Dajuan Madden sees a lot of himself in this year’s C. Milton Wright boys basketball team.
The first-year assistant coach, sitting off to the bleachers dribbling a ball while the Mustangs zipped up and down the floor, rifled through a slew of similarities.
There’s junior forward Dylan Sander, to whom he pointed, “I had a motor like Dylan.” Similar to senior point guard Cayne Woodland transferring from Parkville this summer, Madden transferred to Patterson Mill for his last dance.
His body type resembled that of Mustang senior guard Larry Thompson. Madden’s do-it-all skillset, for him, felt similar to guard Noah Clarke’s. His jumper resembled Jordan Ross’. And his dedication is shared by Jaylen Madden, his nephew.
Madden and C. Milton coach Mario Scott forged their connection while at Patterson Mill, reaching the state semifinal as player and assistant coach with Jeroud Clark’s 2013-14 Huskies. A decade later, Scott brought back his former player to help prepare this year’s Mustangs for a similar –– and they hope better –– playoff run.
“[C. Milton Wright] was our rival school,” Madden said. “I didn’t ever think I was gonna come back but they accepted me with open arms and we’ve been rolling ever since.”
Madden’s roundabout basketball journey is what makes him the ideal candidate to ready the Mustangs, who begin their postseason voyage this week.
The once undersized guard found his Baltimore city grit at Coppin Academy. He transferred and was a pivotal piece of Patterson Mill’s success –– Scott remembers one quadruple-double at North East early that year. Madden bounced through three JUCOs, from Colorado to New Jersey to Texas, before the work paid off with a Division I scholarship to Prairie View A&M.
Then he tore his ACL.
Scott was one of the first people he called, saying, “I didn’t come this far just to come this far.” He ramped up his rehab from two-a-days to three-a-days, fighting to get back on the court for a season with the Panthers. There was a short stint playing professionally in the Dominican Republic before the pandemic extinguished his playing career.
“Most guys aren’t going to have that kind of resolve,” Scott said. “That’s what makes people special.”
Scott, who helped Madden find his first full-time job after basketball, poached his protégé back in the spring about joining C. Milton Wright’s staff. His unofficial role was to be the team’s player development coach; a worthy title for the staffer best equipped to mix it up in live action drills. “Just yesterday he was cooking us,” Thompson said with a laugh.
Madden’s energy and physicality elevates the passion in practice. And his skillset –– a tight handle setting up whipping passes others can’t see –– raises the bar for this group of high schoolers. As Woodland pointed out, they won’t play anyone matching those traits.
Madden isn’t necessarily drawing plays in the sand for the Mustangs. But he is more than his talents as a former Division I athlete. Scott says he’s like an older brother some days and a sounding board others.
There was once instance that, beyond his basketball prowess, helps spell out his role.
Scott prefaced the story by pulling back the curtain to his coaching style: If it’s behind closed doors of practice or the locker room, “I generally am much more of a tell me how you feel kinda guy. … Whatever you need to do to relay to me how you feel.”
When Scott butted heads with one player back in December, it left the coach feeling more emotionally charged than normal. Madden tugged on the second-year coach’s shirt and whispered, “Hey Scotty, lemme have this one.”
“It was really cool to see him be so instinctual with me,” Scott said. “And understanding, ‘I gotta give it to him this way.'”
Madden wants to be for these C. Milton Wright players who Scott was for him, noting, “I know I had times where I got into it a couple times with my coach just out of frustration. And Coach Mario was able to pull me aside.”
Madden’s influence on the Mustangs manifests itself in different ways. It’s hard to deny his impact on Harford County’s top team. Now for the assistant coach who sees himself in his players, it’s about helping them get further in the playoffs than he ever could.
