Gina Marxen is back and only looking forward
6/17/2022 6:35:00 PM | Women's Basketball
Among the house rules, of those set forth by Tom and Vicky Marxen for their four children, there was this one: Don't look down.
There were more serious directives for the development of their kids and the functioning of their home in Sammamish, Wash., of course, but this is a basketball story and this was a basketball requirement. When you're dribbling the ball, don't look at it.
Keep your head and eyes up. See the court. Be aware of everything happening around you, teammates and defenders both. Learn to become one with the ball on such an intimate level that the need to see it and know where it's going and what it's going to do simply vanishes.
That Gina Marxen, even after a year away from the game, handles the ball like it's attached to her fingers by a number of unseen elastic bands reveals just how closely she adhered to the rule over the years. It's a skill that became ingrained.
Dribble, dribble, dribble. Head up, head up, head up. Don't look down!
In the driveway, the one with the hoop and the shooting gun, which allowed her to practice alone for hours without the need of a rebounder, where she developed into a player who would become one of the nation's top 3-point shooters in college.
In the room above the garage, the one with the eight-foot hoop, where she would spend hours as a 2- and 3-year-old, drawn to the game played by her three older brothers, getting taken from gym to gym as they went before her pursuing their own basketball dreams.
There was Tom, who saw his daughter's passion for the game and wanted to stoke it while not becoming that parent. And there was Vicky, who saw her daughter getting swept up in the world of travel ball by the time she was in third grade, who needed to be the voice of reason.
She's overdoing it, Vicky would say. She needs to rest. "Vicky was good at providing that balance that I think Gina needed," says Tom. "The big question you're always asking, does Gina want it? You can't want it more than Gina wants it. I think the answer to that was Gina loved it and always wanted to play."
Until she didn't, but that would mean we're looking down, watching the bouncing ball and how it's brought her to Montana, her first year as a Lady Griz after establishing her bona fides for three seasons at another school before stepping away from the game for what she thought was forever.
Instead, if we follow the house rule and keep our head up, we can see the big picture, see all the way back to the start and how so many seemingly random things had to come together for this story to even be written, for Marxen to be here, a Lady Griz.
Because the Marxens, he a dentist, she a physician, had a full household: Chad, then Lance, then Troy. There were no girls on the radar.
Then one day a girl was born in a faraway place, China, a country, because of its One Child Policy, that left parents hoping for a son and leaving daughters, by the tens of thousands over the years, in public places, waiting to be found and brought to an orphanage, loved but casualties of the system.
One, through adoption, made her way to Seattle, to a couple who were part of a Bible study at their church. Word spread within the group. Other families got onboard, six in all, including the Marxens. They all wanted to do the same thing.
"We thought about it and prayed about it and knew what a special blessing their daughter had been to them, and we thought this is something we could do," says Vicky, who had no reason to doubt inspiration she received at a place of worship. It had worked before.
She took a circuitous route, eventually landing in Vancouver and going to medical school at Washington. He started in Ohio, became a Buckeye, went to dental school at Case Western Reserve and to Washington as well for more schooling.
They both joined Westminster Chapel in Bellevue, both attended a Bible study for singles and that was pretty much that. At least for her. "I just knew when I first met him that he was the one," says Vicky. "I don't think he realized it at the time.
"I just thought he was very interesting. And handsome. We had, most importantly, our faith, then our career goals and personality-wise he made me laugh. He still makes me laugh even all these years later."
They married, had the boys, then made their next decision. They filled out the stacks of adoption paperwork and underwent background checks, and, finally, one day it started to become real: they received a photo of their soon-to-be daughter. They were smitten.
Of course, there was the matter of informing the boys, that there was going to be a new addition to the family, someone unlike them in about every way possible: a girl, from China. "They were very supportive and very excited about adding a sister," says Vicky, whose boys were 9, 7 and 5 at the time.
"We explained to them that every child needs a home and a family. You can't change the whole world, but you can impact different lives and here was a chance to bring another child into our family who needs a mom and dad and brothers."
To see Marxen now, with so much speed, quickness and body control on the basketball court, is to disbelieve what Tom and Vicky discovered that day they were introduced to their daughter in China, handed over as she was, unceremoniously, in a parking lot.
