College basketball powerhouses Stanford and Duke universities are on opposite sides of the country. But in their first game of the season, they shared common ground in the middle where each school started a returned LDS missionary.
California's Stanford University featured 6-foot-9-inch senior forward Mark Madsen, who served in the Spain Malaga Mission and is in the running for player-of-the-year honors. The starting center for North Carolina's Duke University was 6-foot-10-inch sophomore Matt Christensen, who served in the Germany Frankfurt Mission and is coming off a red-shirt season.Stanford pulled out an 80-79 overtime victory over Duke in the opener of the Coaches Against Cancer Classic at New York's Madison Square Garden on Thursday, Nov. 18. Madsen scored 15 points for the winners while Christensen tallied 4 points. Christensen and his teammates had to cope with the loss, with Madsen facing some adversity of his own. He left the game late in the second half with a hamstring injury and will likely miss about a month of the season.
Before their clash on the court, each player expressed in Church News interviews a passion for basketball, balanced by commitment to the gospel and gratitude for the opportunity to serve a mission. "Going on my mission was the best decision I've made," Madsen confirmed.
With their basketball skills in high demand, both heavily-recruited players had the option of attending any of several colleges. But they made it clear to recruiters that missions were firm goals. The schools that landed them not only accepted their positions but also were extremely supportive.
Coach Mike Montgomery of Stanford "is one who is extremely respectful of the LDS Church," said Madsen, who came out of San Ramon Valley High School in Danville, Calif. The coach wrote letters of encouragement while Madsen was serving in Spain. Since then, Montgomery has been careful to make sure the basketball schedule leaves time for Church activities.
For Christensen, good examples of people around him and personal prayer led him to choices he was comfortable with. He said his advice to youth who want to stay on the right track is to "follow the righteous examples of other people in their lives." Then he added, "I've wanted to go on a mission my entire life. When I was little, Dad [Clayton Christensen, a business professor at Harvard] told me bedtime stories every night. He told me stories from his mission to Korea, from the scriptures and from Church history. I've been blessed to have a lot of people be great examples for me."
Recruited out of Belmont High School in Belmont, Mass., Christensen found an atmosphere at Duke similar to what Madsen discovered at Stanford. Attractions at the university included a student ward he could attend and a coaching staff that would "not just tolerate, but be supportive of me going on a mission." The Blue Devils coaching staff scored points during Christensen's recruiting visit by arranging meetings for him with the local stake president as well as a member of the bishopric of the student ward.
About head coach Mike Krzyzewski, Christensen said, "He understands how the Church works; he knows what we believe. He's a religious person himself." And while Christensen was on his mission in Germany, Krzyzewski wrote to him. But the letter from Duke that made the deepest impression on Christensen came from assistant coach Quin Snyder who is now the head coach at the University of Missouri. "What he said was a reflection of the attitude of the coaching staff," Christensen noted. "He wrote, 'Don't worry about what things are going to be like when you get back. Just concentrate on what you're doing and other things will take care of themselves.' "
Now Christensen and Mad- sen have some trials to overcome, the former trying to help his team get back on the winning track in a quest to return to the NCAA tournament finals, and the latter struggling to recover from his injury in time to help his team win a second-straight PAC-10 championship and return to the final four. But along with that, they organize their time to serve others in meaningful ways. Madsen is co-president of the Stanford Latter-day Saint Student Association. Christensen, who serv- ed as a counselor in the student ward bishopric immediately after his mission, is currently elders quorum president.
Putting the gospel in perspective, Madsen concluded: "I've experienced a lot in basketball. I've been to the Final Four and been on a gold-medal winning team for the USA. That stuff all pales in comparison to the happiness and peace that living the gospel brings. I believe that with all my heart."