Meridian High School’s Jay Malone (10) works his way through traffic to the basket during a game earlier this season.

Observers at Meridian High School boys basketball games will usually find head coach Randy Bolden getting onto junior guard Jay Malone quite a bit.

Malone prefers it that way, and the two share a special bond, as Bolden both has a lot of confidence in Malone and high expectations for him as well.

“I look at him as another father figure,” Malone said. “He stays on me and makes sure I do what I have to do — and he doesn’t cut me any slack, and I like that.”

Malone is one of the Wildcats’ go-to players in a season where MHS has a legitimate shot at challenging for an MHSAA Class 6A state championship. One of the main reasons Malone has blossomed into such a good player is due to Bolden’s no-holding-back approach to coaching him, but Bolden said it’s only because he wants the best for his player.

“Jay makes us go,” Bolden explained. “We’re going to go as far as he leads us. I have a great deal of confidence in him. He’s a coach on the floor, so we have a good relationship. I’m always calling him my son, and sometimes he calls me dad, even though he has a dad.

“Jay knows I love him to death, and I think he feels the same for me. I just push him and won’t let him settle because I know the sky is the limit for him.”

Due to Bolden’s tough coaching, Malone said he’s been able to elevate his game over the course of his Wildcat career.

“I just like a coach like that,” Malone said. “”I wouldn’t want a coach who would let me mess up and be OK with it. You can say it keeps me going.”

It also takes pressure off Bolden to a degree, who knows he can be blunt with one of his star players without it affecting his performance on the court.

“It’s great when you can coach one of your better players as hard as you like,” Bolden said. “It makes it easier to coach the rest of the guys. Jay really accepts being coached hard. He tells me he wants me to coach him hard and get everything out of him.”

Part of Malone’s development has come from playing alongside former Wildcats guard B.J. Miller. Miller, who is now at Troy, was a big influence on Malone.

“I learned how to be a good leader from B.J.,” Malone said. “Whenever I would do something wrong, he’d always get onto me and encourage me to do better in things. It was fun (playing with him), really fun.”

Said Bolden, “I think he learned a great deal from B.J. Anytime you get a chance to play with a Division I basketball player, it’s good. I think being able to practice against him and pick his brain was a big asset for Jay Malone.”

Leadership is something Bolden said he’s noticed in Malone this season, and that goes beyond just his play on the court. Malone has several skillsets that work to his advantage — his high basketball IQ, quickness and first step — but perhaps his biggest asset is his ability to make others around him better.

“He leads by example,” Bolden said. “Jay brings it every day in practice, in the weight room or if we’re conditioning. It’s not just about talking, and when he does talk, they listen, because he’s one of our hardest workers.”

Setting a good example is important, Malone said; otherwise, his words would fall flat.

“If I’m messing up and I try to tell a teammate what he’s doing wrong, he’s going to tell me I’m not doing what I’m supposed to do, so I have to stay on my Ps and Qs,” Malone explained.

It all stems from wanting to bring a state championship back to Meridian.

“It can change a lot of our players’ lives,” Malone said of winning it all. “It can bring us scholarships and help so much, and we haven’t had one in so long, I just want Coach to get one.”

He and his fellow juniors, which include standouts Ledarrius Brewer and David McCoy, may be the group to do it.

“This group has been playing together — on the same middle school team and in summer leagues — since they were 12 or 13,” Bolden said. “They have a unique bond. Whenever they’re on the floor, they feel like they’re supposed to win. Those guys are grinding every day and working hard trying to do just that.”

It’s not just the juniors who are close, Malone stressed.

“We have a lot of people going against us, so we try to keep a strong bond within ourselves, and really with the whole team,” Malone said. “Coach Bolden stresses family a lot.”

Malone is the son of Janet and Bill Malone.