Even at the age of 1, she could not crawl. She had been restricted in her movements at her orphanage. The less moving, the greater efficiency for the staff, the more babies who could be processed and moved through. And that doesn't begin to get at the emotional stunting that resulted.
"When we went to get her, there was no expression on her face, no smile. It was like nobody was home," says Tom. But love would win the day and break down the walls, one tender action at a time.
"She started smiling and opening up that first day," says Vicky. "As we gave her that love and care, she just blossomed."
Who knows what she was thinking the day they landed back in Seattle, where the boys were waiting, each one with a rose and a tiny toy to hand over to their new sister? "They've been so good to her over the years. They love her so much and are so proud of her," says Vicky.
With the family unit now set at six, the boys got back to playing their games, and Gina began the process of watching, then imitating.
"Gina was in the gym all the time. Anytime it was halftime, she was out on the court shooting," says Tom. "She was a gym rat from when she was a little girl. Having older brothers really encouraged her to want to play."
She's thought about it over the years. What her biological parents were like. Whether they were athletic or if that happened from growing up a Marxen. What became of them and their desire to have a son. If they think about her.
And then it passes. "Sometimes I honestly forget that I'm adopted, just because I'm surrounded by so much love in my family. I forget that we're not blood-related. That's my family. That's just how it is," she says. "This is my life now."
That's not to say she doesn't embrace her background. She was one of six Chinese babies adopted by a single Bible study group at one church, and those parents were intentional about getting the girls together, to keep them connected to each other and their pasts.
"We got together very regularly, especially when the girls were younger and talked about Chinese culture," says Vicky. "Each girl has just been a wonderful fit for each family, with personalities and interests that really fit each family."
You mostly see the name Gina Marxen. But written out fully it's Gina Lynn Xuan Marxen, Xuan (schwaun) a holdover from the name given her in the land of her birth.
"We've tried to be very open about it. Her birth parents loved her very much, but with the political situation and the requirements of the One Child Policy, it made it very hard for her birth parents to raise her. What they did was the next best thing," says Vicky.
She played soccer growing up. Finished fourth in King County as a freshman in tennis before giving it up for the sport that had grabbed her heart so long ago and never released its grip.
"I like the team atmosphere of basketball," she says. "It was one thing I had a passion for and motivation to be great, like I want to work hard and accomplish these goals."
But before you start thinking it's all about striving for self and fulfilling personal goals, know this: It's just as much about the fun and the teamwork and the bond between teammates. She is, at her core, about relationships.
She was extended the opportunity, before she signed with Montana, to visit North Carolina State, a team coming off a 32-4 season and a trip to the Elite 8.
They had plans to play Marxen at the point, to move Diamond Johnson off the ball to get the best out of both players (at least that was the recruiting pitch). Heady stuff. People in Raleigh are probably still scratching their heads at how they lost out on the chance to sign her. How they lost out to Montana.
But former Eastlake High teammate Keeli Burton-Oliver is here. So is Haley Huard, who was a freshman on that team when Marxen was a senior. Those relationships matter.
And give an assist to Taya Corosdale, formerly at Oregon State, like Lady Griz coach Brian Holsinger. She is now at Duke. That relationship matters too, of someone close being able to speak to the character of another.
"Taya had great things to say, and I was very impressed with Coach Brian and his integrity," says Tom. "He has a track record. And Brock Huard wouldn't entrust his daughters to play on a team if the coach weren't a great guy."
For all of Marxen's aspirations, she had to chase them within the literal framework of her size. She was never going to be a six-footer. Instead she maxed out at 5-foot-8.
"Once I realized I'd be short, I had to learn how to compensate. I don't have the height, so I had to be quick, fast. I had to be able to shoot, handle the ball, be smart, so that's what I worked on," she says.
Did growing up in a family with partial season tickets, split with another dentist's family, to the Seattle Supersonics (RIP) play a role in her basketball development? It all added up. She saw how small guards had to use space and quickness to their advantage. The speed of her shot release is no accident.
