Whatever Happened to Joe Coleman

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I was just reminiscing on the 2012-13 season of ups and downs, and I realized that I never checked-in on Joe Coleman's career at St. Mary's. A subsequent search on college basketball reference yielded a result of 1 games worth of stats in the 2014-15 season. Was that really the end of his career? I thought he was a really nice complementary player for that 12-13 team. Was it injuries?
 

I was just reminiscing on the 2012-13 season of ups and downs, and I realized that I never checked-in on Joe Coleman's career at St. Mary's. A subsequent search on college basketball reference yielded a result of 1 games worth of stats in the 2014-15 season. Was that really the end of his career? I thought he was a really nice complementary player for that 12-13 team. Was it injuries?

It may have been an injury or some combination of an injury and a desire to move on in life, but I seem to recall Joe returning to Minnesota to finish his degree. He was a good player that I thought might fit into Pitino's system, but he jumped ship. We could have used him that first year. He would have been more effective than Malik Smith, I think.
 


It may have been an injury or some combination of an injury and a desire to move on in life, but I seem to recall Joe returning to Minnesota to finish his degree. He was a good player that I thought might fit into Pitino's system, but he jumped ship. We could have used him that first year. He would have been more effective than Malik Smith, I think.

They would've complimented each other as bench players. Joe was a better athlete and defender Malik was the better three point shooter
 

Always liked Joe, but in hindsight I really think he should have played football.
 


It may have been an injury or some combination of an injury and a desire to move on in life, but I seem to recall Joe returning to Minnesota to finish his degree. He was a good player that I thought might fit into Pitino's system, but he jumped ship. We could have used him that first year. He would have been more effective than Malik Smith, I think.

I am forever indebted to him for dropping 29 points on Illinois at Assembly Hall in 2013. I may have been only one of a dozen Gopher fans on hand. . .Joe made it pretty special by leading the Gophers to a rare victory in Champaign.
 

Has there been a more enigmatic family connected to Gopher Hoops than the Colemans? Ben (uncle/cousin?) to Dan and Joe, was a promising power forward who transferred after his sophomore year in '81 to Maryland where he averaged 15 ppg/8 rpg over his last two seasons of college ball. The season after he transferred the Gophers won the Big Ten with Trent Tucker, Darryl Mitchell, and Randy Breuer leading the charge; the team had a deep front court with Breuer, Cookie Holmes, Zebedee Howell, John Wiley and Jim Peterson but one wonders if Coleman would have pushed the Gophers to another level instead of losing in the Sweet 16 to Louisville.

Dan started his career at Boston College, transferred before playing a game back home to MN where he bridged a four year career between Dan Monson and Tubby Smith's regimes. His game was always so tantalizing-he would put up 20 points/10+ rebounds against lesser non-conference opponents and then disappear in Big Ten contests. During his senior year which aligned with Smith's first season, Coleman's stats dropped across all categories, with his ppg decreasing by 2.5 points. He played in one NCAA tournament game in his freshman year, a solid and promising contributor off the bench for the squad led by Vincent Grier, Aaron Robinson, and Jeff Hagen, that lost to Iowa State.

Joe similarly bridged a coaching change, except he did not stick around for Richard Pitino's first season after Smith's firing. As mentioned above, he sprinkled the spectacular (29 points at Illinois) with inconsistency. Joe played in two NCAA tournament games during his sophomore year, highlighted by a double figure effort against UCLA in the Gophers first game of the tourney. It was hoped the Pitino hire would springboard his game to another level, but of course, that never came to pass.
 

Has there been a more enigmatic family connected to Gopher Hoops than the Colemans? Ben (uncle/cousin?) to Dan and Joe, was a promising power forward who transferred after his sophomore year in '81 to Maryland where he averaged 15 ppg/8 rpg over his last two seasons of college ball. The season after he transferred the Gophers won the Big Ten with Trent Tucker, Darryl Mitchell, and Randy Breuer leading the charge; the team had a deep front court with Breuer, Cookie Holmes, Zebedee Howell, John Wiley and Jim Peterson but one wonders if Coleman would have pushed the Gophers to another level instead of losing in the Sweet 16 to Louisville.

Dan started his career at Boston College, transferred before playing a game back home to MN where he bridged a four year career between Dan Monson and Tubby Smith's regimes. His game was always so tantalizing-he would put up 20 points/10+ rebounds against lesser non-conference opponents and then disappear in Big Ten contests. During his senior year which aligned with Smith's first season, Coleman's stats dropped across all categories, with his ppg decreasing by 2.5 points. He played in one NCAA tournament game in his freshman year, a solid and promising contributor off the bench for the squad led by Vincent Grier, Aaron Robinson, and Jeff Hagen, that lost to Iowa State.

