 'You need to find one -- and I was like, 'That's gonna be my signature move.'"
She watched the clips of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar that her father provided, and she took notes.
"He was like, 'This is the man you need to watch. He knows what he's doing.' So, once again, I was like, 'My dad knows it. Do what my dad says. I ain't gonna question him,'" Madden says. "Kareem was my dad's favorite, so that's who he watched."
Even as she began to feel at home in the game, long-term plans weren't really in Madden's mind. She played at a private school, where the middle school competition didn't offer much of an obstacle. Always the biggest player on the floor, Madden says things came relatively easy to her. It wasn't until she got to high school and found herself working to match the level of everyone else that the self-described "steady" Madden -- "I was never a stud," she says -- began to feel like there was more ahead of her. Even then, though, the ceiling seemed lower.
After averaging just at a double-double as a senior at Topeka High School, Madden, who had grown to 6-1 and was also a standout on the volleyball court, headed to Hutchinson Community College to play two years of junior college basketball. Her last two years of basketball, as she saw it.
"I went to JUCO, and I thought I was going to be done after JUCO, to be honest," Madden says. "I was like, 'Yep, I'm going to wrap it up after two years. This is it. I'll just go finish school after this.' It was ... really late until I made contact with [Southeast]."
Southeast Missouri State's Mandy Madden blocks a shot against Evangel in this Nov. 24, 2017 file photo.
Fred Lynch
Madden had never had Division I basketball on her radar, even after helping Hutchinson to a 62-6 record during her stint, including a national runner-up finish in 2015. She says all the colleges that contacted her were Division II or NAIA programs. Until very late in the process, when she got a phone call from then-Southeast assistant James Arnold.
Arnold had gotten word from a junior college coach that there was an opposing post player that might fit with the Redhawks, so the coach reached out to Madden. It was the last recruiting call the Topeka native took.
"I just thought, right then and there, that's amazing," Madden says. "Another coach referenced me to someone. It wasn't even my coach. People know people, and it got me out there."
Joining Southeast for the 2016-17 season with two years of eligibility remaining, Madden immediately gave the Redhawks a much-needed post presence. As a junior, she played in all 30 games for Southeast, including 27 starts. She finished the season averaging 5.2 points and 5.0 rebounds per game. More than just the numbers, she provided little things for a roster short on height.
Southeast Missouri State seniors, from left, Ashton Luttrull, Deja Jones, Kaley Leyhue and Mandy Madden pose for a photo Jan. 30, 2018, at the Show Me Center in Cape Girardeau.
BEN MATTHEWS ~ bmatthews@semissourian.com
"We knew after our first year (as a coaching staff), we needed some more post players," Southeast coach Rekha Patterson says. "We felt like with LaTrese (Saine), we had someone we had to bring along slowly ... so we needed someone who had some experience. And we thought Mandy fit the bill because she had played in a very successful program. Her role was to rebound, set screens, talk on defense, and that's all we would need her to do here as well. So we thought it was a good fit."
As a senior, a deeper frontcourt has led to a decrease in minutes this season, but her role remains the same. She has pulled down eight or more rebounds three times this season, including a career-high 13 against Bradley on Nov. 25, and has scored in double digits once. She played a career-high 32 minutes in a homecoming at Kansas on Dec. 10, creating a lifelong memory for Madden, who got a chance to play on a floor she always wanted to step out on in front of family and friends in her home state.
"I don't think I really realized how many supporters or fans I had until I went to KU," Madden says. "I realized I had family and friends who loved to watch me play, but to see them all come out and support me was just the world to me. It really just showed me I'm not just doing this myself. I'm making other people happy."
That emotion taps into the core of who Madden is.
"I think she's a sweet and caring person," Patterson says. "She's always looking out for her teammates because she knows they're younger than her, helping them along. If anyone needs her, I think they know they can call her. She's just a positive person in the locker room."
That is, after all, the same internal drive that pushed Madden into basketball in the first place. She considers herself more mature, more responsible, better at prioritizing and less shy than she used to be thanks to her college hoops experience, but one thing that hasn't changed has been the joy she gets from seeing others happy -- the very reason Madden agreed to take up the sport at her father's urging.
Now, as she nears the end of her career, she also draws closer to a degree in health communications with a minor in sports management. She says she has one more class to complete to set herself up to apply to dental school in the fall, where she hopes to pursue a career as a dental hygienist. She also carries with her a basketball family that stretches coast to coast.
Turns out, Dad's idea was pretty good.
"I can definitely say it was definitely worth it," Madden says. "I think him pushing me into it kind of shaped me as a person: being dedicated and hard working. You might not always want to do it, but when you start doing the process of it, you start to realize, 'Oh, wow, this was a good decision.' I think it was good, and I think when I'm done with basketball, I'll look back and say, 'Yeah. That was totally worth it.'"