"Being smaller, a big goal of mine was getting my shot off quickly and being able to move and get myself open," she says. "Once I developed my shot, then I had to develop the skill of getting open. That's what I've been working at forever."
She joined the Seattle Transition travel-ball team as a third grader. A year later she provided her dad the first of those eye-opening moments, when he knew he had something special, something different on his hands.
It was an AAU game and Tea Adams, who played at San Diego State, then Oregon State, got a runout pass for what everyone thought was going to be an easy, uncontested layup. Then from nowhere, Gina Marxen shows up to not just block the shot but "she swats her," says her dad. "I still have the video."
A block stops, or at least delays, the threat. A swat comes with attitude and sends a message. Gina Marxen had arrived. "That was one of those ah-ha moments," Tom says.
As a fifth grader, Marxen teamed up with the sixth-grade Corosdale to lead Seattle Transition to a 17th-place finish at AAU nationals in Tennessee. A year later, in Ohio, the team finished second. And Tom Marxen can still recall and recite in detail how the game – in 2012! -- slipped away.
She was voted the KingCo 4A MVP as a junior and senior at Eastlake, when she and Burton-Oliver – and Huard in the latter season – led the Wolves to the Washington state tournament.
That came well after she became the player college programs across the country wanted on their team.
She visited Ohio State. Princeton too, plus others. She ended up signing with Idaho, where her cousin Alyssa Charlston (Vicky's brother's daughter) had been a three-time All-WAC performer and played in the NCAA tournament as a junior and senior.
Marxen was named the Big Sky Conference Freshman of the Year in 2018-19 on Idaho's regular-season championship team. The Vandals went 16-4 in league. One of those four losses came inside Dahlberg Arena in what's remembered as the Jace Henderson Game.
Henderson had 31 points on 13-of-17 shooting and 12 rebounds, which offset Idaho's 14 3-pointers. Marxen hit three of those 3-pointers on four attempts.
The game drew a full-throated crowd of 2,795. A Henderson three-point play with 71 seconds left broke the game's final tie and propelled the home team to an 82-79 victory.
Tom and Vicky were there, as they were the next year, when their daughter, who would be voted first-team All-Big Sky that season, hit four 3-pointers and scored a team-high 16 points but again went back to Moscow with a loss, 69-60.
"I remember it was intimidating as an opponent," says Vicky. "It's such a great fanbase. It's a tough place for an opponent to win. It's going to be great to be on the Montana team and be on the other side of that now."
When Montana plays its home opener in November, Marxen will still be looking for her first win inside Dahlberg. It should come easier with the crowd behind her.
"As a visitor I wanted to shut them up. Now I want to give them something to cheer about," says Marxen. "The crowd makes such a big difference in games. As soon as the crowd is into the game, it can flip all the momentum. It will be fun to be in a place where women's basketball is truly supported."
After earning second-team All-Big Sky honors in 2020-21, Marxen was done, one or two seasons before her eligibility would have run out. She took her 954 career points, her 199 3-pointers and set them in the corner, along with a basketball she wouldn't grab hold of for more than a year.
As far as she was concerned, they could stay there in the corner, never to be touched again.
The Marxen of her youth wouldn't have believed it, but when she stepped away from the game, she truly stepped away from the game. "I didn't do anything all year," she says. "I didn't touch a basketball, didn't lift, didn't run. Nothing.
"I had no intention of ever playing again. I was done mentally. That's why I took the entire year off. There was no point in going to shoot or play basketball. I was done and felt satisfied with where I was at."
Next up: dentistry school.
Her decision had plenty of ripple effects. Her biggest cheerleaders, her parents, had to shelve their own basketball-related hopes and dreams for their daughter and what they thought were their own future plans of following her around the country.
That all that had to be put aside. Their daughter had made the most difficult decision of her life and Tom and Vicky needed to be there as parents.
"It was about what she wanted, not me," says Vicky. "I wasn't the one playing basketball. You realize that basketball is what she does and not who she is. We knew we had to support her and love her because that's what she needed.
"It was a difficult time. The last thing she needed was for us to be questioning her. We encouraged her to follow what she thought was the best thing to do for her. She became a stronger person through the whole process and learned more about herself. That's part of growth."
