Marquis Adkins: Mills’ versatile force

Perhaps the most impressive data available regarding Adkins’ stellar overachieving performance this year is his basic bio information as a 6-foot-1 power forward. With this, he was one of the tallest players on roster for a Mills team that reached the Central Coast Section playoff semifinals for the seventh time in program history.

“I think we played together pretty well,” Adkins said of the Vikings’ success in 2014-15. “It wasn’t like one guy we always looked to. We shared the ball pretty well. A lot of different guys came up in a lot of different games. The way we moved the ball around, it was more (about) chemistry.”

But it was Adkins’ all-around basketball abilities that allowed the Vikings to play a lot taller than they were and led to him being named the San Mateo Daily Journal’s Boys’ Basketball Player of the Year.

“I would say they are the best 6-foot-1-and-under team in the history of basketball,” Hanson said. “A lot of times the opponents would have their biggest guy on Marquis; it was just kind of a natural matchup. I felt, well, if you’re going to guard Marquis, you’re going to have a guard him on the perimeter too.”

The Peninsula Athletic League South Division recognized Adkins as its Most Valuable Player this year.

“The awards are not what make him special,” Hanson said. “It’s the charisma and enthusiasm and knowledge, of course the leadership. His fellow teammates wanted to follow Marquis because they know Marquis has their best interests and the best interests of the team in mind.”

According to Hanson, Adkins likely averaged double-digits in rebounds this season. But he soon emerged as a chameleon-like presence, ranging from point guard to the lone center anchoring the post, sometimes swapping roles dramatically from one offensive series to the next.

In the Vikings’ PAL opener, a thrilling 39-38 win over Menlo-Atherton, Adkins scored a game-high 13 points. But his most critical contribution was a screen he set on the game’s final play to allow Matsuno to drain a 30-foot buzzer-beater to give Mills the win.

“I don’t think our season would have been what it was had it not been for that shot at the beginning,” Adkins said, giving all the credit on the play to Matsuno.

Adkins would go on to finish with a flourish though, leading Mills to its final victory of the year in a 68-58 win over Gunderson in the CCS Division III quarterfinals. Not only did the senior score a game-high 28 points, it stood as the highest individual point total scored by any player for either side in a Mills game this season. It also marked Adkins’ career high.

Adkins said becoming a scoring threat didn’t come naturally to him. A four-year varsity player, he made his mark as an underclassman as a rebounder who got by on guile as much as physicality. Come his junior season, Mills seemed to have its most talented team, armed with a senior class possessing plenty of offensive firepower, including 6-5 center Tyler Wright.

After the Vikings — who entered the 2013-14 CCS Division III playoffs as the No. 1 seed — were upset in the quarterfinals, Adkins knew he would need to serve as a scoring threat if the team was to see continued success in his senior year.

“This year they really needed me to be a scoring threat … so because I was needed like that, I kind of had to step up. So, I think that’s where [my offense] came from this year.”

Proving a complete offensive player was just one more facet to Adkins’ overall athletic excellence. In addition to being named Mills’ basketball MVP this season, he also earned the honor as a quarterback with the football team. Going forward, Adkins is looking to improve on a solid track and field career after getting on the podium in last year’s PAL playoffs; he took second place in the triple jump and third place in the high jump.

“I think 20, 25 years from now, coaches at Mills High School will be referencing Marquis and his accomplishments in efforts to get the current players to recognize how special a person can be with the right approach to basketball and the right approach to sports on whatever team,” Hanson said. “It’s not all athletic ability. There’s a certain drive that Marquis possesses.”

It’s that drive that has defined a great era of Mills basketball.