Joe similarly bridged a coaching change, except he did not stick around for Richard Pitino's first season after Smith's firing. As mentioned above, he sprinkled the spectacular (29 points at Illinois) with inconsistency. Joe played in two NCAA tournament games during his sophomore year, highlighted by a double figure effort against UCLA in the Gophers first game of the tourney. It was hoped the Pitino hire would springboard his game to another level, but of course, that never came to pass.

Good recap
 




Has there been a more enigmatic family connected to Gopher Hoops than the Colemans? Ben (uncle/cousin?) to Dan and Joe, was a promising power forward who transferred after his sophomore year in '81 to Maryland where he averaged 15 ppg/8 rpg over his last two seasons of college ball. The season after he transferred the Gophers won the Big Ten with Trent Tucker, Darryl Mitchell, and Randy Breuer leading the charge; the team had a deep front court with Breuer, Cookie Holmes, Zebedee Howell, John Wiley and Jim Peterson but one wonders if Coleman would have pushed the Gophers to another level instead of losing in the Sweet 16 to Louisville.

Dan started his career at Boston College, transferred before playing a game back home to MN where he bridged a four year career between Dan Monson and Tubby Smith's regimes. His game was always so tantalizing-he would put up 20 points/10+ rebounds against lesser non-conference opponents and then disappear in Big Ten contests. During his senior year which aligned with Smith's first season, Coleman's stats dropped across all categories, with his ppg decreasing by 2.5 points. He played in one NCAA tournament game in his freshman year, a solid and promising contributor off the bench for the squad led by Vincent Grier, Aaron Robinson, and Jeff Hagen, that lost to Iowa State.

Joe similarly bridged a coaching change, except he did not stick around for Richard Pitino's first season after Smith's firing. As mentioned above, he sprinkled the spectacular (29 points at Illinois) with inconsistency. Joe played in two NCAA tournament games during his sophomore year, highlighted by a double figure effort against UCLA in the Gophers first game of the tourney. It was hoped the Pitino hire would springboard his game to another level, but of course, that never came to pass.

I thought Joe's game would fit very well with Pitino's style and I was surprised when he transferred. I thought he would flourish in his last two years here.


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Yeah no.

I appreciate Joe's efforts but he had a power forward skillset trying to play the 2 guard.

I remember him being a much better ball handler than a PF. He was no PG but he was a 2 guard in the sense that Demar Derozan was a SG when he started in the NBA Slasher with no ability to shoot. Now Derozan was a far better ball handler and better athlete but the point remains that Joe could have easily been a decent slashing type guard with more dribbling ability.

(Time might have dulled my memory of his dribbling abilities though so feel free to correct me if they were far worse than I remember)
 

I remember him being a much better ball handler than a PF. He was no PG but he was a 2 guard in the sense that Demar Derozan was a SG when he started in the NBA Slasher with no ability to shoot. Now Derozan was a far better ball handler and better athlete but the point remains that Joe could have easily been a decent slashing type guard with more dribbling ability.

(Time might have dulled my memory of his dribbling abilities though so feel free to correct me if they were far worse than I remember)

Yea...I liked Joe's game, he was a strong finisher, good athlete, and excellent in transition.

Ball handling was a major weakness for him though.
 

Yea...I liked Joe's game, he was a strong finisher, good athlete, and excellent in transition.

Ball handling was a major weakness for him though.

Yup. For his position, ball handling was a big weakness, and in my opinion, the one thing that held him back from being a perfect fit for Pitino.
 



Yea...I liked Joe's game, he was a strong finisher, good athlete, and excellent in transition.

Ball handling was a major weakness for him though.

That was my impression too, great in transition. When they ran the court on Illinois it was a sight to behold. That team will go down as one of the strangest disappointments ever for me. They looked so good when they opened the court, and so terrible when they got stuck in the half court. Oh what could have been... Royce White. Oh man, now I'm really reliving that season. :mad:
 

Joe works at SportsEngine. still in the twin cities
 



Saw him in a Comcast service center a couple years ago with a hot girl. Doing OK!
 

Was told Pitino hated Coleman's game and gave him a nudge to leave when he got here. Said all he was good for was slashing and in transition.

This is from a reliable source.
 





Was told Pitino hated Coleman's game and gave him a nudge to leave when he got here. Said all he was good for was slashing and in transition.

This is from a reliable source.

I mean its true. He had his moments but I have no idea hiw he was even as effective as he was for a guy that couldnt shoot or dribble and didnt have grrat size. He was a good athlete bit not otherworldly or anything
 




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