The 2021-22 season played out. She felt nothing. No regrets, no longing to come back. Then April rolled around. And something changed. Something clicked, like the pilot light that had fueled that passion for so many years had come back on.
She wasn't willing to commit, or even pick up a basketball and take a shot in preparation, but she did put her name in the NCAA Transfer Portal, just to see what interest might be out there. There was plenty. Turns out Gina Marxen: Available/Possibly Interested caught plenty of programs' attention.
Holsinger made an early move. "He got me to thinking. He said, if any part of you misses it or is curious about it, give yourself an opportunity. Don't shut that door. You have your whole life to work and you only have basketball for a short amount of time. That part really hit me."
Before she could commit to playing or to a school, she had to pick up that basketball and take her first shot in more than a year away from any kind of court.
"It was super weird. I said to my friend, hey, do you want to go to the gym and rebound for me? I shot for 30 minutes and tried not to put pressure on myself. But after that one day I thought, okay, this is fun," she says.
Her shooting stroke, the one that allowed her to hit 89 3-pointers as a sophomore, was intact but rusty and in need to some TLC. "What surprised me after shooting for a day was that I could still make a shot. That was a nice surprise."
When she came on her visit to Montana, she spent time with Sammy Fatkin, who could relate with what Marxen was going through. Fatkin had spent more than a year away from the sport as well, without so much as picking up a basketball.
"It's an interesting process. Getting your touch back and getting back in shape take a lot of work but you come in with a new appreciation for the game," says Fatkin.
"It's hard. You don't want to lower the bar, but you have to give yourself grace and understanding from the time you took off and try not to kill yourself getting it back in one day. There are times you think you've still got it, then days when you have those unathletic moments and you think, what happened?"
On May 21 she announced via social media that Montana had won her over. Jaws dropped from Raleigh to Seattle.
"We're excited for her. This is such a blessing," says Vicky. "She's telling us how much fun she's having, how she loves the coaching staff. It's a thing we never could have predicted. I think God has surprised some people."
Through two weeks of practices, she looks like Gina Marxen, the person, if not yet Gina Marxen, superstar basketball player. And that's all right.
She's embraced the grace that Fatkin talked about. She shoots the occasional airball that misses the rim entirely, then looks bewilderedly at her hands, like they've let her down or she doesn't recognize what they've just done. And she moves on.
The bad misses will become fewer and fewer until they are no more.
Eventually, Gina Marxen, superstar basketball player, will be back in full, like she never missed a day, much less an entire season. She's got time and the right mindset. It's not about winning the day. It's taking the long-term approach and embracing the opportunity to be back, a ball in her hands.
"You don't want to look back and wonder, what if? It was 100 percent the right decision, not just playing again but coming here," she says.
"My first day I stepped into practice, I was nervous. I didn't want to embarrass myself. I walked in and automatically felt welcomed and supported. I needed that coming back. There is a lot of encouragement and understanding here, and such a positive environment that I'm not used to."
It's a small group Holsinger has at practice these days. The incoming freshmen are not yet in town. Katerina Tsineke is still back in Greece. Willa Albrecht is limited as she returns from injury.
The Second-Chance Crew – Fatkin, Marxen and Burton-Oliver, all of whom have been welcomed back to the college game by Holsinger and his staff – give the workouts a different-than-expected vibe.
It's not: "I can't believe we have to practice in June." It's more: "I can't believe we get to practice in June. And that I'm here!"
"Anytime you step back from something you love for a significant length of time, it gives you a better appreciation for it. Gina is playing with a joy that is unique. That is the word that I would use: unique," says Holsinger. "She's thankful to be playing.
"It comes from perspective. It brings a different perspective when you haven't been playing. The joy of being able to be out there, even in practice, just rubs off on everybody. That's our goal, to enjoy the game so much that it's fun to get better and keep improving."
Gina Marxen has put the past behind her and is now only looking in one direction, excited to play again and about what's to come. Never down, she only looks forward.
There were more serious directives for the development of their kids and the functioning of their home in Sammamish, Wash., of course, but this is a basketball story and this was a basketball requirement. When you're dribbling the ball, don't look at it.
