Former Gopher Joe Coleman Plans on Visiting Gonzaga Later This Week

Nov 18, 2012; Minneapolis, MN, USA; Minnesota Golden Gophers guard Joe Coleman (11) against the Richmond Spiders at Williams Arena. The Gophers defeated the Spiders 72-57. Mandatory Credit: Brace Hemmelgarn-USA TODAY Sports

Former Minnesota Guard Joe Coleman, is planning on visiting Gonzaga later on this week. Coleman started 32 of the Gopher’s 34 games as a sophomore, and averaged 26.3 minutes per game. In this article from TwinCities.com, it specifies that the schools recruiting Coleman were Iowa State, Creighton, San Diego State, Missouri, Providence, and Maryland. According to BlueJay report, Coleman visited Creighton this past weekend. His reasons for transferring are unspecified. It is also unclear who the major contenders are for Coleman’s services.

The 6’4″ shooting guard appeared to grow immensely during the second half of the year in former Gopher’s coach Tubby Smith’s system. Coleman averaged 8.7 points and 3.6 rebounds per game in his sophomore year. In a game at Illinois, Coleman absolutely torched the Illini. He scored 29 points off 10 of 16 shooting to lead the Gophers to a 17 point victory over Illinois. This was the only game where Coleman recorded 2o or more points. Although Coleman is not consistently a potent scorer, he has shown the ability to score in great amounts.

Coleman is known as a fantastic mid-range shooter, and excels in that part of his game. He shot 46.7% from the field, and a lot of the shots he takes are from around 15-20 feet. He averaged 1.1 steals per game, and is great at playing in the passing lanes. He is an average athlete and average on-ball defender.

This would be a fantastic land for the Gonzaga program. He wouldn’t be able to play until 2014, because he has to sit out a year due to  NCAA transfer rules, but he would be a great addition to an already stellar team filled with top-notch guard play. Hypothetically, Coleman would join a back court that would feature seniors Gary Bell Jr. and Kevin Pangos, and Providence transfer Gerard Coleman. Granted, playing time would be hard to distribute in a fair manner, considering Pangos and Bell have been starters since they were freshman, and Coleman is such a high impact player. However, his playing style would fit well with Mark Few’s system and he would excel as a scorer in Spokane.

Gonzaga center Sam Dower is from Minnesota, and those two likely crossed paths at some point during there high school basketball careers. Dower could potentially help Mark Few and company recruit Coleman to Gonzaga, or at least one would hope.