Making a Point : Madkins Sacrifices His Game for the Good of No. 2 UCLA

The worst thing that ever happened to Gerald Madkins might have been the best thing that could have happened to this season’s UCLA basketball team.

If Madkins hadn’t been involved in a traffic accident three years ago, suffering pelvic injuries so serious that they sidelined him for an entire season and possibly slowed him a step or two, he might be playing in the NBA.

And if Madkins were in the NBA, the Bruins would be without their captain, starting point guard, defensive stopper, most unselfish player and most eloquent and thoughtful spokesman.

And they probably wouldn’t be 14-1, ranked second in the national polls and tied for the Pacific 10 Conference lead with USC.

“Gerald Madkins is invaluable to our club,” Coach Jim Harrick said. “I’ve said it before: He’s the glue that keeps this team together.”

Without him, Harrick said, the Bruins would have lost to Arizona last month at Tucson “by 10 or 12 points,” instead of ending the Wildcats’ 71-game home winning streak with an unexpectedly significant assist from the 6-foot-4 Madkins.

Expected to play only a limited role after missing the previous five games because of a broken wrist, Madkins scored a season-high 11 points and had three rebounds, two assists and two steals in 28 minutes. He also shut down Arizona’s Chris Mills, who failed to make a shot in the last 14 1/2 minutes of an 89-87 UCLA victory.

Madkins’ many contributions usually aren’t so evident because they don’t show up in the statistics. A fifth-year senior from Merced, he averages only 6.5 points and about four shots a game.

“I don’t think Gerald gets the credit that anybody but a coach would give him,” Harrick said. “He’s not a flashy player. He’s not a quick, up-and-down, run-and-dunk player. Gerald Madkins understands basketball and what it takes to win. He’s a total, total team player. He doesn’t care if he ever shoots or scores, just so the team performs and wins.”

Madkins was an offensive force in high school, averaging 26 points as a junior and 27 as a senior at Merced High, but he has altered his game since arriving at UCLA.

“I’ve had to take my offense and put it in my back pocket,” he said. “It’s there, but this team doesn’t need it, night in and night out, like some other teams would.

“There’s a possibility that people at the (NBA) level don’t believe that I can score, and that’s a sacrifice. But right now, I’m not concerned with that. I’m concerned with making it to the Final Four and bringing something back to UCLA that hasn’t been here in a whole bunch of years.”

Madkins showed in his first three seasons at UCLA that he could score when called upon. He had a career-high 21 points in a game against Stanford last season, 18 against Arizona and California. As a sophomore, he scored 20 points against each Cal and Washington State, 17 against Duke in an NCAA tournament game.

But when his role was changed this season, leaving him with fewer scoring opportunities, he accepted the alteration without complaint.

His team-first attitude has not gone unnoticed.

“He has made a tremendous sacrifice,” USC Coach George Raveling said. “I wouldn’t be at all surprised if he made it in the NBA and was a significant contributor.

“He’s an outstanding defensive player, he has a good feel for the game and he’s a better offensive player than I think he’s exhibited. I really have a lot of admiration for him because I think he has submerged his game for the good of the team, and that tells me a lot about him as an individual.”

Raveling almost coached Madkins, who visited USC and Washington before making a written commitment to former UCLA Coach Walt Hazzard.

“My whole family told me to go to SC,” said Madkins, who is the last holdover of the Hazzard era at UCLA. “They loved (Raveling). My grandfather had remembered Coach Hazzard playing, but other than that, it was no contest. Coach Raveling came in and knocked out my grandmother, my mom. He had my little brother. He had the whole house sewed up.

“And I loved him. He was really a great person. He was the only one who spoke to me on a man-to-man level. Everyone else, it was coach to player. But I came here on a visit and I fell in love with Pooh (Richardson). Pooh was saying it was going to be me and him (in the backcourt) for two years.

“Sometimes I look back on it, especially after Coach Hazzard was fired, and I think I might have made a mistake.”

Said Raveling: “Since I’ve been at USC, I would count (losing Madkins) as one of my biggest recruiting disappointments.”

As it turned out, Madkins played only one season with Richardson and Hazzard. At the end of Madkins’ freshman season, Hazzard was fired and replaced by Harrick.

In one of his first days on the job, Harrick was visited in his office by Jim Milhorn, an associate athletic director at UCLA and captain of the 1962-63 Bruins, who told Harrick that Madkins would be an outstanding player for UCLA.

“He was as good a defensive guard as I’d ever seen for a freshman,” Milhorn said. “I just thought he was a marvelous defensive player. Having watched UCLA basketball for such a long time, I just told Jimmy, ‘The kid is really going to be a (great) player for you because he understands the game so well.’ ”

But before Harrick could see for himself, Madkins was involved in a head-on collision with an automobile while riding a moped. He suffered multiple fractures of his pelvis and torn abdominal muscles.

Madkins was sidelined for the entire 1988-89 season, depriving Richardson of an experienced running mate during his senior season.

It was feared that he might never play again. And even if he did return, it was said, he might never be the same player.

It was speculated that Mitchell Butler would move him out of the starting lineup two seasons ago, or that Shon Tarver would dislodge him last season, but the more experienced Madkins survived the challenges and was a starter in all 65 of UCLA’s games in his sophomore and junior seasons.

This season, when Tarver was promoted to the starting lineup, it was Darrick Martin who was demoted, with Madkins moving over to assume the role of playmaker.

“He still probably doesn’t run our offense or our break as smoothly as Darrick, but as a coach, you always find yourself wanting Gerald in the lineup,” Harrick said. “He’s such a leader and he does so many things.”

But it is the opinion of Harrick, Milhorn and others that Madkins has lost a bit of quickness since his accident.

Madkins does not agree.

“How much have I slowed up?” he said. “I guard the best players in the league, the best players in the country, (and) do a fairly good job. If I’ve lost a step or two, I must have been hell on wheels. I must have been the fastest guy in America. And I never was. I never was a great athlete.

“I was a decent athlete who just worked harder than most.

“My freshman year, I was not a great defensive player. I was not a good defensive player. And, to say that I’ve lost a step is not looking at the whole picture. I think I move my feet as well as I ever have.”

Well enough for the NBA?

“I’m a Gerald fan,” said Roger Newell, whose scouting service sends reports to nine NBA teams. “I’m going to recommend him as a leader type. He’s got sort of a Magic Johnson set shot. He needs to penetrate more and shoot off the dribble, but he’s a good defensive player and he’s a winner.

“There’s a lot to Gerald, from a basketball sense, that’s appealing to someone like me. I won’t be surprised at all if Gerald makes an NBA team. . . .

“In my ratings, I’ll have him in the top 54. Whether he gets drafted or not remains to be seen, but if he doesn’t, I’ll recommend him to every client and he should get a pretty good look.”

If he makes it in the NBA, Madkins said, it won’t be because of extraordinary athletic skills.

“I use my mind more than anything else,” he said. “I’m just someone who works hard every day, tries to get better. I use more brain power than physical ability.”