Keep your head and eyes up. See the court. Be aware of everything happening around you, teammates and defenders both. Learn to become one with the ball on such an intimate level that the need to see it and know where it's going and what it's going to do simply vanishes.
That Gina Marxen, even after a year away from the game, handles the ball like it's attached to her fingers by a number of unseen elastic bands reveals just how closely she adhered to the rule over the years. It's a skill that became ingrained.
Dribble, dribble, dribble. Head up, head up, head up. Don't look down!
In the driveway, the one with the hoop and the shooting gun, which allowed her to practice alone for hours without the need of a rebounder, where she developed into a player who would become one of the nation's top 3-point shooters in college.
In the room above the garage, the one with the eight-foot hoop, where she would spend hours as a 2- and 3-year-old, drawn to the game played by her three older brothers, getting taken from gym to gym as they went before her pursuing their own basketball dreams.
There was Tom, who saw his daughter's passion for the game and wanted to stoke it while not becoming that parent. And there was Vicky, who saw her daughter getting swept up in the world of travel ball by the time she was in third grade, who needed to be the voice of reason.
She's overdoing it, Vicky would say. She needs to rest. "Vicky was good at providing that balance that I think Gina needed," says Tom. "The big question you're always asking, does Gina want it? You can't want it more than Gina wants it. I think the answer to that was Gina loved it and always wanted to play."
Until she didn't, but that would mean we're looking down, watching the bouncing ball and how it's brought her to Montana, her first year as a Lady Griz after establishing her bona fides for three seasons at another school before stepping away from the game for what she thought was forever.
Instead, if we follow the house rule and keep our head up, we can see the big picture, see all the way back to the start and how so many seemingly random things had to come together for this story to even be written, for Marxen to be here, a Lady Griz.
Because the Marxens, he a dentist, she a physician, had a full household: Chad, then Lance, then Troy. There were no girls on the radar.
Then one day a girl was born in a faraway place, China, a country, because of its One Child Policy, that left parents hoping for a son and leaving daughters, by the tens of thousands over the years, in public places, waiting to be found and brought to an orphanage, loved but casualties of the system.
One, through adoption, made her way to Seattle, to a couple who were part of a Bible study at their church. Word spread within the group. Other families got onboard, six in all, including the Marxens. They all wanted to do the same thing.
"We thought about it and prayed about it and knew what a special blessing their daughter had been to them, and we thought this is something we could do," says Vicky, who had no reason to doubt inspiration she received at a place of worship. It had worked before.
She took a circuitous route, eventually landing in Vancouver and going to medical school at Washington. He started in Ohio, became a Buckeye, went to dental school at Case Western Reserve and to Washington as well for more schooling.
They both joined Westminster Chapel in Bellevue, both attended a Bible study for singles and that was pretty much that. At least for her. "I just knew when I first met him that he was the one," says Vicky. "I don't think he realized it at the time.
"I just thought he was very interesting. And handsome. We had, most importantly, our faith, then our career goals and personality-wise he made me laugh. He still makes me laugh even all these years later."
They married, had the boys, then made their next decision. They filled out the stacks of adoption paperwork and underwent background checks, and, finally, one day it started to become real: they received a photo of their soon-to-be daughter. They were smitten.
Of course, there was the matter of informing the boys, that there was going to be a new addition to the family, someone unlike them in about every way possible: a girl, from China. "They were very supportive and very excited about adding a sister," says Vicky, whose boys were 9, 7 and 5 at the time.
"We explained to them that every child needs a home and a family. You can't change the whole world, but you can impact different lives and here was a chance to bring another child into our family who needs a mom and dad and brothers."
To see Marxen now, with so much speed, quickness and body control on the basketball court, is to disbelieve what Tom and Vicky discovered that day they were introduced to their daughter in China, handed over as she was, unceremoniously, in a parking lot.
Even at the age of 1, she could not crawl. She had been restricted in her movements at her orphanage. The less moving, the greater efficiency for the staff, the more babies who could be processed and moved through. And that doesn't begin to get at the emotional stunting that resulted.
