McIntosh endures

Growing up the only child of a single mom who earned her college degree when he was 11, Marcus McIntosh was raised on overcoming struggle. But struggle was, for the most part, something he could leave behind, merely by stepping onto a basketball court.

A decorated high school player in Aurora, Colo., McIntosh had verbally committed to attend Miami of Florida on a basketball scholarship after his senior season. But when Hurricanes Coach Leonard Hamilton left to guide the Washington Wizards, McIntosh was suddenly left blowing in the South Florida breeze.

He landed at Northeastern Junior College in Colorado, where he averaged 12.6 points to earn all-region honors, as well as a scholarship from Texas A&M.;

But a coaching change in College Station — the arrival of Billy Gillespie, whose system did not mesh with McIntosh’s skills — diverted his basketball journey to California, at UC Irvine, where he redshirted the 2005-06 season anticipating a bright future with Coach Pat Douglass’ Anteaters.

McIntosh opened his junior season as the starting point guard. But, never having played the position exclusively, he spent his three-game stint as a starter thinking too much about pleasing his coach, rather than letting his talents flow through. The result was basically a banishment to the bench, where the usually ebullient McIntosh, admittedly selfish, stewed over his lack of success. He finished the year having scored 86 points in 29 games.

Suddenly, basketball became the source of his struggle, at once taking away and providing him an opportunity.

“It was definitely the low point of my basketball career,” McIntosh said. “I kind of took my bumps and bruises and licked my wounds. I was really shaky about what the future was going to bring. I didn’t know if I was going to come back, or if they were going to chose to have me back.”

Through a series of meetings with the coaching staff, and some soul searching of his own, McIntosh elected to give basketball one final chance.

“I’ve never quit anything in my life,” said McIntosh, who draws frequent inspiration from the tattoo that circles his left wrist and reads: No struggle, No progress. “When things get hard, I don’t quit. I learned from my mom [Norma Eaton] that you can’t quit at life. She’s one my biggest heroes and someone I truly do admire and respect. My mom has been a fighter all her life and, from Day 1, I had seen all that she had come through to overcome adversity. I felt like I wanted to continue to play basketball, so I was going to bust my butt day in and day out to see if I could still contribute to the team.”

McIntosh’s relentless work ethic soon impressed the coaches, as well as his teammates. The former quickly offered him a spot on the team, and the latter voted him co-captain, along with senior Patrick Sanders.

“I really didn’t see that coming,” McIntosh said of his co-captain status, which only motivated him more. “I had been a captain on all my other teams, but I didn’t expect that my teammates would think I could bring that much to this team.”

As McIntosh continued to work, his playing time slowly increased. And as his playing time increased, so did his effectiveness.

“He was a spark,” Douglass said of his initial contributions, which primarily surfaced on the defensive end.

But McIntosh, whose ability to provide energy on and off the court made him a crowd favorite and a beloved teammate, soon found his way into the starting lineup.

“His emergence was really a turnaround for us,” said Douglass, whose team won seven of its last 10 regular-season games.

McIntosh said once he decided to commit to the team, the basketball court, once again, became a place where he found his greatest peace.

“I looked at myself in the mirror and realized I basically came here with a preconceived attitude about how things were going to be and how things should be,” he said. “But once I got back to basketball, I was all about the joy and love of being out there and being able to compete. Rather than a stressful thing I had to do, it became about ‘OK, let’s just play.’ It was almost a weight that was lifted off my shoulders.”

McIntosh, who received the team’s Most Inspirational Player award at Sunday’s banquet, has lifted his team with his explosive athleticism, which translates into demonic defense and explosive dribble penetration or finishing around the basket after receiving passes from his teammates. But, just as positive, has been the fun he brings to the court.

His exchanges with teammates during the introduction of starters has become a welcome pregame sideshow. And, once the game begins, he can be seen punctuating a big play by pounding his chest, or even unleashing a primal scream.

“I am a very emotional player and I play with a lot of emotion,” he said. “I’m a basketball fan, period. So, regardless of who is making a big play, I just get that rush inside me. It’s just fun, I’m out there having fun and trying to contribute.”

McIntosh has another outlet for his emotions and thoughts — poetry. He has filled four notebooks with his free-flowing verse and has performed from his collection in spoken word readings on campus.

“As long as I could write, poetry has been a passion of mine,” McIntosh said. “I can always disappear into the pen and the pad. I feel like I’m always inspired and I’m always thinking about things [to write]. When the mood [to write] strikes me, it strikes, regardless of what I’m doing.”

Regardless of whether competitive basketball comes to an end for McIntosh in the next few days, he said he will never let go of the game, and vice versa.

“I’ll always have the basketball shoes and shorts and a basketball in my the trunk of my car,” said McIntosh, who plans to graduate in June with a degree in Sociology. “With all the friends I’ve made playing basketball, it’s never hard to get a game, even if it’s one-on-one.”

BARRY FAULKNER may be reached at (714) 966-4615 or at barry.faulkner@latimes.com.