"When we went to get her, there was no expression on her face, no smile. It was like nobody was home," says Tom. But love would win the day and break down the walls, one tender action at a time.
"She started smiling and opening up that first day," says Vicky. "As we gave her that love and care, she just blossomed."
Who knows what she was thinking the day they landed back in Seattle, where the boys were waiting, each one with a rose and a tiny toy to hand over to their new sister? "They've been so good to her over the years. They love her so much and are so proud of her," says Vicky.
With the family unit now set at six, the boys got back to playing their games, and Gina began the process of watching, then imitating.
"Gina was in the gym all the time. Anytime it was halftime, she was out on the court shooting," says Tom. "She was a gym rat from when she was a little girl. Having older brothers really encouraged her to want to play."
She's thought about it over the years. What her biological parents were like. Whether they were athletic or if that happened from growing up a Marxen. What became of them and their desire to have a son. If they think about her.
And then it passes. "Sometimes I honestly forget that I'm adopted, just because I'm surrounded by so much love in my family. I forget that we're not blood-related. That's my family. That's just how it is," she says. "This is my life now."
That's not to say she doesn't embrace her background. She was one of six Chinese babies adopted by a single Bible study group at one church, and those parents were intentional about getting the girls together, to keep them connected to each other and their pasts.
"We got together very regularly, especially when the girls were younger and talked about Chinese culture," says Vicky. "Each girl has just been a wonderful fit for each family, with personalities and interests that really fit each family."
You mostly see the name Gina Marxen. But written out fully it's Gina Lynn Xuan Marxen, Xuan (schwaun) a holdover from the name given her in the land of her birth.
"We've tried to be very open about it. Her birth parents loved her very much, but with the political situation and the requirements of the One Child Policy, it made it very hard for her birth parents to raise her. What they did was the next best thing," says Vicky.
She played soccer growing up. Finished fourth in King County as a freshman in tennis before giving it up for the sport that had grabbed her heart so long ago and never released its grip.
"I like the team atmosphere of basketball," she says. "It was one thing I had a passion for and motivation to be great, like I want to work hard and accomplish these goals."
But before you start thinking it's all about striving for self and fulfilling personal goals, know this: It's just as much about the fun and the teamwork and the bond between teammates. She is, at her core, about relationships.
She was extended the opportunity, before she signed with Montana, to visit North Carolina State, a team coming off a 32-4 season and a trip to the Elite 8.
They had plans to play Marxen at the point, to move Diamond Johnson off the ball to get the best out of both players (at least that was the recruiting pitch). Heady stuff. People in Raleigh are probably still scratching their heads at how they lost out on the chance to sign her. How they lost out to Montana.
But former Eastlake High teammate Keeli Burton-Oliver is here. So is Haley Huard, who was a freshman on that team when Marxen was a senior. Those relationships matter.
And give an assist to Taya Corosdale, formerly at Oregon State, like Lady Griz coach Brian Holsinger. She is now at Duke. That relationship matters too, of someone close being able to speak to the character of another.
"Taya had great things to say, and I was very impressed with Coach Brian and his integrity," says Tom. "He has a track record. And Brock Huard wouldn't entrust his daughters to play on a team if the coach weren't a great guy."
For all of Marxen's aspirations, she had to chase them within the literal framework of her size. She was never going to be a six-footer. Instead she maxed out at 5-foot-8.
"Once I realized I'd be short, I had to learn how to compensate. I don't have the height, so I had to be quick, fast. I had to be able to shoot, handle the ball, be smart, so that's what I worked on," she says.
Did growing up in a family with partial season tickets, split with another dentist's family, to the Seattle Supersonics (RIP) play a role in her basketball development? It all added up. She saw how small guards had to use space and quickness to their advantage. The speed of her shot release is no accident.
"Being smaller, a big goal of mine was getting my shot off quickly and being able to move and get myself open," she says. "Once I developed my shot, then I had to develop the skill of getting open. That's what I've been working at forever."
She joined the Seattle Transition travel-ball team as a third grader. A year later she provided her dad the first of those eye-opening moments, when he knew he had something special, something different on his hands.
It was an AAU game and Tea Adams, who played at San Diego State, then Oregon State, got a runout pass for what everyone thought was going to be an easy, uncontested layup. Then from nowhere, Gina Marxen shows up to not just block the shot but "she swats her," says her dad. "I still have the video."
A block stops, or at least delays, the threat. A swat comes with attitude and sends a message. Gina Marxen had arrived. "That was one of those ah-ha moments," Tom says.
As a fifth grader, Marxen teamed up with the sixth-grade Corosdale to lead Seattle Transition to a 17th-place finish at AAU nationals in Tennessee. A year later, in Ohio, the team finished second. And Tom Marxen can still recall and recite in detail how the game – in 2012! -- slipped away.
She was voted the KingCo 4A MVP as a junior and senior at Eastlake, when she and Burton-Oliver – and Huard in the latter season – led the Wolves to the Washington state tournament.
That came well after she became the player college programs across the country wanted on their team.
She visited Ohio State. Princeton too, plus others. She ended up signing with Idaho, where her cousin Alyssa Charlston (Vicky's brother's daughter) had been a three-time All-WAC performer and played in the NCAA tournament as a junior and senior.
Marxen was named the Big Sky Conference Freshman of the Year in 2018-19 on Idaho's regular-season championship team. The Vandals went 16-4 in league. One of those four losses came inside Dahlberg Arena in what's remembered as the Jace Henderson Game.
Henderson had 31 points on 13-of-17 shooting and 12 rebounds, which offset Idaho's 14 3-pointers. Marxen hit three of those 3-pointers on four attempts.
The game drew a full-throated crowd of 2,795. A Henderson three-point play with 71 seconds left broke the game's final tie and propelled the home team to an 82-79 victory.
Tom and Vicky were there, as they were the next year, when their daughter, who would be voted first-team All-Big Sky that season, hit four 3-pointers and scored a team-high 16 points but again went back to Moscow with a loss, 69-60.
"I remember it was intimidating as an opponent," says Vicky. "It's such a great fanbase. It's a tough place for an opponent to win. It's going to be great to be on the Montana team and be on the other side of that now."
When Montana plays its home opener in November, Marxen will still be looking for her first win inside Dahlberg. It should come easier with the crowd behind her.
"As a visitor I wanted to shut them up. Now I want to give them something to cheer about," says Marxen. "The crowd makes such a big difference in games. As soon as the crowd is into the game, it can flip all the momentum. It will be fun to be in a place where women's basketball is truly supported."
After earning second-team All-Big Sky honors in 2020-21, Marxen was done, one or two seasons before her eligibility would have run out. She took her 954 career points, her 199 3-pointers and set them in the corner, along with a basketball she wouldn't grab hold of for more than a year.
As far as she was concerned, they could stay there in the corner, never to be touched again.
The Marxen of her youth wouldn't have believed it, but when she stepped away from the game, she truly stepped away from the game. "I didn't do anything all year," she says. "I didn't touch a basketball, didn't lift, didn't run. Nothing.
"I had no intention of ever playing again. I was done mentally. That's why I took the entire year off. There was no point in going to shoot or play basketball. I was done and felt satisfied with where I was at."
Next up: dentistry school.
Her decision had plenty of ripple effects. Her biggest cheerleaders, her parents, had to shelve their own basketball-related hopes and dreams for their daughter and what they thought were their own future plans of following her around the country.
That all that had to be put aside. Their daughter had made the most difficult decision of her life and Tom and Vicky needed to be there as parents.
"It was about what she wanted, not me," says Vicky. "I wasn't the one playing basketball. You realize that basketball is what she does and not who she is. We knew we had to support her and love her because that's what she needed.
"It was a difficult time. The last thing she needed was for us to be questioning her. We encouraged her to follow what she thought was the best thing to do for her. She became a stronger person through the whole process and learned more about herself. That's part of growth."
The 2021-22 season played out. She felt nothing. No regrets, no longing to come back. Then April rolled around. And something changed. Something clicked, like the pilot light that had fueled that passion for so many years had come back on.
She wasn't willing to commit, or even pick up a basketball and take a shot in preparation, but she did put her name in the NCAA Transfer Portal, just to see what interest might be out there. There was plenty. Turns out Gina Marxen: Available/Possibly Interested caught plenty of programs' attention.
Holsinger made an early move. "He got me to thinking. He said, if any part of you misses it or is curious about it, give yourself an opportunity. Don't shut that door. You have your whole life to work and you only have basketball for a short amount of time. That part really hit me."
Before she could commit to playing or to a school, she had to pick up that basketball and take her first shot in more than a year away from any kind of court.
"It was super weird. I said to my friend, hey, do you want to go to the gym and rebound for me? I shot for 30 minutes and tried not to put pressure on myself. But after that one day I thought, okay, this is fun," she says.
Her shooting stroke, the one that allowed her to hit 89 3-pointers as a sophomore, was intact but rusty and in need to some TLC. "What surprised me after shooting for a day was that I could still make a shot. That was a nice surprise."
When she came on her visit to Montana, she spent time with Sammy Fatkin, who could relate with what Marxen was going through. Fatkin had spent more than a year away from the sport as well, without so much as picking up a basketball.
"It's an interesting process. Getting your touch back and getting back in shape take a lot of work but you come in with a new appreciation for the game," says Fatkin.
"It's hard. You don't want to lower the bar, but you have to give yourself grace and understanding from the time you took off and try not to kill yourself getting it back in one day. There are times you think you've still got it, then days when you have those unathletic moments and you think, what happened?"
On May 21 she announced via social media that Montana had won her over. Jaws dropped from Raleigh to Seattle.
"We're excited for her. This is such a blessing," says Vicky. "She's telling us how much fun she's having, how she loves the coaching staff. It's a thing we never could have predicted. I think God has surprised some people."
Through two weeks of practices, she looks like Gina Marxen, the person, if not yet Gina Marxen, superstar basketball player. And that's all right.
She's embraced the grace that Fatkin talked about. She shoots the occasional airball that misses the rim entirely, then looks bewilderedly at her hands, like they've let her down or she doesn't recognize what they've just done. And she moves on.
The bad misses will become fewer and fewer until they are no more.
Eventually, Gina Marxen, superstar basketball player, will be back in full, like she never missed a day, much less an entire season. She's got time and the right mindset. It's not about winning the day. It's taking the long-term approach and embracing the opportunity to be back, a ball in her hands.
"You don't want to look back and wonder, what if? It was 100 percent the right decision, not just playing again but coming here," she says.
"My first day I stepped into practice, I was nervous. I didn't want to embarrass myself. I walked in and automatically felt welcomed and supported. I needed that coming back. There is a lot of encouragement and understanding here, and such a positive environment that I'm not used to."
It's a small group Holsinger has at practice these days. The incoming freshmen are not yet in town. Katerina Tsineke is still back in Greece. Willa Albrecht is limited as she returns from injury.
The Second-Chance Crew – Fatkin, Marxen and Burton-Oliver, all of whom have been welcomed back to the college game by Holsinger and his staff – give the workouts a different-than-expected vibe.
It's not: "I can't believe we have to practice in June." It's more: "I can't believe we get to practice in June. And that I'm here!"
"Anytime you step back from something you love for a significant length of time, it gives you a better appreciation for it. Gina is playing with a joy that is unique. That is the word that I would use: unique," says Holsinger. "She's thankful to be playing.
"It comes from perspective. It brings a different perspective when you haven't been playing. The joy of being able to be out there, even in practice, just rubs off on everybody. That's our goal, to enjoy the game so much that it's fun to get better and keep improving."
Gina Marxen has put the past behind her and is now only looking in one direction, excited to play again and about what's to come. Never down, she only looks forward.
Players Mentioned
F
/ Women's Basketball
G
/ Women's Basketball
F
/ Women's Basketball
G
/ Women's Basketball
G
/ Women's BasketballGriz football weekly press conference 12.8.25
Monday, December 08
UM vs SDSU Highlights
Monday, December 08
Griz Football Press Conference 12-1-25
Monday, December 01
2025 Brawl of the Wild Trailer
Friday, November 21
